| “There
is always one instance, one moment in every
play where a change occurs and the lives of
all the characters are transformed. This can
be potential change becoming real change or
apparent change becoming no real change at all”.
Druid Theatre Director, Thomas Conway, explained
the intricate structural devices used by play-writes
in his play writing workshop last Friday as
part of the Athlone Literary Festival. Students
in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel were put through
their paces through role play, story telling
and improvisation.
Thomas, an experienced director in his said
it was important to forget about the details
of a character and instead look at what the
character sees, what do they want and examine
the small challenges faced by the characters
every step of the way through your play.
Drama, Thomas informed, derives from the Greek
verb ‘to do’, the writer must examine
then what the character will do in reaction
to these challenges and crises that he or she
may face. There are always stakes, at any given
time the character faces the dilemma of something
to win or something to lose. Students who attended
Friday’s workshop certainly had something
to win, each were delighted with the day long
workshop and the expert advice they received.
On Saturday children between the ages of seven
to ten attended two workshops as part of the
festival. Siofra Connolly, (11), described the
creative writing workshop given by 5th year
bower student, Sinead Kilgariff, as “brilliant”.
"Sinéad was very inspiring, she
gave us very helpful tips on how to write. She
had great ways of getting us to know our charachters
and finding ways to show your charachters feelings
without actually saying them. We did brilliant
warm-up games to get our minds flowing with
ideas".
Students attending the comic strip workshop
given by Aoife Heraghty emerged at the end with
their very own cartoon strips. The workshop
had record numbers and encouraged students to
play around with plot and gave tips on sketching
characters.
The Big Smoke writing workshop held on Saturday
in the Shamrock Lodge assisted aspiring local
adult authors with their writing skills. Nicole
Rourke of the Dublin based writing company gave
an intense four hour workshop from which students
emerged enlightened.
Athlone literary festival will continue to hold
writing workshops between now and next years
festival so keep tabs on our website for further
details.
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