NOISE (2006) – Dublin Fringe Festival

Noise, by Nick Johnson, is a story of jazz, friendship, and mystery in Chicago. Within a web of secrets, petty struggles, and private anxieties, the South Side world of Eddie, a saxophonist, collides with the North Side world of Natalie, a Tribune reporter investigating a mysterious death. Integrating live jazz performance with the verbal rhythms of Chicago, Noise is a tragicomic window into love, loss, chance, and the city.

Noise is performed in Bewley's Café Theatre, Grafton Street, Dublin 2, from 11 September to 16 September at 8:30 PM. The production is part of the Magnet Entertainment Dublin Fringe Festival 2006. Tickets are €10/€8 and can be booked by calling 1-850-FRINGE or online.

CAST
Eddie / DeVon Jackson
Julian / Duncan Molloy
Natalie / Brenda Meaney
Zigzag / Jason Nelson
Mel / Fiona Nolan
The Students / Sarah Byrne, Barry McStay
The Figure / Nick Johnson

BAND
Sax / Nick Roth
Guitar / John Kregor
Bass / Cormac O'Brien
Drums / Conor Murray

STAFF
Producer / Jennifer Killelea
Directors / Alwyn Lyès, Duncan Molloy
Set & Props / Niamh Mac Cárthaigh
Costume & Makeup / Carla Marrinan
Sound / Naoise O'Reilly
Lights / Sara Kivlehan
Art & Graphics / Nick Johnson, Duncan Molloy,
Lir Mac Cárthaigh

100 MINUTES (2006)

[ 100 Minutes · The Featured Minute · What It Is · How It's Done ·
Who Runs the Show? · Who Writes the Show? · Who Acts the Show? ·
Form & Function · Internationalism]

1. WHAT IT IS
The first production of Painted Filly Theatre’s 2006 season will be entitled “100 MINUTES 2006: An Evening of Ten Minute Plays,' and will be performed in The Basement Space, Filmbase, Dublin, 15-20 May 2006. Using a single ensemble cast of ten actors, Painted Filly will stage ten new plays of ten minutes each.
One of the chief goals of Painted Filly Theatre is to produce new work, and this diverse format creates a forum for emerging writers. Ten writers have been commissioned by the company to offer ten-minute plays for selection. Numerous nationalities, as well as cities from Los Angeles to Cardiff to Dublin itself, are represented.

Parameters presented to the writers were as follows:

• The piece should be about 'now,’ i.e. it should refer to (though
- not necessarily be set in) the current political or cultural moment
• Its duration should be approximately ten minutes
• It should require no more than ten bodies to be staged

Within this broad framework, writers are expected to find a multiplicity of voices, styles, and themes, in keeping with the mission of the company. Ten submissions were chosen in January.

Painted Filly Theatre will share directorial responsibilities between two of its members and two guest directors. The ensemble was cast by audition during March 2006, from actors in Dublin. The project is as demanding as it is rewarding for an actor; the company received strong interest from performers across Ireland, and found an exceptional group of flexible and diverse actors to cast.

The 100 MINUTES concept originated in Chicago in 2002 with an ensemble company co-founded by Nicholas Johnson, one of the charter members of Painted Filly Theatre. Past experience has shown that 100 MINUTES is a powerful theatre event, shaped by collective vision and expressed through manifold means. The prism of perspectives that it offers can have a profound impact on an audience, while the fast pace and variety ensures an entertaining evening.

It is highly recommended to reserve tickets as early as possible.

2. HOW IT’S DONE
The design aesthetic for the production is highly distilled, flexible, and elemental, reflecting the nature of the company. A motto for the designers could perhaps be “unity through multiplicity.” It is understood that all ten actors will remain on stage for all ten plays, to emphasize the ensemble as a whole.

The set will consist of several simple modules which will permit the maximum number of scene options from the least number of units.

The costumes will hover between the uniform and the unique, using basic variables to create character, but overlaid on a common pattern.

Sound will be fundamental to creating order and transition among the pieces, and will be integrated into the process from the beginning.

