With the Scene and Heard festival in full swing this month, there was no better time than now to interview its directing team. While festival director Caoimhe Connolly wasn’t available during this busy period, we had the chance to chat with her partner in crime, festival director Clíona Dukes.
What inspired you and Caoimhe to create this festival? Was there a specific moment where you were like, “Okay, now I have to take action. I can’t just sit with this idea”?
Basically, we were seeing a lot of shows on big stages like in The Gate and The Abbey that we felt weren’t properly developed and hadn’t been given enough time, and we saw that happening with a lot of younger companies as well. We felt that it was unfair. Because they’re going out in the public forum and they’re getting reviewed in the press and they haven’t been given the full opportunity to put their best foot forward. It’s bad for the audience as well because they aren’t getting the best show either. It’s been nine years now and our audience know what they’re doing. In terms of their criticism, they don’t hold back. Since COVID we’ve introduced an e-mail that we send out to everyone after the show, and it’s been amazing because we get reviews in like two weeks later. People really sit and think about it.
Would you say the criticism in 2016 was not up to par with what you were looking for?
Yeah, so in 2016, I suppose nobody really understood what we were doing. e ask people to review before they go to see the show, and people still have a problem with that. It is so the artists can understand if they’re selling their show correctly because we ask people what they expect to see and what they think this is about based on the blurb and the photo.. Then after the show, we kind of say, “did you get what you expected?”in the sense that sometimes people sell their shows completely the wrong way. At the start, it was very difficult to get people to do that preview bit because people were saying “No, I haven’t seen it yet,” and you’re like, “No, no, that’s not what it’s about.” But now people really understand that. So that’s great.
What would be your tip for artists submitting their work for this sort of environment?
Less is not more. So our application form is very general and very open because it’s up to you to put in what you want us to see and what your vision of the show is. And I would say less is not more. The more you put in the better. You know, some people are devising something. They don’t have a script, but then you should probably put in a mood board and costume design sketches, or you should put in the music you’re gonna play. So we really need to get a sense of what you’re trying to achieve and what your end goal is on stage.
And then I suppose from the other side—because, you know, being an artist can be quite intimidating—I want to hear how it feels to be a festival director. When you were starting off, did you have any worries about how you were going to handle all these tasks?
I suppose I didn’t because at that stage, I had a lot of experience already. You know, I ran Smock Alley from 2012. I was programming there. I was dealing with all the artists there. I ran the Gaiety School of Acting twice. Actually, hilariously we call it Hotel California; you can never leave. So obviously I was dealing with students and emerging artists, and graduates and all. I spent the last two years in casting. I suppose everything kind of feeds into the same thing. So I didn’t really consider that. Maybe I should’ve but I didn’t. (Clíona laughs.)
I see, so it was a smooth ride in general.
Yeah I mean, it’s handy that there’s two of us and we have totally different tastes. And so, when the applications come in, we read them separately so as not to influence each other. We have a scoring system, and we make our own notes. And then we come together for a week. We call it “the mad wall” and we put up post-its and we write all the things of the different shows and we try and match them. We argue about what should go in and what shouldn’t go in and try to fill it up. So it’s good that there’s two of us because there’s always a balance in a sense. I always think if there’s one artistic director it’s only natural to have subconscious biases and to programme things that you like and not think about other audience members. So it’s very handy that there’s two of us.
And how do your tastes differ? What would be the type of play you yourself would absolutely go and see every day?
Caoimhe’s very avant-garde and out there. And sometimes I think that’s nonsense. I’m very much about a story well told. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, straightforward. You can start in the middle or at the end. It’s interesting, I suppose, because we fell into our natural strengths in a sense. I write the press release. I’m all about words. I love words. Caoimhe does all the imagery, the visuals. She’s the visual girl. So that’s the same with our theatre taste.
