Makers Masterclass
The Lyric Theatre is delighted to have received funding from the Arts Council for Northern Ireland to facilitate FREE workshops for professional actors, directors and acting graduates in Northern Ireland in 2022.
Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ is one of the greatest plays of world theatre. Antigone, a young woman, defies an edict of Creon, an autocratic ruler, by burying the body of her dead brother. Her defiance and his intransigence propel the two of them, and all connected to them, to a shatteringly tragic conclusion. The play brilliantly animates the great contest of codified law versus people’s sense of natural justice. It dramatises how there are no winners in a conflict between fundamentalists. But Sophocles tells his tale in a way that is theatrically thrilling, and while it is a play of ideas at one level, it is ultimately a play of the deepest human emotion.
Playing Greek drama is a demanding but rewarding skill to master. The fusion of argument and emotion, the propulsive pace of the storytelling, the compact poetry of the language, all pose challenges for the actor. But they are highly exciting pieces to perform, offering huge satisfaction to the actor.
Conall Morrison has had a long association with the play, using his own translation, he produced versions in Dublin, Belfast, and Ramallah.
This workshop will introduce the actor to the techniques and disciplines involved in ‘playing the Greeks’ – and demonstrate the pleasure involved in mastering the style of this greatest of playwrights.
How To Apply
To book your place on a workshop, please email your CV to info@lyrictheatre.co.uk
Please state the workshop you wish to attend. Workshop spaces are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis, and a waiting list will be kept if there are more applicants than spaces.
Eligibility Criteria: these workshops are for professional actors, including acting graduates. Your CV should include at least two professional credits or details of formal actor training.
Conall Morrison
Conall Morrison is a theatre director and playwright. He has directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Cameron Mackintosh, the Globe Theatre, English National Opera, Landmark Productions, Irish National Opera, and many leading independent companies. He has directed the premieres of plays by Tom Murphy, Frank McGuinness, Marina Carr, Gary Mitchell. For the Abbey Theatre, he has directed thirty productions. His varied work in 2021 included ‘The Treaty’ by Colin Murphy; ‘Elektra’ for Irish National Opera and Rosaleen Linehan’s ‘Backwards up a Rainbow’ for Landmark Productions. He has directed several plays for the Lyric Theatre, including ‘The Crucible’ which won Best Production and Best Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards. His own version of ‘Antigone’ toured widely in Ireland, and he subsequently staged it in the Great Hall in Stormont.