Mufutau Yusuf
Mufutau Yusuf
Independent Artist
Mufutau Yusuf is a Nigerian/Irish performer based between Dublin and Brussels. Trained mainly in dance and physical theatre, Mufutau is a versatile performer and is experienced in both stage and film works, as well as developing his own independent works.
Mufutau Yusuf had his introduction to contemporary dance at the age of 16 with Dublin Youth Dance Company and two years later professionally with the Irish Modern Dance Theatre in the production ‘Fall and Recover’, the first of many works with that company. He then subsequently enrolled in a four-year undergraduate program at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, in Austria, graduating in 2016. Since graduating Mufutau has worked as a freelancer with various choreographers and companies meanwhile developing his own artistic works, for both stage and film. He is currently working between Ireland and Brussels where he works with Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez.
image:credits 1. Mufutau Yusuf in Pidgin’ by Mufutau Yusuf. Photo credit: Matija Lukic (2019) 2. Mufutau Yusuf in Òwe by Mufutau Yusuf. Photo credit: Davide Belotti (2021) 3. Mufutau Yusuf in Pidgin’ by Mufutau Yusuf. Photo credit: Matija Lukic (2019)
Producer:
Stephanie Dufresne
Stephanie Dufresne
Independent Artist
Stephanie Dufresne (she/her) is a dancer, actor and choreographer from the West of Ireland based in Dublin.
Stephanie has been making work with Laura Sheeran for the last seven years, and their first full-length production is currently to be seen at the Galway Arts Festival 2021. After Love is based on the poetry of Dani Gill and uses dance, music, poetry and film to explore the grief, loss and resilience that can result from the end of a long-term relationship. Stephanie is interested in continuing to create works that use dance in unusual ways to explore larger themes and narrative.
image:credits 1. Stephanie Dufresne in In Clouds by Peter Power/Sparsile Collective for the Cork Midsummer Festival. Photo credit: Laura Sheeran (2018) 2. Michelle O’Rourke in Dust for Irish National Opera. Photo credit: Kip Carroll (2020) 3. Stephanie Dufresne in As An Nos by Donnacha Dennehy for Crash Ensemble. Photo credit: Kate Bean (2017)
Producer:
Sarah-Jane Scott
Sarah-Jane Scott
Independent Artist
Sarah-Jane (she/her) is a writer and performer from Tuam, Co Galway.
Sarah-Jane is currently developing a new play SMALL HOLDINGS, commissioned by An Grianan Theatre Donegal and Town Hall Theatre Galway, supported by The Arts Council Comissions Award. She is a ‘Six In The Attic’ Artist for 2021 with The Irish Theatre Institute. SKEWED was shortlisted for the PJ O’Connor Radio Awards in 2020 and has subsequesntly been produced as an RTE Radio Drama on 1 in 2021. Her debut play APPROPRIATE was developed as part of ‘Show In A Bag’, an initiative of Dublin Fringe, Fishamble: The New Play Company and The Irish Theatre Institute to resource theatre-makers and actors. It was first performed at Bewley’s Café Theatre at Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 (Nominated Bewley’s Little Gem Award) and since then has toured internationally to Edinburgh (Winner Lustrum Award, Ednburgh Fringe 2019, part of Culture Ireland’s Edinburgh Showcase of Irish work) and New York (Winner Spirit of the Festival Award, Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish Festival, NYC 2020) supported by Culture Ireland & Galway County Council. Sarah-Jane is Centre Culturel Irlandais Artist in Residence for 2021 in association with Galway County Council. In early 2022 she will spend one month in Paris researching a new theatre piece. She was shortlisted for the BBC Writers room Drama Room 2021, has been a recipient of The Town Hall Theatre Galway Patron Donation Awards, participated in The Abbey Theatre’s 20for20 initiative, was a Gap Day Artist, and took part in Fishamble’s pilot Dramaturgy Development Programme. She studied Drama at Queens’ University Belfast before actor training at The Oxford School of Drama. As an actor her theatre credits include National Theatre London, Shakespeare’s Globe, Polka Theatre, DryWrite, Tonic Theatre, Nabokov and Fevered Sleep. Her screen credits include The Bright Side (Playground Pictures), Rose Plays Julie (Samson Films), Stay (Samson Films).