100 MINUTES requires only the most basic theatrical and financial resources, because the most weight is put upon the story, the human body, and the empty space.

Painted Filly Theatre will mount the production in the heart of Dublin’s Temple Bar cultural district, at Filmbase on Curved Street. A multi-use venue, Filmbase represents variety and diversity across the arts. The company has selected the Basement Space, a simple and malleable experimental theatre, as the ideal space in the city for the production. Nowhere better could so much new work from such a broad collective be brought to the attention of the public.

Painted Filly Theatre has a strong ability to fundraise and remain solvent through the course of a production. Two fundraising schemes have been run for 100 Minutes 2006. At 100 days to 100 Minutes, the company held a benefit concert in collaboration with Ireland’s most exciting new vocal group, Bulraga. At 50 days to 100 Minutes, the company launched a new scheme in which donors could sponsor a minute of the show. For the current tally of sold minutes and for the names of donors, see the Sponsors Page. Be sure to check today’s featured minute of the show.

The company is pursuing longer-term support through a friendship-benefits scheme, the Painted Filly Carousel. For an update on the sponsorship status of the company, or to arrange any form of donation, please email paintedfillytheatre@gmail.com.

3. WHO RUNS THE SHOW?

THOMAS COSTELLO (Director/Set) earned his B.A. from Geneseo University in New York while pioneering their directing program, and has recently received his M.Phil degree from Trinity College. Along the way he has garnered several awards and scholarships for his work, including the Robert Sinclair Award for Excellence in Directing. His theatrical pursuits have taken him across Eastern and Western Europe, around Greece and throughout Western Africa. He has designed and directed countless shows in the United States and the Czech Republic, and is thrilled to continue working in Dublin. Later this year he will direct his studies towards a PhD at the University of Pittsburgh.

NICHOLAS JOHNSON (Producer/Director/Writer/Sound) is a charter member of Painted Filly Theatre. He is currently working on a PhD in Drama Studies at Trinity College. His acting career spans 18 years and includes work in Texas, Massachusetts, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., Edinburgh, Avignon, Athens, and Istanbul. In 2003 he adapted and performed On Going On, a one-person show based on the writings of Samuel Beckett, at Northwestern University in Chicago. He was a 2004 DAAD Fellow researching Bertolt Brecht in Berlin, Germany, and he received the 2005 George J. Mitchell Scholarship in support of his work in Dublin. He plans to found a theatre ensemble in the U.S. centred on new writing.

JENNIFER KILLELEA (Director/Writer/Publicity) is a co-founder of Painted Filly Theatre. She holds an M.Phil. in Irish Theatre and Film from Trinity College Dublin, and a B.A. in English and Media Studies from Fordham University, New York. Over the past 13 years, she has served as a sound engineer, publicist, prop designer, and stage manager for many shows and companies in the U.S. and Europe. Jennifer produced Painted Filly’s first production, Jeremiah.

DUNCAN MOLLOY (Director) was born in Kildare, was brought up in Tipperary and moved to Dublin in 2003. He is a director and writer studying Drama and Theatre in Trinity College. He has been involved in a number of productions, including last year’s successful Fringe show Spurt, Sister, Spurt. During the spring of 2006 he is directing his own script, In Brightest Day, at the New Players Theatre in the Samuel Beckett Centre. This is Duncan’s first time directing for Painted Filly Theatre.

RUTH PE PALILEO (Producer/Writer) has an M.S. in Microbiology from University of Detroit-Mercy and an M.Phil in Irish Theatre and Film from Trinity College, Dublin. She directed her first production of Hansel and Gretel in Detroit at the age of five, and has directed since in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Strasbourg, France. She also wrote and produced the film short The Good Deed for Iclosada Films. She has written several plays while working on her PhD at the Samuel Beckett Centre School of Drama, most recently Jeremiah, produced by PFT at the International Bar.

SARAH BRAGG (Stage Manager) is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Drama and English Studies at Trinity College. She has performed in her home town of Ottawa, Canada, Heidelberg and Munich, Germany, Jouy en Josas, France and Dublin. She has stage managed in Ottawa and Dublin and organised a touring production to Heidelberg as well as the returning tour of a German theatre company. She has also taught Shakespeare to children aged 7-16 with Salamander Theatre in Ottawa.

