Art:2023 - NEST School Workshops | In Search of Hosts

Pic: St Philips Senior School, Mountview - Ms Cawley's 6th Class

For the months of September & October, Artistic Director for NEST, Veronica Coburn, is out and about in Dublin 15 Primary & Secondary school locations, giving free theatre workshops and chatting to teachers, pupils and students about Draíocht's NEST Project and its central themes of citizenship, home, belonging, society, equality and equity in a contemporary context.

These theatre workshops are the stepping stone to finding our NEST Project Hosts, a representative group of Dublin 15’s children and young people, aged 20 days to 20 years, who will be the inspiration for our artists to create 24 new stories and theatre pieces, for presentation in February & March 2024.

Next steps November & December:
Once identified, our 24 NEST Project Hosts will enjoy some fun workshops in Draíocht in November & December, with their Ambassadors.

Coming in January 2024:
Veronica will begin to pair our 24 NEST Project Hosts with our 24 NEST Artists!

Coming in February & March 2024:

On Saturday 17th February 2024, all NEST Hosts, Ambassadors and Artists will come together for the first time in Draíocht for a big workshop and get to know you session. Artists will then go into their hosts community settings for 3 days (19-21 February) before they begin writing their newly inspired theatre pieces (22 & 23 February).

Also on Saturday 17th February 2024, a newly commissioned NEST exhibition of participant children's portraits will open in Draíocht's Ground Floor Gallery, from artists Zsolt Basti, Sahoko Blake, Una Sealy & Dorothy Smith, Curated by Sharon Murphy.

On Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 February 2024: All new theatre pieces get a Read Through in Draíocht with Artistic Director Veronica Coburn.

Rehearsals take place the week of 26 February 2024 before all 24 NEW NEST WORKS are performed for the first time in their community settings, simultaneously, on Friday 1 March 2024.

After a week of rehearsals and technical support in Draíocht, all 24 NEW NEST WORKS will be performed in Draíocht as part of the Spréacha Soar Festival for Children & Young People, from Monday 11 - Saturday 16 March 2024, with shows scheduled for schools and families.

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Draíocht is delighted to deliver NEST, a visionary, artistically ambitious project of scale that will see 24 stories inspired by Dublin 15’s children and young people, aged 20 days to 20 years, our youngest citizens, brought to life through collaboration with 24 leading multi-disciplinary artists - playwrights, theatre makers, spoken word artists, dance artists, and music artists - to produce 24 new contemporary works that map our present through the eyes of our children and young people.

Led by Artistic Director, Veronica Coburn, NEST is about citizenship alongside the idea of home, both individual and collective, a single house, a familial place, a society. It will mark the Decade of Centenaries by exploring the ideals of our origin state, liberty, equality and equity in a contemporary context.

NEST's 24 new pieces of work will be performed in homes and schools across Dublin 15, 3 times, on March 1st 2024. Then the project will culminate in a bold festival of new and ambitious work for children and young people in mid-March 2024 when all 24 works will take over Draíocht’s building and can be seen over one week.

NEST is based on HOME THEATRE an original idea by Marcus Vinicius Faustini (Brazil) and Kerry Kyriacos Michael (UK).

#DecadeOfCentenaries #Art2023 #NEST

NEST is funded by ART: 2023, a Decade of Centenaries Collaboration between The Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Read more ... Art:2023 ... and ACI Press Release