Her criticaly acclaimed and multi-award winning one woman show APPROPRIATE will tour nationally in autumn 2021.
Her Tiny Play Big Little Changes was recently shortlisted for Fishamble: The New Play Company’s ‘ESB Tiny Plays for A Brighter Future’ initiative.
She participated in Druid Theatre’s artist development initiative FUEL, where she began to develop Everything She Ever Wanted (then called Twitch) which is currently in development.
★★★★
Winningly tongue in cheek…In Sarah-Jane Scott’s engrossing writing début, rituals of marriage and conventions of small-town Irish life have been updated to accommodate Instagram, but continue to grip tightly…an affecting solo. – The Irish Times (for Appropriate)
★★★★
In Scott’s sharply observed and supremely funny script, one woman’s wedding day opens up a Pandora’s box of existential doubt…riveting and irresistible…a delightful mini-masterpiece – The Arts Review (for Appropriate)
★★★★
Hard to believe this is Sarah-Jane Scott’s writing debut. Engaging, witty and with shades of delicious darkness, this is a seriously successful monologue on the social pressures faced by women getting on and building a future in rural Ireland. – FEST Magazine (for Appropriate)
★★★★
Scott delivers a sophisticated exploration of how getting exactly what we want, can make us question everything we ever believed in. – Broadway Baby (for Appropriate)
image:credits 1. Sarah-Jane Scott as Sorcha in Appropriate. Photo Credit: Simon Lazewski 2. Sarah-Jane Scott, Twitch, Druid Fuel Showcase at The Mick Lally Theatre. Photo Credit: Jennifer Cunningham (2019)
Producer:
Alannah Robins
Alannah Robins
Independent Producer
Alannah Robins (she/her) has an interdisciplinary artistic practice based between Ireland and Sweden where she regularly participates in and curates both solo and collaborative projects.
A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Robins has won several commissions and awards for her artwork, including Tyresö Kulturstipendium, Helge Axe:son stipend, bursaries from the Irish Arts Council and Galway County Council and the inaugural Platform 31 award. She has exhibited, among other places, in the RHA, Dublin; London’s Dialogue Cultural Space; Pasaj Independent Arts Space, Istanbul; Galleria Lapinlahti, Helsinki; Oblastní Galeri, Liberec, and in Sweden’s Tegen2, Detroit Stockholm, Galleri CC and Kiruna Stadshus.
Robins uses familiar, domestic objects and simple materials like cut paper and drawing in her artistic investigations into man’s relationship to nature. Her interdisciplinary work has drawn her into collaborations with both classical and experimental musicians, notably HOT, A Swedish Circus on Merciful Inferno by Opera factory Sessions in Stockholm’s Supermarket Art Fair and New York Electroacoustic Music Festival and En Timme Natt, with Göran Fröst and Jacob Kellermann.
She is the founder and director of Interface, a studio and residency programme in Connemara. Interface is an artist-led not for profit studio and residency programme with a mission to provide catalysing opportunities for artists in residence to engage with other international and local artists through a unique platform exploring intersections between science and art. The studio is located in an old salmon hatchery, now a centre of scientific research. Interface have 40 locally-based members of the studio and have toured shows of their work to Stockholm twice.
image:credits
1. Broken Vessels, Multidisciplinary Art Exhibition as part of Galway International Arts Festival. Photo credit: Brent Meistre (2021)
2. Papercut, Alannah Robins (2020)
3. Broken Vessels, Multidisciplinary Art Exhibition as part of Galway International Arts Festival. Photo credit: Brent Meistre (2021)
Producer:
Bridget O’Gorman
Bridget O’Gorman
Independent Artist
Bridget O’Gorman is an artist based in Manchester.
