WrAP

WrAP – Writing and Performance Workshops

These workshops are designed to inspire, illuminate and empower the participants. They are open to anyone over the age of 16, with an inquisitive spirit and an open mind, regardless of their background and experience.

The course begins by using improvised writing workshops, to overcome the fear of the blank page, open up the imagination and discover the unique inner voice of each person. Gradually performance techniques are introduced:

1/. Voice control and intonation.

2/. Body language and the power of stillness.

3/. Use of the space and inanimate objects.

4/. The use of multi-media, such as slides, video and sound that can benefit the performance experience.

After the workshops there is a series of one to one tutorials, where Oscar uses his thirty years experience as a multi-media writer and performer, to help the students hone the material they have produced into a short solo spoken word performance, which will be presented as part of a group event in front of an invited audience.

This course is beneficial for those:

1/. Who wish to develop their writing skills and the use of their creative imagination.

2/. Who have experience of writing, but would like to improve their ability to communicate their work to an audience, and to people who have experience of acting or other art forms, but would like to explore their writing skills.

3/. People who like to challenge themselves and their own perceived limitations, and to rise above and beyond them.

Oscar McLennan has been conducting these workshops and curating multi-media live art events since the early nineties. They have been facilitated through a wide variety institutions and organisations such as Art Colleges (NCAD, Limerick School of Art and DIT) Theatre Bodies such as Dublin Fringe (Get Up and Back Up), Theatre Courses (UCD MA Theatre Studies, VEC Bray and Ringsend), and other venues such as the Project Arts Centre, The Writers Centre and the Signal Arts Centre, Bray.

Oscar McLennan himself is a multi disciplinary artist, writer, performer, singer, musician and video artist, who has been writing, creating and touring his own one man shows worldwide for the last thirty years. In his latest show, Kiss of the Chicken King, he has combined his diverse skills into an 80 minute theatrical monologue commissioned by the 2014 Adelaide Festival, Australia, and co-produced by the Project Arts Centre, Dublin. In making the show he collaborated with three of Ireland’s most gifted artistic talents, Martin Tourish (musician), Kevin McAleer (comic and video artist) and Olwen Fouere (actor and inovator). The text is based on his novel of the same name, first published by Livewire Publications in 2011, and reprinted in a brand new edition in 2014. He has also released an album of songs, instrumentals and spoken word based on the book, which was produced by Martin Tourish and Gabriele Muscolino, and features musicians and singers from Ireland, Scotland and Italy.

His previous work, The Quiet Bastard, was a commission from the UCLA International Theatre Festival 2004, and was based on a novel of the same name. The novel itself was later published in Spanish, while he was living Barcelona, and he toured the stage version of it widely in Spanish, throughout Spain itself and Latin America.

More info @ WrAP facebook page

List of Workshops Leading to Performance Events

2008: Galeria Apetite, Buones Aires.

2004-2012 – Limerick School of Art

2003:  BACK UP / Live Art Platform. Dublin Fringe Festival.

2003: National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Dublin @ The Digital Hub

2003: Limerick School of Art, @ The Castle Tavern  2003: Dublin Fringe Performance Space.

2003: Ringsend VEC, @ Fringe Performance Space

2002: GET UP / Live Art Platform. Dublin Fringe Festival.

2002: NCAD, @ The SS Michael & John.

2002: Limerick School of Art. @ The Castle Tavern.

2002: The Sculpture Society of Ireland @ Temple Bar Gallery & Studios.

2001: NCAD @ The Guinness Storehouse.

2001: Limerick School of Art @ Dolan’s Nightclub 2001: Ringsend VEC @ The Irish Writer’s Centre

2000: Limerick School of Art @ Hanratty’s

2000: Signal Arts Centre, Bray. 2000: Ringsend VEC, Irish Writer’s Centre

1999: Limerick School of Art @ Hanratty’s

1999: Arthouse, Dublin

1998: Limerick School of Art @ Hanratty’s

1996: Arthouse, Dublin