Equality and representation in drama education
Performing International Plays
May 12, 2021. 5 pm
How can international plays enrich the curriculum and promote equality and representation in our diverse classrooms? In this panel theatre and film director Mingyu Lin, education consultant and drama teacher Holly Wymark, artist, educator and resource writer Alia Alzougbi, and published academic and project lead Dr Margherita Laera will discuss the evolution and production of Performing International Plays, an open-access website which aims to empower and support teachers in their effort to diversify the curriculum and make sure the content they deliver speaks to and represents all students.
“In our increasingly diverse classrooms, it is no longer possible to defend a Drama curriculum based on British and European classics, a very small minority of which are written by authors whose first language is not English. We need to learn to listen to and empathise with the stories of others living on our planet, and those stories are told in many other languages, not just in English. We have selected some of the best contemporary international plays published in English or English translation, and enriched them with learning and teaching resources for Drama students and tutors in secondary schools and colleges. Our hope is that our website helps every Drama student feel represented, seen and heard through international plays.”
Project Lead Dr Margherita Laera
Chair
Michael Barker-Caven
Michael is a six times nominated and four times winner, Best Opera Production director, at The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. Previous opera work includes: Verdi’s Aida (Irish National Opera); Puccini’s Suor Angelica/Il tabarro (Opera North); Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Wide Open Opera); Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz (Danish National Opera); Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Irish Youth Opera); Marschner’s Der Vampyr (Everyman/Cork Operatic); Puccini’s La bohème (Opera North); Britten’s Albert Herring (Mid Wales Opera); Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (Everyman/Cork Operatic);Cherubini’s Medea (Glimmerglass, New York); Linley/Sheridan’s The Duenna (ETO/Royal Opera House), and Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur and Conrad Susa’s Transformations (Wexford Festival Opera).
Michael has four further nominations for his work in theatre at the Irish Theatre Awards. He is currently artistic director of The Civic Theatre, Tallaght. Previously, he was artistic director of the Everyman, Cork and of The Theatreworks Company.
Speakers
MINGYU LIN, Director and Translator
Ming is a director for stage and film. She is currently a Creative Associate at Headlong and a reader for the Traverse Theatre and the Bruntwood Prize. Ming has directed a number of short films, which have won awards with Sundance Shorts, Sci-Fi London, Enter the Pitch and ITN’s Nativity Factor. Her film Sandwich by Siu Hun Li won Best Film at the BFI’s Filming East Festival and her comedy pilot Back in the Day by Kerry Gooderson was a Pilot Light Fest finalist.
Ming trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is an alumna of the Royal Court Writers’ Program as well as a current recipient of the Living Pictures Bursary. Stage credits include Babel (ArtsEd), Overheard (UK tour), No Bond So Strong (MAC Birmingham), Does My Bomb Look Big in This (Soho Theatre), Silently Hoping (Vault Festival 2019) among many more.
HOLLY WHYMARK, Education Consultant
Having trained at Central School of Speech and Drama, Holly has been teaching Drama in secondary education settings for 21 years and is currently Director of Drama at St Albans High School for Girls. She is a passionate advocate for the arts and has recently graduated from the Royal Opera House’s Leaders for Impact programme. Holly has taken a leading role in organising whole school cultural events, been part of curriculum review working parties and has developed a diverse programme for students which celebrates both performance and technical interests; encouraging students to work across year groups, subjects and collaborate with other schools.
She is currently working on a new play commission as part of the ‘Write the Girl’ project which seeks to develop new plays focused on larger female casts. Her interest in international drama began at university when she participated in the International Student Drama Festival in Paris. Since then, she has organised cultural opportunities for students with local and international reach, for example a collaborative performance with township children in Cape Town.
ALIA ALZOUGBI, Education Resource Writer
Alia Alzougbi is a BAFTA-nominated artist, educator and cultural producer. Her work in education explores learner-led approaches combining active global citizenship and indigenous wisdoms, and in this capacity, she leads Global Learning London. Other work includes chairing conversations for the National Theatre, and curating events for the British Museum. She holds a Writers’ Guild Olwen Wymark Award, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
MARGHERITA LAERA, Project Leader
Margherita is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent, Canterbury. She specialises in translation and adaptation for the stage, and contemporary European performance, especially in Italy. She is also a professional arts journalist and theatre translator. Margherita is the author of Theatre & Translation (Red Globe Press, 2019) and Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy (Peter Lang, 2013) and editor of Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat (Methuen, 2014).
Check out the Full Programme!
Join us, as we celebrate Ireland’s rich artistic and linguistic diversity with plenty of thrilling events and workshops from dumpling making to clowning practices for all ages.
Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
