2024. This season we have a programme of seven unique and eclectic shows.
The season features comedy, premieres, music, dance and productions that Droichead have supported in development and as co-productions. Kicking off with a production of Belfast Girls by Louth playwright Jaki McCarrick; the return of Brokentalkers with two productions - Bellow and Masterclass, and This Is Pop Baby with Party Scene; a new comedy Prickly from actor/playwright Caoimhe O’Malley; The Hare a new play by Clare Monnelly and Bob Kelly, featuring live music from acclaimed musician Steve Wickham and fresh from a successful Edinburgh run Rope-A-Dope, by actor/comedian and former boxer Terry O’Neill.
Set up in 2017, and heading into its 12th season, Droichead Theatre Club brings audiences together to see a play, and like a book club, our audiences can share their views, thoughts and impressions informally post show with the cast and creatives. If this is your first or your 50th play, it doesn't matter, come along, and be part of the drama at Droichead.
Seven great plays for €87, and we do plan to produce at least one work in progress as part of our Droichead presents New Drama programme.
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Slow Sessions with Brendan McCreanor
From: Saturday, 4 May 2024
To: Saturday, 20 July 2024
WHERE: Droichead Arts Centre,Stockwell Street,Drogheda,Louth Tel: +353 41 9833946
Dates: Saturday 4 May | 18 May | 1 Jun | 15 Jun | 29 Jun | 6 Jul | 20 Jul
Droichead are delighted to announce the continuation of Slow Sessions with Brendan McCreanor.
These sessions are for players of any instrument and at any level. A selection of easy and well known session tunes will be played slowly so that people in the early stages of their playing, or those coming back to playing music, have the opportunity to play together in a friendly, supportive and informal context. More experienced players who wish to refine their techniques and extend their repertoire at a slower pace are also very welcome.
Brendan McCreanor is a multi-instrumentalist and an accomplished uilleann piper. He is also a founding member of the traditional/folk band Kern, a fully qualified musician in healthcare and is a member of Baile an Salsa, whose music fuses salsa and Trad elements.
Brendan is a passionate advocate of traditional Irish music and has significant experience teaching children and adults in a range of instruments including Uilleann pipes, whistles, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo and flute. Brendan holds degrees in Applied Music and Creative Multimedia.
Participants will learn a selection of popular session tunes including a couple of local ones from Co. Louth and well known tunes from across the country. Through engagement with the slow session, participants will develop their repertoire to include jigs, reels, slides, polkas and hornpipes, and will learn about the timing of the different styles and a little about the history and origins of the tunes
Essentially, the objective of the slow sessions is to enable participants to learn new skills, develop ability and enjoy the immersive experience of the seisiún in a relaxed manner. Music will be provided in advance, by email, and the session will be live in their venue. Each session is 90 mins-2 hours long with a 5 min break midway.
Taking inspiration from their roots in the Irish and English traditions, Flook have an enviable trademark sound, weaving and spinning traditionally rooted tunes over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination.
Patsy Reid is one of the most distinctive and admired fiddle players in the UK. Her unique blend of traditional and classical string technique has seen her perform alongside such an eclectic mix of artists as Kylie Minogue, Kathryn Tickell, Michael McGoldrick, Julie Fowlis and Zakir Hussain.
Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar | A Tom Moran and Abbey Theatre co-production
Date: 07/06/2024 – 08/06/2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: €18/16
Have you ever told a lie? How bad was it? And how far would you go to keep it a secret?
Droichead are delighted to feature a new addition to our Theatre Club this summer, Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar. After sell-out runs at Dublin Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Tom Moran brings his critically acclaimed show to the Abbey Theatre and out on tour. .
Brimming with compassion and humour, Tom has secrets to share and a future to fix. A self-proclaimed people-pleaser and an expert in empathy, Tom really struggles with the truth.
Join him for this hilarious but completely true solo show where he begs the question: “If I never lied again and was just myself, would any of my loved ones still love me?”
★★★★ "Smartly written, wryly witty and profoundly piercing" The Scotsman
★★★★★ "The most searingly honest and moving show of the year" The Arts Review
"Remarkable... Extremely polished piece of writing and acting" The Stage
"Superlative... A masterclass" Irish Independent
Image credit: Ste Murray.
Masterclass | Brokentalkers | Friday the 21st June 2024
Time: 20.00PM
Cost: €18/16
Following an award-winning international tour MASTERCLASS returns to Ireland. Featuring the savagely comedic feminist discourse of acclaimed New York artist Adrienne Truscott with the slippery dramaturgy of internationally renowned Brokentalkers, MASTERCLASS parodies the “great male artist” to within an inch of his life in order to uncover some difficult truths about privilege and power.