Her practice explores the instability of objects and bodies. Working with live event, video and sculptural installation, her enquiries oscillate between material and somatic registers, considering otherness, speculative and expanded corporeal experiences. Bridget is supported through the PIVOT (mid-career development programme through Bluecoat Liverpool and Castlefield Galleries Manchester) & funded through the Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice.
image:credits 1. A Constitution of Iron, digital image/documentation of live performance by Bridget O’Gorman, funded through the Wheatley Bequest Fine Art Fellowship & Birmingham School of Art (2018) 2. In The Flesh (Re-enacted), moving image still by Bridget O’Gorman, funded through the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Art Bursary Award, Dublin City Council Arts Office and with the support of the National Museum of Ireland. Photo credit: Guy Robbins (2016) 3. A Constitution of Iron, digital image/documentation of live performance by Bridget O’Gorman, funded through the Wheatley Bequest Fine Art Fellowship & Birmingham School of Art (2018)
Producer:
Ebun Sodipo
Ebun Sodipo
Independent Artist
Ebun Sodipo is a London based artist making work for those who will come after: the black trans people of the future.
Ebun’s interdisciplinary practice narrates her construction a black trans-feminine self after slavery and colonialism. Through a process of fragmentation, collage, and fabulation, she devises softer, other-wise ways of imagining and speaking about the body, desire, archives, and the past.
image:credits 1. Illustrations for Libations, Attestations, Affirmations, performance by Ebun Sodipo at South London Gallery. Photo credit: Christopher J. Orr and Chris Steel (2020) 2. although it may seem absurd, the earth also moves, performance by Ebun Sodipo, commissioned by Languid Hands for ‘Denigrate’ at Narrative Projects. Photo credit: Jessica Harrington (2019) 3. Atlantic Cruises: A Rest Stop, film by Ebun Sodipo, commissioned by Queer Arts Project for Every Woman Biennial, in partnership with The Koppel Project. Funded by Arts Council England. Photo credit: Jos Vitelli, Patrick Hoelscher (2021)
Producer:
James Riordan
James Riordan
Independent Artist
James (he/him) is from Galway and is artistic director of Brú Theatre, founded in 2018 along with producer Jill Murray. He works bilingually in Irish and English, creating multi-disciplinary work that merges contemporary theatre practices with the stories, superstitions, musicality and language of where he is from.
Brú’s Selvage, written and performed by James, received multiple Irish Times Theatre Award nominations in 2020. He was awarded the Abbey Theatre’s Michael Hogan Bursary this year to create Somnium, a new work exploring long form Irish lament and historical violence in rural Ireland. Brú’s Cleite and The Fisherwives, two full mask, site specific pieces based on the matriarchal fishing communities of the West of Ireland, toured in 2019. James has recently started making virtual reality work, with his first piece Ar Ais Arís touring nationally earlier this year as part of Brightening Air and Galway International Arts Festival. He received a Carlow Arts Festival Wedge Bursary in 2020 to explore sound and story in virtual spaces and he is in pre-production for a new immersive film next year entitled Grief Song. He is currently Theatre Artist in Residence with the Town Hall Theatre, running an artist development program, Remote Control, with Galway Dance Project and Brù School, offering week long workshops in physical theatre and mask for adult theatre makers. Upcoming projects include The Libravian, commissioned by Baboró in partnership with Children’s Books Ireland and Gol, a recontextualising of Irish keening and the women who used to mourn professionally in Ireland. He is currently collaborating with KRIILA in Croatia and Teatro du Silencio in Portugal in the creation of two new works for 2022.
image:credits
1. Victoria McCormack, Conor Kennedy Burke, Orla Tubridy, & Jérémie Cyr-Cooke in The Fisherwives, Brú Theatre, created by James Riordan. Photo credit: Julia Dunin (2019)
2. James Riordan in The Libravrian, Brú Theatre, written by James Riordan. Photo credit: Enda Burke (2021)
3. Stephanie Dufresne in Ar Ais Arís, Brú Theatre, directed by James Riordan. Photo credit: Paul Kinsella (2020)
“Cleite, a deceptively simple story, told beautifully and wordlessly by Philippa Hambly, backed by stunning sean-nós songs, in Irish and English from Caitlín Ní Chualáin was among the highlights of this year’s Galway Theatre Festival.” – Connacht Tribune (for Cleite by Brú Theatre)
“…this innovative, talented company have won over audiences and critics alike.” – Connacht Tribune (for Cleite by Brú Theatre)
web:link
Producer:
37d03d
37d03d
Independent Artist
37d03d Events is an evolving community of artists who come together to collaborate in unique residency projects around the world, founded by Mary Hickson, Justin Vernon, and Bryce & Aaron Dessner.
Since 2016, 37d03d has brought together artists for week-long residencies to create and share their work. These events were established to provide time and space for artists to develop ideas, inspire each other and make new work. These are artist driven projects which have not failed to deliver unique experiences for the audience that witness them. 37d03d events have hosted residencies in Berlin, Cork, New York, Eaux Claires, Cincinnati, LA and are working on events coming up in Vienna, Moscow, London and further afield. Each constellation of artists, place and energy brings about a unique alchemy which further inspires the extended community.
I keep coming back to the notion of discovery, spending this time all together collaborating is for me all about discovery and growth. Having the opportunity to collaborate with your peers and bounce new ideas off each other is absolutely critical to artistic development. There are so many music festivals in the world, but very few which are artist-driven and which allow you the time and space to create new music – a completely open and non-commercial environment where the only goal is creation and work in progress is encouraged. — Aaron Dessner on 37d03d
37d03d events to date have been transformative for both the artists and the audience. Free of headliners and sponsors, the events have been known to be a revelation in uncertainty and surprise.
Artists that have participated in these special events include founders Justin Vernon, Aaron & Bryce Dessner together with Feist, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jon Hopkins, Ragnar Kjartansson, This is the Kit, Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, Alex Somers, Boys Noize, Andre de Ridder and Stargaze, Alexi Murdock, Dustin O’Halloran, Damien Rice, Helado Negro, Holly Blakey, Efterklang, Jenny Lewis, Ariel Engle, Pauline DeLassus, Adam Cohen, Richard Reed Parry and many many more. With each event the community expands and the hope is that artists and audiences will continue to grow, evolve and develop together.
web:link
www.37d03d.com
image:credits
1. Women’s Choir with Jessica Dessner. Photo credit: Graham Tolbert (2018)
2. Justin Vernon & Cantus Domus at Berlin 37d03d residency. Photo credit: Graham Tolbert (2018)
3. Zach Condon (Beirut) and friends at Berlin 37d03d residency. Photo credit: Graham Tolbert (2018)
Producer:
Rachel Ní Bhraonáin
Rachel Ní Bhraonáin
Independent Artist
Rachel is a performer and maker of multidisciplinary shows and short films, based in Waterford. She works across the fields of circus, dance, film and theatre.
Currently a participant on the 8th International Pan Pan Mentorship programme, Rachel is researching a new show and is also a recipient of Dublin Theatre Festival’s Futures commission 2021. Her latest short film, Marian, was selected by AEMI to be screened at Gaze Film Festival 2020. Her show Losing Your Body won the Wild Card Award at Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 and was nominated for an Irish Times Award for Best Movement Direction. Recent highlights include receiving a 2020 Arts Council Dance Bursary, Hot Desker residency at Dublin Fringe and Firkin Crane’s ReFramed Bursary. This year Rachel is working on an exciting variety of projects that will see her collaborating, directing, dancing, vertical dancing (aerial), mentoring and being mentored.