GABRIEL PEELO (Lights) has been involved as an actor with The Centre Theatre Workshop, Kilnamanagh, for the last twelve years. He has appeared in many productions including Juno and the Paycock, The Field and Brothers of the Brush. Since beginning a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin, he has explored the production side of theatre. He was lighting designer for the recent production of Beckett’s Endgame at The Samuel Beckett Theatre.

CARLA MARRINAN (Costume) is a final-year student reading History of Art in Trinity College. While in school she attended drama classes in The Independent Theatre Workshop in Dublin. In college she is an active member of DU Players and has served as costume designer for a number of plays. Carla, who has three years' make-up experience with a leading cosmetic company, also lends her make-up expertise to various shows. She intends to pursue a career in costume design on graduating from college.

4. WHO WRITES THE SHOW?

IVY ALVAREZ Ivy Alvarez is a poet who was born in the Philippines, grew up in Hobart, Tasmania and now lives in Cardiff, Wales. Her first chapbook, 'Food for Humans', was published in 2002 in Melbourne. Her first book, Mortal, is published by Red Morning Press (2006). She has held both the MacDowell Colony Fellowship (USA) and the Hawthornden Castle Fellowship (UK).

TEDDY DUNN is an actor, writer, and director from North Carolina and Boston. He stars on the television show Veronica Mars and lives in Los Angeles. A number of his plays have been produced in Chicago; he is currently working on screenplays.

NICHOLAS JOHNSON you’ve met.

FIONA KEANE's work has been staged in the Horace Mann Theatre and Theatre for the New City in New York, where she attended Columbia University's Theatre Writing Program. Now a real estate appraiser in Las Vegas, she occasionally expounds on life in PeachyK's Las Vegas at www.peachyk.com.

FIN KEEGAN is a Dubliner and editor of The Second Circle, an online fiction review. His writing has appeared in Earborne, The Green Guide, Third Bed, and has been broadcast on KNPR, KCNV, and the BBC World Service. He is currently a Producer at Nevada Public Radio in the United States. His weblog Distant Station is online at www.finkeegan.com.

JENNIFER KILLELEA you’ve met.

AENGUS Ó MAOLÁIN was born in the Aran Islands and is now working toward a degree in Music and Modern Irish in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. In 2003 he founded Bulraga, a contemporary vocal group performing new and international music. Since January 2005 his music has been performed over 100 times. He is currently trying to complete a large ten-movement work simply entitled ting.

RUTH PE PALILEO you’ve met.

ETHAN SAWYER is an actor and poet studying in Irvine, California. He holds an undergraduate degree in acting and performance studies from Northwestern University in Chicago, and has devised and adapted numerous works from fiction.

JESSE WEAVER is a resident writer with Side Project in Chicago. His work has been featured in five of the last six Collaboraction Sketchbooks, a major Chicago festival of short plays. His play The Artist Needs a Wife swept the ISDA awards, representing the UCD Drama Society, and was recently reprised at the Dublin Fringe 2005.

5. WHO ACTS THE SHOW?

BARRY BYRNE
IAN BYRNE
PATRICK COLLIER
BARBARA DEMPSEY
PHIL KINGSTON
ALWYN LYÈS
PADDY McKEATING
BRENDA MEANEY
EMMA MEEHAN
MEGAN RIORDAN

6. FORM & FUNCTION

Even collectives can have a structure. Ours is modular.

No director will direct a play that he or she has written.

Several designers are currently in negotiations with the company. The portfolios are: scenery, costume, sound, lights, graphics and publicity.

Talent and overall flexibility will guide the choice of actors; no decisions will be made on the basis of gender, ethnicity, or age.

Painted Filly Theatre is a profit-sharing company. Writers will retain the rights to the work staged in the production and will be credited individually.

7. PAINTED FILLY IS AN INTERNATIONAL THEATRE COMPANY

JEREMIAH (2005)