Paul Curley's THE DIG & BAKE to visit D15 Primary Schools in 2023

To celebrate its 21st birthday, Draíocht Blanchardstown, in partnership with the Mobile Music School, and funded by Fingal County Council and the Local Live Performance Programming Scheme from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, visited every Dublin 15 Primary School with their extraordinary 29-piece Playground Orchestra, reaching 17,000 pupils. This ensured that every child aged 5-13 years in Blanchardstown saw, heard, and danced to a live music experience of the highest quality right in their own yard or gym.

Coming in 2023, Draíocht will once again return to Dublin 15 primary schools, this time with 2 exciting and engaging pieces of theatre created especially for young audiences by writer and performer Paul Curley, who is Theatre Artist in Residence in Draíocht. This creates a layered, artistically rich and diverse creative experience for both pupils and teachers, by adding a live theatre experience to a live music experience. A very successful pilot project took place in Dublin 15 schools earlier in 2022, which saw Paul Curley visit four schools with his show BAKE!, and five schools with his show THE DIG. The shows were received with both awe and excitement. For some of the junior children especially, this was their very first experience of live theatre in their school.

BAKE!, is for children in junior class, aged 4+ years, and is a delightful play about a Baker and his Daughter and the Queen and her Son. It is set in the basement of the Queen’s palace and follows the action of the Baker’s young daughter Madeleine as she tries to prove her baking skills in preparing the birthday cake for the Royal Prince Fredrik. BAKE! is an interactive show and children get to participate with some of the props.

THE DIG, is a theatre adventure in archaeology and is for children in senior classes, aged 6+ years, and is about Mac, who wants to be an archaeologist, but who gets carried away with telling too many stories but who finally makes an amazing discovery along his journey.

D15 Primary Schools can get in touch with paula@draiocht.ie to find out more about welcoming Paul Curley and his shows to their schools in 2023.

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This LIVE:THEATRE For Schools Programme is created by Draíocht in collaboration with Paul Curley, Draíocht's Theatre Artist in Residence. It follows Draíocht's Playground Orchestra project (2021/2022) and aims to bring another extraordinary arts experience to every school in Dublin 15. The project forms part of Draíocht's Primary schools programme and is funded by The Arts Council and Fingal County Council.