The show begins in the form of a cockamamie masterclass performed by fed up feminist Adrienne Truscott and all around good guy Feidlim Cannon. It’s fun. It’s familiar. There are wigs. But there is something more at play.
Using the arts world as a metaphor, MASTERCLASS is a literate and hilarious examination of gender and power.
Winner Fringe First Award – Edinburgh 2022 – The Scotsman
Film Club Spring/ Summer 2024
23rd Jan 2024 - 28th May 2024 |8.00pm | Cost: €48 for 8 films or €8 for one.
Droichead Arts Centre in partnership with Access Cinema is delighted to welcome back our Film Club members with a season of eight engaging and beautiful films from around the world, specially curated by Sinead Brassil and Niall O’Brien of LMFM’s film review segment ‘Reel Reviews’.
14 May | THE OLD OAK (2023) | Drama | UK, dir Ken Loach
A pub landlord in a previously thriving mining community struggles to hold onto his pub. Meanwhile, tensions rise in the town when Syrian refugees are placed in the empty houses in the community.
28 May | NOBODY HAS TO KNOW (2021) | Romance/Drama | France/UK, dir Bouli Lanners, Tim Mielants
A robust middle-aged man suffers a stroke, causing him to lose his memory. The woman who takes care of him falsely tells him that they were secretly in love before his accident.
More Info
DRAWDA | Drogheda Urban Art and Audio Trail
1st Jan 2024 - 31st Dec 2024
Drogheda Urban Art Trail – Embracing our mythological past
DRAWDA - a curated multidisciplinary public arts programme, launched in Drogheda between November 2021, and April 2022, culminating in an Urban Art Trail throughout Drogheda that focuses on key figures and moments from our mythological past.
Seven murals that focus on key figures and moments from mythology, with an Audio Trail! Pick up your printed map from Droichead Arts Centre, Love Drogheda BIDS or local business’ or view it digitally online below. Then, take a stroll throughout Drogheda following the trail, and use your smart device to scan the code and listen to the mythological stories behind the murals!
Assemble, Transform, Transmute - Laura Gramzow, Roger Hudson and Emma Ray | Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May 2024
Time: All Day Event
Cost: Free Event
Curated by Dorothy Smith (Droichead Visual Arts Curator in Residence)
Gathering, layering, tearing, cutting, juxtaposing found imagery are an intrinsic part of the creative process for the artists in this exhibition.
Laura Gramzow collects images from TV, film, social media, magazines, old art, and objects, feeling her way through a world awash with pre-digested, mass multimedia imagery. Her large scale oils on canvas hint at celebrity, divinity, the society of the spectacle, and colonialism.
During covid lockdown restrictions Emma Ray found herself unable to work as usual. Gathering images that captured our shared experiences, images of frontline workers, popular culture and current affairs, she spent 100’s of hours embroidering on to heavy upholstery fabric creating three dimensional wearable art-works.
Roger Hudson started working in photomontage in the 1980’s and has built a body of work that can be compared to visual poems; humorous, cynical, surreal, visually complex constructions of imagery commenting on the foibles and nightmares of humanity. Also a poet, the title of this exhibition is taken from his poem ‘This is what I do’.
Eire 32 | XNTHONY | Monday 10th June - Friday 14th June
Time: All Day Event
Cost: Free
Open your ears to the times we live in.
Eire 32 is a pop songwriting camp open to all, where you will craft a tapestry of pop music envisioning a 'New Ireland' crafting a song with your neighbours and community for your county.
Join award winning writer and performer Xnthony and his team of pop song producers for a week-long event in Louth, Donegal, and Wicklow where we invite you and your neighbours to craft pop songs reflecting local dreams, dramas, concerns, and phenomenons.
‘Eire 32’ is about you, we, us. This is about our personal and shared histories. This is about celebrating the sheer nuttiness of life through the totally relatable, totally accessible medium of pop music. Let’s explore possible futures together.
Maybe you’ll write a pop song about the price of cabbage.
Maybe you’ll write about your fears, aspirations and why you can never remember your Amazon password. Sounds like a banger to us! Maybe you’ve got a fiddle that needs playing, a guitar that needs strumming.
Bring it! Maybe you’ve got a melody you just can’t get out of your head. Bring that too! Either way, it’s up to you and your community. The power of pop lies in your hands.
Here's how you can get involved, applications now open: APPLY HERE
Applicants will be notified if their application is successful during the week commencing May 13th.
Participation is free. Each event will be facilitated to support your needs as a budding song writer. We will spend time finding a story and lyrics together and by the end of the week, we will have a song (or two).