★★★★
Losing Your Body delivers a beautifully constructed tale with some superb visual sequences. A story that speaks to the heart and heartache of being a dancer… Indeed, everything in “Losing Your Body” speaks to a simplicity and directness that’s deeply moving. — The Arts Review (Losing Your Body)
breathtaking…an arresting rallying cry. It’s a spectacular and delicate reminder of the layered emotions that surround the upcoming vote — Dazed Digital (The Undecided Vote)
Compassionate… Ní Bhraonáin hopes to both increase people’s empathy, but also shed light on the hypocrisy” — ELLE (The Undecided Vote)
web:link
www.rachelnibhraonain.com
image:credits
1. Rachel Ní Bhraonáin in Marian directed by Rachel Ní Bhraonáin. Photo credit: Gerard O’Keeffe (2020)
2. Rachel Ní Bhraonáin in Losing Your Body created by Rachel Ní Bhraonáin. Photo credit: Hayley Stuart (2019)
3. Rachel Ní Bhraonáin & Magalie Lanriot in Born of The Trees, directed by Rachel Ní Bhraonáin & Magalie Lanriot. Photo credit: Georgius Portugalus (2018)
Producer:
Aisling Byrne
Aisling Byrne
Independent Artist
Aisling (she/her) is a freelance theatre artist and filmmaker based in North Kildare. She has worked extensively in the fields of arts and disability, contemporary theatre & socially engaged theatre practice.
Aisling is the founder and Artistic Director of Run of the Mill Theatre — a community-based theatre collective in North Kildare supporting people with intellectual disabilities to access the arts — and award-winning Dublin based theatre collective, Talking Shop Ensemble, alongside writer and filmmaker Shaun Dunne. Talking Shop Ensemble make form flipping documentary theatre and autobiographical performance. Credits include the award winning Making a Mark (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2019, winner of the Judges Choice Award and nominated for Best Production & recently featured on The Tommy Tiernan Show) Rapids, a piece about living HIV+ in Ireland (National Tour, 2019 & Dublin Theatre Festival, 2017), Displaced Family Project (Mermaid Arts Centre, 2017) Advocacy (2014, winner of Best Ensemble & Best Performer, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2014) and Death of the Tradesmen (winner of the Fishamble New Writing Award, 2012 & 2013).
The incredible but true stories of Mark Smith — The Irish Times (Making A Mark by Shaun Dunne)
People are waking up to the idea that diversity makes for really interesting art. — TheJournal.ie (Culture Night 2020)
Other recent work includes Vulnerable for Dear Ireland 3 (Abbey Theatre, 2020), Quarantine (Culture Night commission, 2020) Singing for Survival (Run of the Mill Theatre, Draiocht 2019) and Split Ends (Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble Show in a Bag 2018), Run of the Mill Theatre and Talking Shop Ensemble are supported by both Kildare County Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. Aisling is the recipient of the 2019 Artist in the Community Bursary award from CREATE, the national agency for collaborative arts. In 2020 she received an Arts Participation Bursary award from the Arts Council of Ireland to develop her filmmaking practice. She is currently a resident artist with Arcade Film. In 2021 she was shortlisted from over 700 entries as a finalist in the Virgin Media & Screen Ireland Discovers competition, and received an award to develop her screenplay Headspace.
Aisling holds a B.A. in Drama and Theatre Studies, a Postgraduate Diploma in Drama-in-Education, and a Masters in Education Studies, all from Trinity College Dublin. She has a particular interest in socially engaged theatre, arts in community contexts, and the use of drama for teaching and learning across educational settings. Aisling is Vice Chair of the Association for Drama in Education in Ireland (ADEI) and guest lectures across Trinity College Dublin, Froebel Institute of Education and University College Dublin on the topic of inclusive drama practice.
She is a part-time lecturer at Marino Institute of Education lecturing on drama as a methodology in the primary school curriculum. She is currently working on behalf of the Arts Council’s Creative Schools initiative as a Creative Associate.
image:credits
1. Mark Smith and Aisling Byrne in Making A Mark by Shaun Dunne. Photo credit: Luca Trufarelli (2019)
2. Lauren Larkin, Ella Jane Moore and members of the Run of the Mill ensemble in Singing for Survival by Aisling Byrne. Photo credit: Fenna von Hirschheydt (2019)
3. Mark Smith in Outside History by Aisling Byrne and Arcade Film, poetry by Eavan Boland. Photo credit: Daniel Keane (2021)
Producer: