Shared 2013

Upstate Theatre Project
presents
SHARED

16 August 2013
An Tain Theatre, Dundalk

17 August 2013
The Barbican Centre, Drogheda

The inaugural performances of the Upstate Youth Ensemble took place in August in An Tain Theatre, Dundalk and the Barbican Centre, Drogheda. Following a physical theatre workshop programme with over 120 young people during the summer, ten young people completed the auditioning process to form the first Upstate Youth Ensemble. The multi-cultural youth performance ensemble then created Shared over five days during an intensive devising process with director Stephen Murray and facilitator Dee Burke.

The performance they developed through the project explores society, shared civic spaces, and youth culture. We often hear of a ‘shared society’ but what does it mean?

Through the performance, the Upstate Youth Ensemble asked what we share and with whom do we share it? How do we share? Why do we share with some and not with others? What do you share with others?

During each performance, the Upstate Youth Ensemble created a shared ‘civic aesthetic space’ where they performed ideas and raised questions for all of us to consider during and after the presentation. After the performance ended, each audience member received a text from the performers, a tangible thought to take away with them.

The Upstate Youth Ensemble will continue working during the year, and hope to interrogate and challenge Louth audiences as they grow and develop. The only way of knowing how to make new modes of performance is to attempt it, but to continue to experiment we need people to work with.

The Upstate Youth Ensemble will be open to new members later in the year.

This project was delivered by Upstate Theatre Project and is supported by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund, through the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation PEACE III Programme managed by County Louth Peace and Reconciliation Partnership.

Facilitated and Directed by: Stephen Murray
Assistant Facilitator: Dee Burke
Design: Vivienne Byrne
Production Manager: John McGovern
Lighting Design: Pauraic Hackett
Photography: Ken Finegan

Created and Performed by Upstate Youth Ensemble:
Lorna McAllister, Steven Jimenez, Catriona Quigley, Anastasia Metluka, Amber Duffy, Andy Gallagher, Leah Rossiter, Victoria Ugwuja, Mark Hughes, Lyndsey Keating