Bealtaine Gathering 2019 - Speaker Biographies - Bealtaine Festival

Bealtaine Gathering 2019 - Speaker Biographies

David Slater, Entelechy Arts, UK
David has over 40 years’ experience of working with
arts practice and communities. In the late 1970s he
was supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation to
develop a programme of participatory arts for
Plymouth Arts Centre. In the 1980’s he was founder
Director of the Rotherhithe Theatre Workshop
developing a large estate based participatory theatre
programme with young people and their families in
the London neighbourhoods of north Southwark. It
was here that he worked with a generation of older
women born in the late 1890’s to form the pioneering
older people’s theatre company 'Young at Heart'. In
1990 David founded the south London participatory
arts company Entelechy Arts. Entelechy creates wild
and wonderful arts events with people who have
often been invisible and un-regarded members of
their communities, either because of disability,
underlying health conditions or the ageing process.

Melanie Scott, Arts Officer, Tipperary County Council
With over twenty years’ experience working in local
arts development, across policy and programme
development and implementation, Melanie Scott is a
graduate of Fine Art at D.I.T. and the H.Dip in Arts
Administration at U.C.D. Appointed County Arts
Officer in January 1999, the role requires a range of
skills in arts development, management, business
and community development working across a range
of contexts, programmes, partners, locales and
responsibilities. A deep rooted commitment to the
necessity of provision for arts and culture for all
citizens, underpinned by a commitment to the integrity
of artistic practice across artforms, informs her work.

Iseult Byrne, CEO, Dublin Culture Company
Dublin City Council Culture
Company runs cultural initiatives and buildings across
the city on behalf of Dublin City Council and the people
of Dublin.

Farrell Curran, Manager, Age of Creativity Festival, UK
Farrell Curran is the Head of Cultural Partnerships at
Age UK Oxfordshire. Having worked in partnership with
Age UK national for 3 years, Oxfordshire now provides
a national exemplar of best practice in creative
development and leads a cultural network of Age UK
partners across England. As the manager of the Age
of Creativity, Farrell provides strategic leadership to a
network of more than 1500 professionals who believe
that creativity supports older people to enjoy increased
health, wellbeing and quality of life. Establishing the
first Age of Creativity Festival in 2017, May 2020 will be
a month long celebration of older people as creative
audiences, participants, volunteers and artists across
England. Working in collaboration with both Get
Creative and Creativity and Wellbeing Week, the next
festival will be an eclectic mix of creative events and cultural experiences running
across England for everyone to enjoy; advocating for the role of creativity in later life
and championing artistic excellence throughout the life course. Join our free Age of
Creativity network via www.ageofcreativity.co.uk @AgeofCreativity

Anne Kearney, Communications Manager, Age &
Opportunity
As Communications Manager, Anne is responsible
for leading in all areas of public relations,
communications and marketing for our vast array of
activities and events.

Aisling O’Gorman, Creative Arts Manager,
The Ark
Aisling O’Gorman has been working professionally
in the arts in a range of roles for the past 16 years.
With a background as a performer, choir director
and community musician, she led the Participation
and Learning programme for University Concert
Hall devising engagement programmes for
children, teenagers and adults. She then began
working at The Ark, Europe’s first dedicated
children’s cultural centre, as Music Programmer in
2011. In this role she has re-established music as
a core art form in The Ark’s programme for children
aged 2 to 12. Highlights include the expansion of
the Tradfest Family Hub programme, numerous
creative participation programmes across music
genres as well as commissioning and producing
new music shows for young audiences many of
which have toured nationally. As Creative Arts Manager since 2017 Aisling now leads
across The Ark’s multi-disciplinary programme and has developed a number of new
initiatives in the areas of Early Years, Artist Development, Diversity and Inclusion and
CPD programmes for teachers. Recent success with a Creative Europe application
means that she is now the programmer and producer of Ireland’s first international
music festival for young audiences which takes place annually until 2022.
Intergenerational work has become a more important part of The Ark’s work in recent
years through a number of neighbourhood film projects, participation in the
Bealtaine@Temple Bar project, as well as the programming of family workshops
where the focus is on supporting adults and children to actively engage in the arts
together.