Eire 32 aims to grow nationwide across 8 years, with the goal of presenting an ambitious, theatrical presentation of 32 songs you create in 2032. Yep, you heard us: 2032.
Design by Dashiell Silva. Photo by Declan Kelly. Styling and mask by Bourgeoisie. Produced by Lisa Nally
Funded by Arts Council Ireland, Mermaid Arts Centre, An Grianan, Droichead Arts Centre and Xnthony LTD.
The Ulysses Project | 16th June 2024
Time: 15.00PM
Cost: €8
A modern, non-traditional re-telling of Ulysses, told rapidly by a succession of over 75 actors who recreate the characters encountered by Leopold Bloom on June 16th, 1904. Shot entirely during the first pandemic lockdown, the resulting compendium of intimate, minutely nuanced performances with a cast including John Turturro, Aidan Gillen, Olwen Fouéré, Shane MacGowan, Paula Meehan and Barry Ward.
Screening will be followed by Q&A with directors Laoisa Sexton and Trevor Murphy.
Outdoor Theatre at Oldbridge 2024 | Little Women | 28th June 2024
Time: 18.30PM
Cost: Family ticket (2 Adult & 2 Child) €60, Child €12, Full €22
Come and experience all the joy of live theatre in the open-air!
Chapterhouse Theatre Company are delighted to present Louisa May Alcott’s beloved coming of age story this summer. Meet headstrong Jo March and her sisters Meg, Amy, and Beth. Each sister is determined to pursue her own path in life, but though their dreams may be different, their family ties remain as true as ever.
Laura Turner’s deft adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographical story of self-discovery, Little Women sees the March sisters- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy- through the adventures of their youth to the trials of young adulthood. Against the turbulent background of the American civil war, an uplifting and heartfelt tale of the March sisters’ journey into adulthood and all the trials and triumphs that come with it, Little Women features authentic costuming and a beautiful musical score.
“Heartwarming… gloriously brought to life” What’s on Stage
Gates open at 5.30pm to allow you to park and find a picnic space. The event will go ahead rain or shine. Please bring your own rugs or low-back seating only, and do consider the weather when dressing for the event.
Outdoor Theatre at Oldbridge 2024 | Beauty and the Beast | 11th July 2024
Time: 18.30PM
Cost: Family ticket (2 Adult & 2 Child) €60, Child €12, Full €22
Come and experience all the joy of live theatre in the open-air!
Join Chapterhouse Theatre Company this summer for a brand-new telling of this classic fairy tale. When an arrogant prince is cursed to live as a hideous beast, his only hope is a kindly young woman in search of a rose. Presented with lively original music and sparkling humour in the delightful setting of Oldbridge House, Chapterhouse Theatre Company’s rollicking new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is perfect for all the family!
“Sure to delight children of all ages” The Southern Daily Echo
Gates open at 5.30pm to allow you to park and find a picnic space. The event will go ahead rain or shine. Please bring your own rugs or low-back seating only, and do consider the weather when dressing for the event.
First Solo Award 2025 /2026 | Friday 28th June 2024
Time: All Day Event
Cost: Free
Announcing our First Solo Award 2025/2026
Would you like to have your first solo exhibition in our gallery? Our First Solo Award offers support at a key point in the careers of local visual artists, and is open to all professional artists living in the North East Region (Louth, Meath, Cavan & Monaghan) who have yet to present a solo show. Previous recipients include Jenny Slater, Iollann Ó Murchú, Rodney Thornton, Olga Duka, Eimear Murphy, and Sean McGuill.
First Solo 2025/2026: Submissions Open from Monday 29 April, deadline for submissions 28 June. Please email all submissions one PDF document to info@droichead.com with FIRST SOLO 25/26 in subject line.
If you require any access support for this application process, please email jackie.nowell@droichead.com and someone in our team will go through what the application involves and answer questions from any potential candidates directly.
How to Apply. Please see below, we are looking for all details in one PDF document including links to images or website.
1. Artist Statement (150 words/please include what area of the North East (as defined above) you reside in)
2. A brief overview of your proposal. (150 words)
3. A detailed proposal, including images for the proposed exhibition (500 words)
4. Please also provide 6-8 images of current work or links to sound/video work.
5. Links to your website/your online material/ to a drop box file.
Droichead's Visual Arts Curator in Residence, Dorothy Smith will support the recipients of this award to realise the exhibition. Droichead will pay an artist's fee, look after installation, provide marketing and PR support, and opening launch/talk.
An external panel which will include our curator in residence will assess all submissions received.
Deadline for submission is Friday 28 June. We will inform successful artists by end of July.
Droichead Arts Centre supporting the work and development of artists in the North East Region.
Stockwell Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth.