DLI 48th Residential Summer School

Top-class professional tutors! Wonderful accommodation! Full Social Programme! The very best value around!

We are delighted to announce that we will be offering 7 courses this year running for the full week 27th July – 3rd August 2013. There will be no increase in the over-all cost. All courses cost the same and there are no hidden extras.

Anne Mekitarian
DLI Summer School Director

Download the DLI Summer School 2013 brochure now!

Download Summer School Application 2013...

Download Summer School Fees 2013...

Course A: Acting Foundations.
Tutor: Belinda Wild

All the world's a stage and all the men and women, merely players (William Shakespeare)
An introduction to the creative art of acting designed for complete beginners, teachers or anyone who would like to revisit and consolidate their core acting skills. Taught in practical workshop, this course provides a dynamic and imaginative approach to theatre training in an atmosphere which is relaxed, supportive and fun. Whilst referencing inspirational theatre practitioners, in particular, Stanislavski, Grotowski, Jaques Lecoq and Shakespeare, this course aims to enable each participant to develop their own unique creative voice, as well as experiencing the delight of making live theatre within an ensemble. Guaranteed not only to boost the confidence of the meek, but also to be a laugh out loud experience!

Belinda Wild is an actor, director, teacher. She is artistic director of Green Room International and Head of Drama at Kinsale College of Further Education.

Course B: Shaping the 'Formless Hunch'
Tutor: Thomas Conway

'For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.' T.S. Eliot

For directors of all levels of experience, this course puts a spotlight on the work between the director and the actor to explore what makes for a rewarding relationship and what provides the groundwork for electrifying performances.
The cornerstone of the director's work is listening. Listening to the play and the 'formless hunch', as Peter Brook likens it, through which the play calls to the director
This workshop provides a structured, accessible, lively approach to what makes for effective listening for the director.

It aims to sharpen and improve everyone's listening and to cultivate the skills that translate listening into effective stage performances.
It examines what makes for effective auditions and rehearsals, exploring the paradox whereby the audition serves the director's needs, the rehearsals the actors', while keeping in view the needs of the play.
It takes as its starting-point some of the finest one-act plays, both classical and contemporary, in the repertoire.
It aspires to having all participants come to know intimately just what exactly Peter Brook means when he says: 'The theatre is a craft. A director works and listens. He helps the actors to work and listen.'

Thomas Conway works as a director, dramaturg, and lecturer. He teaches at The Lir Academy Dublin and is Literary Manager with Druid.

Course C: Physical Theatre - The Actor's Tool Box
Tutor: Kellie Hughes

The painter has a canvas, the pianist a piano, the actor? - the body.
In the Actor's Toolbox you will develop concrete, technical skills which are directly applicable to your performance work. Our mornings will be spent exploring how to enhance the quality of your stage craft by focusing on technical skill and exploring the expressive potential of the body. In the afternoon we will concentrate on applying the technical work of the morning to scene exploration, tackling different stylistic challenges from a variety of classic and modern texts. Through the week we will construct a personal tool box full of practical techniques which increase the actor's sense of presence, control, strength, agility, flexibility and imaginative powers, enhancing your understanding of the power and potential that you have within your chosen creative instrument- the body. The week will be practical, creative, challenging but above all, fun.

Kellie Hughes is an actor, director and theatre–maker. Kellie acted and directed extensively with Blue Raincoat T.C. and is currently Artistic Director of the Ad Astra programme in UCD.

Course D: Speaking as an Actor …
Tutor: Cathal Quinn

'50% of acting is in your voice' John Hurt.

The voice, that most valuable tool of the actor, needs to be cared for, cherished, shaped, developed, exercised. This course will be an invigorating and comprehensive approach to improving and expanding your vocal technique. We will engage in daily vocal work-outs using, primarily, the voice methodologies of Kristin Linklater, current Chair of Columbia University, NYC. As well as honing our technique, we will introduce text and incorporate some in-depth work on a variety of accents, beginning with RP. This course will be suitable for actors at all levels of experience. It will be intensive, enjoyable and very worthwhile. Surprise yourself!

Cathal Quinn works as a Voice coach in theatre, television and film and also as an actor and director on occasion. Cathal is currently Head of Voice at The Lir Academy, TCD.

Course E: Creating for the Space – Set & Costume Design
Tutor: Maree Kearns

This very hands on, practical course will look at the creative process and the challenges and that are faced in designing a production. We will go through the design process step by step and breakdown exactly how set and costume designs go from page to stage from the first reading of the script, to the opening night. We will work in teams from a preselected script and look at all the visual aspects of the production. We will discover how design decisions are made, how to apply the creative process to any production no matter how big or small, how to brainstorm designs into life, and the importance of the scenic model as a tool for the entire cast and crew. Tasks to be covered will also include: how to think creatively and visually about your script, how to breakdown and research your play, using colour and texture in design, choosing the right materials, how to build the scenic model, costume design and how to effectively tour your design.

Maree Kearns is a freelance designer and Set Design lecturer at The Lir Academy TCD

Course F
Tutor: Wayne Jordan

Wayne Jordan is an Associate Artist of the Abbey Theatre and one of Ireland’s most innovative young directors. Productions at the Abbey include Alice in Funderland (2012) 16 Possible Glimpses (2011) No Romance (2011) Christ Deliver Us! (2010) The Plough and the Stars (2010, revived in 2012), La Dispute (2009) and The Seagull (2009) for NYT at the Peacock. He is Artistic Director of Randolf SD/The Company and an Associate Artist of the Project Arts Centre where most of his own work has been presented. For his own company he directed Everybody Loves Sylvia, (nominated best director Irish Times Theatre Awards 2009), Fewer Emergencies, The Public, The Drowned World, The Illusion and Eeugh!topia. He also designed Hedwig and The Angry Inch for Making Strange, Stuck for Project Arts C. and The Maids for Loose Canon. Other work includes La Voix Humaine (Dub. Fringe Festival) Agamemnon, Baal (S. Beckett Theatre) and Crave (S. Beckett Theatre and Studiobühne, Cologne).

Course G:When Walsh Meets Chekhov - Where Theatre Worlds Collide!
Tutor: Mikel Murfi

Where two worlds of theatre, so distant from one another in time and style, when two timeless writers clash - what happens? There will be blood! If you can stomach either Enda Walsh or Anton Chekhov then this course is for you. Mikel's Lecoq training is an essential component in his work, so expect it to be physical and rigorous, expect to end up moulding clay as quick as you'll find yourself in a Red Nose. It'll be unique, that's for sure. This course will require a certain amount of preparation/reading and is for experienced actors who are up for the challenge.

Mikel Murfi, a founding member of Barabbas … the Company, is a director, an actor and a highly regarded clown, trained in Paris at Ĕcole Jacques Lecoq.

Download the DLI Summer School 2013 brochure now!

Download Summer School Application 2013...

Download Summer School Fees 2013...