Strollers Touring Network - PROPEL 2023

The Strollers Network is delighted to announce Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng 吳彩萍 as the recipient of the Propel Programme Award 2023.

Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng 吳彩萍 (they / she) is a Hong Kong-Irish theatre maker and designer of set, costume and video. Ping was born and raised in Enniskerry, Wicklow. They won a Linbury Prize after graduating from MA Performance Design at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2021). They have designed for venues including the Abbey Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Singapore Repertory Theatre. Ping is a multidisciplinary theatre maker who writes, directs, designs and often performs their own work. They combine personal stories, surrealism, humour and socio-political engagement with innovative design. Ping is primarily inspired by their heritage, cross-cultural experiences and examining colonialism. Their most recent piece of theatre making / designing, WINDOW A WORLD, was co-produced by Dublin Theatre Festival and BUDA Belgium through the EU’s Be SpectACTive! project (2022). They are currently developing several new pieces and set designing Like We Were Born To Move by Eimear Hussey, opening at the Abbey Theatre this August.

Strollers Network Partners:

Draíocht Blanchardstown
Belltable / The Lime Tree Theatre
Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo
Linenhall Arts Centre
Riverbank Arts Centre
Siamsa Tire
Solstice Arts Centre
The Source Arts Centre
VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art and The George Bernard Shaw Theatre
The Watergate Theatre

Strollers Network is kindly supported by Arts Council Ireland

More ... The Strollers Network is Ireland’s largest consortium of Art Centres. It is a partnership made up of ten venues from across four regions of the country including; Belltable (Limerick), Draíocht (Dublin), Watergate (Kilkenny), Solstice (Navan), Visual (Carlow), Linenhall (Mayo), Hawkswell Theatre (Sligo), Riverbank (Kildare), Source (Tipperary) and Siamsa Tire (Kerry). Collectively the network represents one fifth of all publicly funded Arts Centres nationally.

Since its establishment in 2010 the network has invested over €190,000 into the production and dissemination of new stage works by some of Ireland’s leading theatre artists, companies and musicians including; Julie Feeney (2011), Fishamble: The New Play Company (2013 & 2018), Theatre Lovett (2012), Moonfish Theatre Company (2014/15), Monkeyshine Theatre Company (2016), Duke Special (2017) and most recently Joanne Ryan’s national tour of ‘Eggsistentialism’ (2019).

Historically the network has supported artists in two distinct ways, firstly through our annual touring award of €10,000 and secondly by providing artists and companies access to a touring platform which utilised the network’s existing touring infrastructure.

Since 2020 the network has embarked on the development and delivery of a new strategic plan which aims to strengthen the ecology of the Irish arts sector by utilising the network’s existing infrastructures, resources, and wider network partnerships to support the sustainable development of independent artists working within the Irish theatre sector. 2021 will see the launch of PROPEL, a newly established artist development and mentorship programme supporting the early stage research and development of new work by independent theatre artists living and working in Ireland.