The GB Shaw Theatre is delighted to host a series of theatre workshops by some of Ireland's leading theatre practitioners. The course is intended to provide an insight into professional performing arts practice and to assist amateur and professional performers and theatre artists to develop their practice and understanding of movement, voice and text, performance, and directing.

This intensive advanced theatre course is open to anyone with previous performing arts experience at amateur, student or professional level. It will run 10.30pm - 4.30pm every Sunday in March 2010.

Places are extremely limited and participation in the workshops is by application. Applicants must submit a brief biog/CV outlining their performing arts experience along with a short letter of no more than 600 words explaining their interest or what they hope to gain from the course.

Applications must be received by February 19th 2010. Applicants should email info@gbshawtheatre.ie with "Theatre Workshops Application" as the subject line of the email or by post to Theatre Workshops Applications, GB Shaw Theatre, Old Dublin Road, Carlow. Successful applicants will be notified of acceptance within seven days.

The course fee for participants is €180. Applicants should not forward fees until their application has been accepted.

ArtLinks is sponsoring one place on the course for ArtLinks members from each of the five ArtLinks counties. Applications for these subsidized places should be sent to the member's County Arts Officer instead of The GB Shaw Theatre. Membership with ArtLinks is free. Go to www.ArtLinks.ie to register and more information.

The course will run 10.30am - 4.30pm on all dates.

Sunday March 7th 2010 - Movement with Bryan Burroughs

A professional actor and one of Irelands leading movement directors, Byran originally hails from Carlow and was one of the stars of The GB Shaw's inaugural show "Johnny Patterson- The Singing Irish Clown". The Irish Times praised his "breathtaking ability" in the show and said his performance "provided some of the most visually impressive and playful moments in the production". Bryan has worked with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and The Accademia Dell Arte in Arezzo Italy, among others.

Sunday March 14th 2010- Voice and Text with Andrea Ainsworth

The Voice Director of The Abbey Theatre since 1995 and one of the core tutors on the BA in Acting Studies at TCD for the last fourteen years, Andrea works closely with the acting companies in both the Abbey and the Peacock Theatres on all aspects of voice production, accent and text. She has worked with most of the independent theatre companies in Ireland as a voice and dialect coach and coaches professional actors on an individual basis. Andrea's workshop will employ a series of exercises for breathing, resonance and articulation, to discover the power and flexibility in the voice. Using extracts from The Playboy of the Western World, the workshop will examine language, imagery and rhythmic shifts - and look at ways to embody these with ease and energy. This approach combines technical work on the voice with the imaginative work of the actor.

Sunday March 21st 2010 - 10.30am - 4.30pm - Performance with Aaron Monaghan

Aaron trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin, and at the British American Drama Academy, Oxford. His extraordinary performances with Druid Theatre Company and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin have earned him a reputation as one of Ireland's most exciting and riveting performers. His work with Druid included The Cripple of Inishmaan (Irish Times Theatre Award Nomination); Empress of India; The Year of the Hiker; The Walworth Farce; DruidSynge (Galway, Dublin, Edinburgh International Festival and Inis Meáin, 2005; Minneapolis and Lincoln Center Festival New York 2006); The Playboy of the Western World (Tokyo 2007, Perth, Australia tour 2005). He has also starred in the Abbey Theatre's Romeo & Juliet, Drama at Inish, The Shaughraun (Irish Times Theatre Award Nomination), She Stoops to Conquer (Irish Times Theatre Award Nomination), The Burial at Thebes, I Do Not Like Thee, Dr. Fell, The Wolf of Winter, and Finders Keepers as well as Roberto Zucco, Alone It Stands (Irish, UK and Malaysian tours); The Tinkers Curse (Livin' Dred); Pubu (Articulate Anatomy); Hades (UpState Theatre).

Sunday March 28th 2010 - Directing with David Horan

Artistic Director of Bewley's Café Theatre, David teaches The Principles of Directing and Advanced Directing modules at Trinity College and has taught scene study and compressed classic modules on the Acting Course. Born in Carlow, David graduated from the Samuel Beckett Centre with a BA in English and Theatre Studies. Having directed plays with a number of companies, he became Director-in-Residence for Inis Theatre Company in 2000 and has devised and directed all their productions to date. He was made Staff Director at The Abbey Theatre in 2003 where he continued to work until October 2004 before relocating to Paris for a year, studying the principles of movement at the Ecole Internationale de Theatre, Jacques Lecoq. He has also assisted directors at the Gate, the Gaiety and beyond, including Lazlo Marton, Howard Barker, Gerry Stembridge, Alan Stanford, Stephen Rea and Michael Caven among others.

We're grateful for the invaluable assistance and support of Artlinks and the five Local Authority Arts Officer in the provision of this course.