Rachel Bergin - Creative Producer & Theatre Maker
Rachel is a Dublin based creative producer and
theatre maker, recent producing credits include:
Gym Swim Party (A Co-Production with O’Reilly
Theatre as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2019), A
Different Wolf (Assistant Producer, Junk
Ensemble), MorphMe (BITE SIZE // SCRATCH,
Live Collision 2019), WOMB (First Fortnight 2019),
Son of a Preacher Man (Theatre Machine 2019),
Kiss Kiss Slap Slap (Dublin Fringe 2018), LUNA
(Galway Theatre Festival 2018), Fierce Notions
(Dublin Fringe 2017), The Eurydice Project (Line
Producer, Project Arts Centre), and Phaedra’s
Love (Samuel Beckett Theatre). Her recent
directing credits include, Abair/Samaa (an Age &
Opportunity       commission      produced       by
Brokentalkers and presented as part of Bealtaine Festival 2019, Rachel wrote
Abair/Samaa in collaboration with the cast), The Examination (Associate Director,
Brokentalkers, Project Arts Centre & Axis Theatre, The Gilded Balloon- Edinburgh
Fringe Festival & PAC, Dublin Fringe Festival) The Wendy House (Smock Alley
Theatre), All Honey (Assistant Director, Bewley’s Café Theatre), The Eurydice Project
(Assistant Director, Project Arts Centre), The Circus Animals’ Desertion (Assistant
Director, Brokentalkers, DTF & The Everyman) and Attempts on her Life (Samuel
Beckett Theatre). Rachel is Creative Producer and founding member of new
experimental theatre company Chaos Factory who debuted their first show, Kiss Kiss
Slap Slap as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 supported by Fishamble’s New Play
Clinic and Dublin City Council. They are currently developing MorphMe supported by
The Arts Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, The Pavilion Theatre,
Project Arts Centre, Dublin Fringe Festival and Live Collision. Rachel holds a BA in
Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin. Rachel is currently based at
the Artist Residence Office at Dublin Fringe Festival.
Rachel will be joined by participants from Abair/Samaa, Jimmy Lee and Pat Doherty
from the Kilcock Men’s Shed Choir.

Seán Millar, musician, writer, theatre maker.
Seán Millar is a musician, writer and theatre maker from
Dublin. Although mainly known as singer and songwriter
Doctor Millar, as a collaborative composer for theatre he
has made scores for:
The Blue Boy (Brokentalkers, Dublin Theatre Festival
2010), Heroin (Theatre Club, Project Arts Centre 2013),
Dinner and a show (Neil Watkins Tiger Dublin Fringe
2013), Frequency 783 (Brokentalkers, DTF 2014),
Circus Animals Desertion (Brokentalkers, DTF 2016).
My Son My Son (Veronica Dyas, Project Arts Centre
2018) and most recently Shame (Pom Boyd, Abbey
Theatre Peacock stage, 2018). As writer/composer he
has written and composed the songcycle Silver Stars
(directed by Brokentalkers Bealtaine 2008 / directed
and produced by Brokentalkers DTF 2009), and as
writer /director, The Last Ten Years (with RADE
participants Tiger Fringe Festival 2012), and Songs of
Grievance and Hope (Produced by The Spectacle of
Defiance and Hope, Project Arts Centre 2013). He has released six albums as Doctor
Millar, all to huge critical acclaim. His most recent large scale piece was Sometimes
the Signal Jumps with The National Symphony Orchestra and residents of Bluebell
Estate in September 2019.

Seán will be joined by Liam Burke, a participant from Silver Stars.

Mary Harkin, Policy, Research and Evaluation
Manager, Age & Opportunity.

Mary is currently reconfiguring Age & Opportunity in
research and evaluation frameworks that will
highlight our effectiveness and increase our capacity
to support and influence public policy development in
relation to older people.

Christopher Green, writer, performer and theatre maker, UK
Christopher Green is a multi-award winning
performer and writer who has appeared all over the
world, works for the biggest cultural institutions in the
UK, and has nice hair. “There are two ways of
entertaining an audience. You can either do a show
at them. Or with them. And with them is the best
way” Ken Dodd
I am an entertainer. I do this through writing and
performing. I do lots of very varied projects because
I’m lucky enough to be able to follow my interests and
make work about them. It seems that I’m interested in
lots of things. All of my work involves encouraging the
audience to get involved – directly in the case of my
experiential work or as Ida Barr leading the Hokey
Cokey – but indirectly I always encourage some kind
of response from simply leaning in to take more
notice, to getting up and taking some action. Everything comes down to
entertainment. It’s my way of doing things. There are lots of others and I like a lot of
them, but for me, I need to give you a few gags, some songs, some wry observations
and some showbiz skills to justify taking up your time. I am very proud of my
experiential theatre work from Office Party, through VIP, The Razzle to This Show Has
No Name. I was very proud to present Prurience, an experiential entertainment about
pornography addiction in both London and New York. Music Hall Monster focussed
on addiction and performance and what it’s like to be a dysfunctional performer. My
show, The Home, looks at residential care for the elderly through inviting an audience
to experience it for themselves for three days. I’m currently putting together a new
commission for 2020 called Playground, which creates a space for adults to play and
to reflect on lost childhood/children. www.christophergreen.net