“Theatre Games” with Emma Meehan
From July 6th Emma Meehan will begin a five-week residency at a children’s hospital in Dublin, providing interactive theatre games for children and their parents. Inspired by the time she spent in this hospital as a child, she is keen to highlight the subjective experience of children in hospital environments where external elements are often the focus i.e. where bodily behaviour is observed, documented and assessed from the outside. She will explore methods for collaborating with the children by creating artistic responses to their experiences in the form of movement expression, oral story-telling and object work. Games will be adapted to suit each child’s abilities and parents will be invited to participate in the performance. Staff members will also be invited to become involved in formal discussion and to engage in the process through looking at materials and offering up their own ideas.
Emma has been funded by the Arts Council/Create Artist in the Community Scheme 2011 Research and Development Award and is kindly supported by the play specialist staff of the participating hospital. “Theatre Games” is being produced in association with Helium, with mentoring support provided by Helium’s artistic director, Helene Hugel.
Keep up-to-date on Emma’s progress during the project @ her blog:
Photograph by Jana Henderson
Emma Meehan is an actor with a Ph.D. in Drama Studies from Trinity College, Dublin. She specialises in physical theatre, live art and dance. She has worked as a performer for a number of theatre companies including Tall Tales and The Corn Exchange, and has also been engaged as a puppeteer for Púca Puppets.
Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts. Create supports artists across all art forms who work collaboratively with communities, be they communities of place or communities brought together by interest.