FOLLOWING THE success of its artist mentoring programme, Volition, JOLT will present a new series of workshops and talks, aimed at the Galway arts community.
The events will run from August 20 to 23 inclusive in the Town Hall Theatre and Áras na Mac Léinn, NUI Galway. It will include workshops in radio drama, music, and aural design; a headshot parlour; free talks on social media and writing successful applications to arts organisations; and an interactive theatre piece.
The August series is being organised by two new JOLT producers, Neasa O’Callaghan and Féilim O’hAoláin, who have created a programme of events which looks at the practicalities of working as an artist, as well exploring how artists can integrate and explore sound and music in their work.
“The last JOLT series was about emerging artists creating work,” O’hAoláin tells me. “This next phase of JOLT was looking for new producers and they sent out a call inviting people to get in touch with them. Myself and Neasa applied and got selected, they gave us free rein to programme a week of events. We were given carte blanche as it is kind of a training aspect for us as well.”
The JOLT Headshot Parlour, which opens the series of events, will take place on Wednesday 20. The Town Hall studio will be transformed into a full photography studio for the day where artists can avail of an industry-standard headshot from a professional working photographer at a subsidised rate of €20.
On Thursday 21 Tara McKevitt, winner of the 2010 RTÉ PJ O’Connor Radio Drama Award, will lead a two-part workshop on writing radio drama. The first workshop will explore how writers can use sound and audio effects to create powerful stories; writers will have the opportunity to work with actors in a recording studio later in the week, where they will create a short radio drama piece.
Little John Nee will lead a workshop on music and theatre on Thursday evening. In this workshop, Little John, who won Best Sound Design at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2013, will examine how to enhance the audience’s experience and a work’s narrative through musical and theatrical fusion.
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“Little John is really good at creating memorable theatrical moments through music.” O’hAoláin notes. “This workshop will benefit any budding musicians who want to find out how to use a theatre space or theatre makers who want to try a different format,”
On Friday 22 two free talks will be led by theatre professionals in the Town Hall. Darragh Doyle and Sinéad McPhillips will lead a discussion on using social media, illustrating how to build an on-line presence and how to promote work to maximum effect.
That afternoon, Jane Daly, of the Irish Theatre Institute, will speak on how to effectively pitch ideas, as well as revealing how to write successful applications to funding councils, agencies, and other organisations.
On Saturday 23 Mairead Ní Chroinin, co-director of Moonfish Theatre Co, will lead a workshop on aural design, where participants will experiment with different approaches to aural design, through music, soundscape, sound effect, voice, and song.
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On Friday 22 and Saturday 23, JOLT will also present, Immersed In The Void, an interactive theatre event in the Town Hall Theatre at 5.30pm. This will be a meeting point of art forms, and will take place in both theatre and non- theatre spaces. It will be created by an ensemble of actors, working with local electronic duo Voids, and will investigate the innate connections between music and emotion.
Pre-booking for events is recommended, as capacity is limited. Each workshop is €10 or three for €20. Bookings can be made by emailing [email protected]. See http://theatrejolt.wordpress.com.
