Autumn at the Lyric

From the return of Theatre School to the highly anticipated The Tragedy of Richard III, September and October have brought employment, training and outreach opportunities to 600+ individuals across the island of Ireland, while welcoming over 7,000 audience members through the theatre’s doors in September alone.

The return of the school year means one thing… Theatre School is back! Our Creative Learning department have been working hard to bring weekly training classes for 3 - 18 year olds back to the Lyric. Additionally, our Theatre School facilitators are out on the road during the week bringing ‘Theatre School on the Road’ to schools across Northern Ireland. This programme aims to provide free weekly drama sessions to primary schools operating in areas of multiple deprivation who would typically face barriers to accessing the arts. Additionally, workshops will be delivered to post-primary schools to support our production of The Tragedy of Richard III.

In a busy 6-week block, we will be working with 500+ young people (300 of which will be on a weekly basis) throughout our Autumn programme.

Creative Learning are also working hard to provide professional development and training opportunities to creatives across Northern Ireland. In addition to our award-winning Drama Studio programme, additional training sessions have been put on to meet the demand for Drama Studio applicants. Additionally, Amadan Ensemble return to deliver their highly demanded clowning workshop. With this 32+ creatives are receiving high quality and accessible training provided through our Creative Learning department.

As the home of New Writing, we are delighted to have been host to 3 fantastic new writing productions all rehearsing in the Lyric throughout September! In total, we are delighted to say that across the productions we are providing employment to 48 actors, creatives and freelancers.

With The Tragedy of Richard III hitting the main stage 12^th October, cast and creatives have been working throughout September on this thrilling new adaptation by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearny. The adaptation will bring disability front and centre, and we are thrilled to be joined by an outstanding cast who are eager to bring this production to life.

Meanwhile prior to their Dublin run, we were ecstatic to host Commedia of Errors and the rehearsals of their new show Rose + Bud, presented in association with the Lyric. The production, written by Rose Coogan, was developed during Rose’s time in our 2021 New Playwrights programme. The show opened in Dublin, with a successful run as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, before playing in the Naughton Studio for a limited engagement.

If the building wasn’t bursting already, we also had the returning cast of Agreement by Owen McCafferty rehearsing the Lyric sell-out sensation, which opened at The Gate Theatre, Dublin 27^th September. The show is welcoming two new cast members to the show: Sean Kearns in the role of George Mitchell and Aaron McCusker in the role of Gerry Adams.

Across all our Creative Learning activities and Lyric Productions we are delighted to be able to support the sector through 70 employment opportunities for actors, creatives and freelancers in September and October.

We are delighted to have been able to support so many projects and individuals in our Autumn season. We look forward to seeing how these opportunities and hard work of these actors and creatives support the future growth of young actors, new writing and the wider theatre sector.