Competition: Win £1000 for your artistic skills at #BelFest

The Project

Love treasure hunts?  Like surprises? We’re leaving lots of artworks around Belfast City Centre and other areas for you to find.  Follow our clues on social media and see if you can spot a prize. Don’t forget to let us know that you’ve found it via Facebook or Twitter. Be creative with your thank you for a chance to win a bigger prize.We will also be leaving a piano for you to play at various locations including Culture Night, so bring your best music, your fancy fingers and your toe tapping rhythms. Why? Because we believe in the power of art and we want to embrace you with music and give back some love.Follow #BelFest for clues

What we need

We are sending out 200,000 postcards to advertise the Free Festival Friday campaign. In addition we will need labels, transfers and a design to brand the piano.

Artist brief

Can you come up with an artistic design to encourage people to engage with the project? We’re thinking fun, quirky, energetic, musical and embracing.We want everyone to get involved in the art treasure hunt - adults, kids, young people, parents and older people. Can you create a design that will encourage all of them to take part?   We want the piano to be engaging – can you make your design so enticing that members of the public will be compelled to sit down and play?Your design will also be applied to the overall branding online and on social media channels.

Format

You can supply your artwork in any visual medium preferably A3 size. Our designers will work with the winning artist reproduce the image as best they can for different formats.    

Brief Terms and Conditions

To enter the competition, your design must meet the following brief criteria - The design must be family friendly e.g. no nudity, swearing or adult themes.The design must be submitted in an appropriate format.Prize will be £1000. The winning design will be used as part of the Free Festival Friday campaign across the print, online and social media channels.Artist must be available to take part in a photo call on Friday 5th September and to accept their prize.Any submissions made by artists for the Free Festival Friday Prize, must be open to their work being accessible and promoted as part of the #FFF14 campaign and for Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s in the future, and utilised for social media and further promotions.

Click here for more information

Culture Babies launched

Young at Art is have announced the launch of CULTURE BABIES, a new creative playgroup for under 4's this Summer.

Based in CastleCourt shopping centre this event is FREE for parents of children and groups from 0-4 years to attend. It will be jam-packed with fun activities changing every week, and led by experienced artists to specially cater to very young children.

Sessions include; baby yoga, dance, drama, messy play, music and much, much more. The range of interactive and creative experiences of Culture Babies supports young children’s creative expression, enabling them to try new things, and giving them the freedom to get as messy and as creative as they want, in a safe, fun and welcoming environment.

The activities behind Culture Babies will help to build very young children’s self-confidence, interpersonal and technical skills as well as offering and a wonderful way to bond with your child.

The group are planning to meet every Thursday morning between 10am - 12 noon from 10th July until provisionally September.

Schedule:

10th July: Make Your Own Fort

17th July: Make an Aquarium

24th July: Playing with Plasticine

31st July: Baby Yoga

7th August: Make Your Own Musical Instrument

14th August: Messy Painting

21st August: Wall Collage

28th August: Baby Dance Session

11th September: Baby Drama Session

This is a FREE, drop-in group with no booking necessary.

Giro d'Italia Fever from East Belfast

The company behind 'The Boat Factory' and 'Not About Heroes', Happenstance Theatre Company have brought us another fine piece of drama especially for the Giro d'Italia, Pink Lycra starring Michael Condron.

How Many Miles to Babylon? at the Lyric Theatre: REVIEW

*Being married to a technician may have affected my opinion when writing this review.

When the Director Philip Wilson came out on stage before the show to say that the mechanics were playing up, my heart sank.  Pointing out possible issues and highlighting the technical hitches unfairly distracts the audience away from the story.  From the onset all I could concentrate on was watching the Revolve, counting the number of times the Stage Manager had to push it manually, and feel sorry for the actors.  At times they were out of the light, distracted by the set and having to insert pauses while waiting for the Revolve to put them in the correct place.

While technical problems happen, and reliance on equipment is certainly a difficulty in theatre production, I felt that it was all a little selfish on the part of the Creative Team. The Revolve of the stage, even if it had worked seamlessly, added nothing to the overall atmosphere of the production and seemed to me to be an unfair burden to have placed on both the actors and crew.

Despite being distracted however, How Many Miles to Babylon? is a wise tale, one of friendship, bravery and strength of character.  Alec Moore (Anthony Delaney), a boy of the Big House in Wicklow is brought up by parents who have lots of money and not much love.  The first half of the play concentrates on the home life of Alec, his overbearing mother played by a convincing Catherine Cusack and indifferent father (Michael James Ford).  The lighting is cold and ghostly, accenting the formality of Alec's life in the Big House.

His illicit forays out to meet his only friend, the village boy Jerry Crowe, played by the ever watchable Ryan McParland, are filled with simplicity and laughter. They have in common their love of horses and the swans of the Big House. Their differences are noted; Jerry does not ride like a gentleman, he hasn't read the classics, he has difficulty with his homework. But none of these matter. Jerry is warm and funny, and despite not knowing the 'proper' way to do things, he is surrounded by a loving family and friends, and a knowledge of politics and current affairs.

Alec is pushed to enlist by his mother because it is his duty. When he says he doesn't want to and doesn't understand what the war is about she calls him a coward.  Jerry enlists in order to get some cash, another pay-check will make his family life much easier. It is when the boys decide to enlist that their differences are acknowledged. Jerry knows that Alec will become an Officer and will be expected to lead men like Jerry.

The second half of the play takes place in the trenches.  While the use of the Revolve makes more sense in this half, it still does not add enough to the play to merit reliance on it.  I was disappointed by the set which looked cheap and thought that smoke and lighting could have been used to much better effect. The fact that the boys were at the Front, while obvious in the script, was not mirrored by the atmosphere created.

We see Alec struggle with his Officer rank and with his inability to publicly continue his friendship with Jerry. Whether talking to Major Glendinning or fellow Officer Bennett, Jerry is always at the forefront of his mind. Their meetings are punctuated with laughter and whiskey, horse riding and genuine affection for each other.

The differences in their upbringing are clear from the letters each of them receive from home and their reactions to them. While Jerry sets off on a labour of love for his mother, Alec sets off on a labour of love for Jerry and as the story plays out, we are reminded that this is not a complex story of war, but a simple one of courage and friendship.

How Many Miles to Babylon? at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast runs until 24 May.  For more information and tickets click here

Image credits: Steffan Hill

 

Coming Up: The Far Side of Revenge - Theatre of Witness documentary screening

This May Banbridge District Council has invited The Playhouse Theatre of Witness to deliver a screening of its work in Banbridge and invites audiences to bear witness to a powerful humanizing documentary about its work.

The Council's Good Relations Programme will offer a free screening of THE FAR SIDE OF REVENGE, a documentary that explores artistic director Teya Sepinuck’s engagement among a group of Northern Irish women from extraordinary backgrounds and histories. The film will be screened at The Old Town Hall, Banbridge on Tuesday May 6 at 7.30pm followed by a facilitated discussion with cast members.

Theatre of Witness is a form of performance that gives voice to those who have been marginalised, forgotten or are invisible in society.  Their true, life stories, performed by the people themselves, are shared onstage so that audiences can collectively bear witness to issues of suffering, redemption and social justice.

The film, by local filmmaker Margo Harkin, brings insight into a process of creation of this ground-breaking type of theatre, where the pain of individual stories are counterbalanced by the joyful bond that deepens between the women over a nine-month period.

Kathleen, whose husband and 5 British soldiers were blown up by the IRA in 1990, now performs on stage with Anne, a former quartermaster in the IRA whose uncle was killed by the British paratroopers on Bloody Sunday in 1972.  Under Teya’s guidance six cast members allow themselves to reveal the deep emotions that can only now be explored in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

“Under Teya’s direction this project is an adventure in human relations that surprises even the performers of this most unusual form of public expression”  Dolores Donnelly, Banbridge District Council's Good Relations Officer said.

“These are women from backgrounds and histories so diverse that it would be difficult to envision them sharing a space, let alone creating a public, cultural event together thus resulting in a very powerful and emotional piece of work”.

The film has already been screened in Belfast, Dublin, the Chicago Film Festival and received the Light In Motion Best Documentary Award at the 2012 Foyle Film Festival.

For more information or to reserve your seat please contact Marion Mitchell on (028) 4066 0605 or email marion.mitchell@banbridge.gov.uk

Coming Up: Flesh & Blood Women at the Grand Opera House

In what is believed to be the first-ever all-female, home-produced theatre production in the history of Northern Irish theatre, Flesh & Blood Women is about to set the Grand Opera House alight in early May, running from Wednesday 7th – Saturday 24th May.

Green Shoot promise an exhilarating night at the theatre with the production consisting of three hard hitting short plays written by Dawn Purvis, Brenda Murphy and Jo Egan.

Writing for the theatre for the first time, in her play Picking Up Worms, former Progressive Unionist Party leader Dawn Purvis tells a story from the 1970s about a child’s reflection of events on a street in Belfast during the Ulster Worker’s Strike in 1974.

Ballymurphy playwright and writer of the award-winning A Night With George, Brenda Murphy, tells the extraordinary true story of her mother having 11 children, six to a married man who lived around the corner with his own family.  In Two Sore Legs the former Republican prisoner uses her trademark Belfast humour to tell this very personal story, told from her mother’s perspective.

After last year's success as the writer/ director of Crimea Square, voted winner of the Audience Awards at the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's, Jo Egan’s play Sweeties will tell the stunning story of two sisters with conflicting memories about a life-changing incident from their childhood. Sweeties is based on Jo’s original oral research with Belfast women.

Flesh & Blood Women is unique in that it is the first production in the history of Northern Irish theatre where everyone involved is a woman. From writers to designers, from producer to director and stage management to marketers – believe it or not – it’s never happened before. In total, nineteen women will be involved at all levels of production.

The company are especially thrilled to have acquired the services of Coronation Street actress and director, Noreen Kershaw. Noreen won a BAFTA for directing the controversial Coronation Street storyline about the rape of Carla Connor. She has also directed episodes of Shameless and Emmerdale.

The all female cast includes Kerri Quinn, Maria Connolly, Rosie McClelland and Kat Regan.

For more information and to book tickets please click here.

@classygenes

Coming Up: How Many Miles to Babylon? at the Lyric Belfast

The First World War Centenary is commemorated in dramatic fashion at the Lyric Theatre with a stirring adaptation of Jennifer Johnston’s novel How Many Miles to Babylon? this Spring.

Rehearsals are well underway with an impressive line-up of Irish and English actors bringing the Londonderry author’s “brilliant masterpiece” to the stage for the first time in Northern Ireland.

Anthony Delaney (Alec) and Ryan McParland (Jerry) in rehearsals

How Many Miles to Babylon? tells the heart-rending story of two young Irish boys from very different backgrounds who end up fighting in Flanders. Alec and Jerry are divided by class but united in friendship. One is the only child of Anglo-Irish landowners; the other is from a large family of Irish workers. Brought together by a shared love of horses, the pair enjoy an idyllic childhood on the same estate in County Wicklow.

As war breaks out at the end of 1914, both enlist in the army - and find themselves standing together, yet divided once more by rank. In the fields of Flanders, they must not only endure the horrors of the battlefield, but also face an ordeal that will test their friendship and their loyalty to breaking point.  The dramatic tale has been adapted by Irish actor and current Artistic Director of the PICT theatre in Pittsburgh, Alan Stanford.

How Many Miles to  Babylon full cast

Philip Wilson directs an impressive cast with Good Vibrations star Ryan McParland taking on the role of the charismatic Jerry and Anthony Delaney (Liola, The Kingdom) as Alec. Lyric audiences may also remember Ryan from Tim Loane’s The Civilisation Game in 2012 as well as the BBC series, 6 Degrees set in Belfast.

Catherine Cusack, part of the Irish acting dynasty of Cusacks, plays the cold mother, Alicia Moore opposite Michael James Ford (Becoming Jane; Michael Collins) as her husband. The rest of the cast are Richard Teverson (Brideshead Revisited; Downton Abbey) as Major Glendinning, Jeremy Lloyd (The Iron Lady) as Bennett and Charlie De Bromhead (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People).

Director Philip Wilson

“I came across Jennifer Johnston’s novel some years back, when I was researching another First World War story, and her delicate yet heartbreaking account of how young Irish men faced the unimaginable in the trenches has stayed with me ever since,” said the director, Philip Wilson.

“So I leapt at the chance to stage Alan Stanford’s poignant and richly evocative adaptation of this classic novel. Alec and Jerry’s friendship – which transcends education, class and religion – is a wonderfully compelling one, and the journey they go on together is truly remarkable.”

How Many Miles to Babylon? runs on the Danske Bank Stage, Lyric Theatre from Wed 30 April to Sat 24 May (Previews Sun 27 April 2.30pm; Tues 29 April 1pm & 7.45pm)

For more information and booking, please click here.

Image credits: Brian Morrison