Youth Theatre Practice Symposium

With just over five weeks to go until our groundbreaking symposium on Sustainable Youth Theatre Practice, we are thrilled to announce our programme elements.

Joining us over our two days at TU Dublin, East Quad, Grangegorman Campus, Dublin 7, on November 8th and 9th are some of the leading minds and changemakers working in Irish theatre, youth theatre, film, and youth work.

Speakers and workshop facilitators include:

Medb Lambert, a theatre artist, designer, writer and maker. As Co-Artistic Director of Asylum Productions, her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including First Light co-written with Donal Gallagher at Carlow Arts festival 2024 – a sustainable, green energy, community powered production. Her workshop is the wittily titled We Don’t All Have to Be Coldplay to make a Difference will accompany her Friday presentation We Can Still Have Nice Things.

Alex Konieczka, is an ecologist, eco-consultant, educator, and founder of Understory, an environmental education organisation. In 2023, Alex partnered with Youth Theatre Ireland to conduct a Sustainability Audit, deliver a report, and lead sustainability-focused activities at the National Festival of Youth Theatres. She followed up in 2024 to assess progress and impact. Alex will present The Sustainability Journey of the National Festival of Youth Theatres, a summary of her findings, and deliver a workshop entitled Circular Economy: Creative Reuse of Materials.

Maeve Stone is a director / writer for film and theatre whose work responds to issues of climate breakdown and revisits the canon with a feminist lens. She has been working in embedded and socially engaged practice for the last 8 years and is keen to continue learning how the skills of a storyteller can impact climate resilience. In her workshop Strategies For Hope And Storytelling, Maeve will share some principles for hope and creative thinking when it comes to the future.

Sinéad Wallace is an award-winning freelance lighting designer. She has worked as Sustainability Lead on The Lir Academy's first two Theatre Green Book productions and consulted on the upcoming Irish Theatre Green Book. Her Workshop, Making it Green - Introducing the Theatre Green Book, a practical guide for sustainable theatre production, will lead participants through an exploration of practical ways to reduce the impact of our theatre productions on the environment.

Luke Casserly will deliver a presentation called What's already there? The focus will be on how he has built his practice over the last few years as a performance maker, looking at the experiences he had in youth theatre as a teenager as the starting point. On one of our Saturday Sessions, he will also work exclusively with 16 senior youth theatre members in a session called Autobiographical Landscapes that will look at the idea of place as a starting point for making new work.

Other highlights include a dedicated workshop focusing on Connection, with the Youth Theatre Ireland team, a tribute to our late founder Paddy O'Dwyer, a dedicated Youth Panel and the launch of our first ever sustainability policy.

As ever, no symposium would be complete without our annual Playshare event. This year’s performances are:

Aftertaste by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth performed by DLR Mill Youth Theatre Group, Dundrum.

Legend of Skønhed by Activate Youth Theatre performed by FunHouse Youth Theatre, Tullamore.

The Oasis by Michelle Read performed by Act Out YT, Navan.

With ever more contributors being added over the coming weeks, this symposium will appeal to those already engaged in youth theatre practice, artists, arts and community workers with an interest in youth theatre, and the wider theatre, education, youth work and community sectors.

Do not miss the opportunity to be part of a transformative moment in youth theatre and theatre practices.