Announcing Year 4 of the Mavens Professional Development Programme
Are you a woman who has written for the stage before? Have you taken a career break? Gotten side tracked by caring responsibilities? Not seen a woman like yourself older and bolder onstage in a while? This may be the paid opportunity with a writing peer group you didn’t know you were looking for.
We are open to applicants: Deadline for submission: 5pm, Monday November 25th 2024.
A playwright professional development programme providing career support for female identifying writers aged 35+. In a small peer group writers will be paid to explore, through reading and discussion, representation of older female characters on stage with dramaturg Pamela McQueen.
Established Irish female playwrights, Michelle Read, Gina Moxley, Noelle Brown and Deirdre Kinahan will facilitate a group class and one individual mentorship meeting for each participant.
The program includes a paid writing week to create some text and some explorative discussion with the dramaturg to outline a new play. These ideas will be shared in a final session with your fellow playwright participants.
OPEN CALL/RECRUITMENT – Female playwrights are invited to submit a CV, a five page writing sample and a note describing why you are interested in the Programme. Please send to kate@milltheatre.ie with the subject line: The Maven’s Programme. Deadline for submission: 5pm, Monday November 25th 2024. Candidates will be shortlisted and invited for interview. Four candidates will be selected to participate.
OVERVIEW – The Mavens is a female centric mentored playwright development program that seeks to explore the representation of aging women from menopausal age onwards in canonical and contemporary playwriting forms. We will explore how the mother figure, the non-conformist queer female and the mythic icon female can be reconfigured through an active aging lens.
The program will connect established female playwrights with mid-career, established playwrights as they negotiate the moment when historically women artists experience decline between emerging and established careers. It will also allow through practice the playwrights to critically reflect on their own female character voices.
PERSONNEL – Kate Canning : Artistic Director and Co-Ordinator of The Mavens Programme; Pamela McQueen: Project Facilitator and Dramaturg; Irish Writers Guild: recruitment of participants, advice & support.