About the International Mentorship

From December 2017 to June 2018 German opera, music theatre and theatre director Anna-Sophie Mahler worked with five participants based in Ireland. This mentorship programme is a unique opportunity for theatre and performance makers of all kinds to develop an early-stage idea for performance, outside the pressures of production. The engagement of the mentor is aimed to pose challenges and offer interrogations within a supportive structure.

In addition to meeting Anna-Sophie in Dublin, each of the participants received a bursary to help them dedicate time to work on their ideas, and were also offered travel subsidy to help them see relevant work internationally.

The programme is made possible by funding from the Arts Council’s Theatre Artists Development Scheme. This year we are delighted to have the Gate Theatre as our mentorship partner. Anna-Sophie’s participation is generously supported by the Goethe-Institut Irland.

Mentor

Anna-Sophie Mahler was born in 1979 in Kassel. She studied directing at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and lives in Zurich.

From 2002 to 2004 she worked as an assistant director at the Theater Basel and later assisted Christoph Marthaler and Christoph Schlingensief. Since 2004 she has worked as a theater as well as an opera director. She has staged at Theater Basel, National Theater Weimar, Lucerne Theater, HAU Berlin, Schauspielhaus Graz, Konzert Theater Bern and Theater Bremen.

In 2006 she founded her own company, CapriConnection in Basel, which is characterized by the interweaving of documentary texts with music and image. The project “Ars moriendi” by CapriConnection was invited to the Theater Festival Impulse (2011). For the Zurich Festival (2013) CapriConnection developed the music theater “Tristan or Isolde”, a production in the remains of the Bayreuther stage set by Anna Viebrock. As part of the Munich Opera Festival 2015, she stages “Francesca da Rimini” at the Bavarian State Opera.

With her staging for the Münchner Kammerspiele of Mittelreich based on the novel by Josef Bierbichler, Anna-Sophie Mahler was invited to the Theatertreffen 2016 in Berlin.

This summer she was presented as a director with two works at the Biennale Teatro 2017 in Venice.

Participants

Luke Casserly is a theatre-maker originally from County Longford, now based in Dublin. He works as a freelance actor, designer and director.

Luke is delighted to be part of the International Mentorship for 2017/18 and will be using it to develop a new piece looking at Ireland’s relationship with traumatic events. Luke will be exploring in detail the recent Tuam Babies Case as part of the project.

Dylan Coburn Gray is a writer based in Dublin. His work has won praise for its innovative use of language and playful approach to form, blurring the line between poetry and drama. He has just received the 2017 Verity Bargate Award for his play Citysong.

David Coonan is a Dublin-based composer. His works have been performed by, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RAM Manson Ensemble, EXAUDI vocal ensemble, and Belfast city organist Colm Carey.

As part of the Pan Pan International Mentorship, David and Dylan will be working on paired pieces of music theatre, one short and one long; they haven’t ruled out Robert Schumann showing up, but the definite territory of both pieces is how patterning means – how quality isn’t always detail – in music, language, memory, and life.

Jane Deasy is a composer and performer working across various forms including theatre, installation and radio. She composes both electronic and electroacoustic music exploring the boundaries between music and theatre.

During the Pan Pan International Mentorship Jane will work on a piece using The Four Seasons by Vivaldi as a framework to think about fear and the passing of time.

Shaun Dunne is a playwright and theatre artist from Dublin. He is a trained journalist and drama facilitator – with elements of both heavily informing his arts practice.

As part of the Pan Pan International Mentorship, Shaun will develop a new work focusing on the ritual of restorative practice and the rehabilitation of convicted offenders into mainstream community.