You do not have to be a professional theatre maker to participate in Scene + Heard. Running at Smock Alley Theatre from February 9th to 26th, the festival features the collaborative work of experienced theatre makers and those at the start of their theatre career. Scene + Heard thus provides an opportunity for the younger generation to learn from those with more experience and challenge themselves on the bigger stage. The University Times asked some of the Trinity people involved in the festival to reflect on their experience.
Tadgh Snodgrass is acting in Children, a play about surviving apocalypse by pretending to be characters in Downton Abbey. The show will be staged on February 26th and is directed by Mae Leahy and written by Ultan Pringle, both of whom are Trinity alumni. The cast also includes a number of Trinity students. “I’ve worked with pretty much every single person who is in the team”, says Snodgrass, “and each one is very exciting in their own way as an artist”.
As a final-year drama and theatre studies student, Snodgrass is currently on the threshold of “that transitional period between leaving behind Trinity … and finding your way into the more open theatre community”. Scene + Heard festival is valuable for recent graduates “thrust into the real world” in that it “gives you an opportunity to bend together again and make something just for the joy of making it”.
The festival also teaches young theatre makers responsibility and fortitude. “What Scene + Heard is really good at is showcasing that you have to be prepared to make the work yourself. You can’t wait for people to come and give you the opportunity.”
For Snodgrass, this is the second year in a row of getting involved in Scene + Heard. However, other participants have less experience. Second-year English and History student, Juliet Arpaç demonstrates that even a “casual theatre maker”, as she jokingly refers to herself, is welcome to participate in Scene + Heard. She is crafting costume design for Frustrated and Uneducated, a show that deals with the modern dating culture and sex education and runs from February 25th and 26th.
When it comes to the arts, it is often about “making the effort to see what’s out there”, says Arpaç. It can be very easy to miss an opportunity, because you may “not [be] aware that there is something to get involved in”. In addition, unless you are studying drama, “it’s very difficult to know where to start with it [theatre]”. For Arpaç, a way in was DU Players. She learnt the art of costume design from them, and has worked on a few Trinity-based productions. It was also through her DU Players connections that she heard about Scene + Heard.
For anyone not familiar with costume design, in Arpaç’s words, “it’s a lot of Pinterest boards”. What Arpaç enjoyed in particular about designing for Frustrated and Uneducated, a show that requires naturalistic types of costumes, is the attention to the details. The “really little things, like maybe painting a bruise on a character’s arm or writing something on their hand” fascinates Arpaç. “I really love that”, she says, “even though it might go unnoticed for 90 per cent of the people”.
Another perspective from an actor comes from Anna Winifred, a final-year drama and film student. She is performing in a comedy show I Couldn’t Be Farced, that runs from February 18th-19th. She will be on stage together with Amy Kellett and Sorcha Dawson, comedians from Meelagoola company. For Winifred, “it’s a really nice environment to act in and to experiment” because Kellett and Dawson are so “non-judgemental” and contain “a world of information” that they are happy to share. A piece of advice from Kellet and Dawsen that stuck with Winifred is “if you can’t do something straight away, it’s okay”.
The festival has given Winifred “a glimpse of reality” and a realisation of “what acting is as a profession”. She is planning on creating a show for the next year’s Scene + Heard and potentially pursuing acting down the line. What the Meelagoola actors showed Winifred is “how important it is to have good-intentioned, nice people around you.”
Winifred reflects that “the acting world seems to be so incredibly cut-throat and competitive”, and it is key to be on a team with someone who prioritises making “a really good piece of work” over money and fame. “In that sense I’m quite lucky with my first professional theatre experience”.
The creators of the show Equinox – which can be seen on February 19th – also emphasise the importance of community. They are three Trinity drama alumni: director Sinéad Dunne Finnegan, producer Al Bellamy and writer Emily Collins. Before Scene + Heard 2022, the three creatives have worked together on a number of productions within and without Trinity. Some of that work engages with the ideas of Irish and world folklore and mythology, a theme that is central to Equinox.
“The three of us have a really good working relationship”, says Dunne Finnegan, “and really shared a sense of collaboration, so there aren’t those rigid structures that you sometimes find in productions and that sometimes suit the makers”. Collin summarises that working with Bellamy and Dunne Finnegan has shown that the idea of “caring for the people as well – as well as the art … Sometimes you get so caught up, like … ‘We’ve been rehearsing for nine hours, has anyone eaten?’”
“All three of us have passion for accessibility and ethical work”, says Bellamy. “We work in the arts because we care about arts”, they continue, but in the flow of work “the humanity of it all can get kind of forgotten.”
“A show isn’t the be-all and end-all.”
“Having that kind of attitude that art must come before the people often leads to the people not having a great time and the art not being that good.” Those issues were very carefully discussed by the trio before beginning to work on the show and resulted in a safe environment for all the team members, even though it meant that the rehearsals had to be moved online.
What unites the Scene + Heard experiences of all of the aforementioned creatives, is the sense of opportunity, learning and joy provided by the festival. Everyone highlighted how much they have gained while making the work, and how key Scene + Heard can be for rising theatre creators in terms of making connections, making mistakes and making art.
