A collaboration between the Department of Theatre and the Mental Health and Disability Research Cluster, Applied Social Studies/ISS21 in the Autumn of 2018.

The project began with Dr. Marie Kelly’s Arts Council funding dramaturgical mentorship on the development of Passing as Normal: An ethnodrama new play by deaf playwright, Noel O’Connell exploring the stigma of sign language experienced by deaf people in the primary education system in Ireland of the 1970s. Workshops involving students of the Applied Theatre module (under the guidance of Fionn Woodhouse) and sign language interpreters (Susanne Carey and Ray Greene) offered students the unique experience of working with a deaf playwright and engaging with deaf awareness in arts practice and at the same time stimulated the writer’s creative process. The culmination of the project involved a college-wide masterclass for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences in collaboration with the Mental Health and Disability Research Cluster of Applied Social Studies/ISS21 (UCC) to examine a range of topics and questions arising out of Dr. O’Connell’s play and his creative process (See https://www.ucc.ie/en/music-theatre/drama/news/masterclass-performative-practices-theatre-disability-and-the-arts.html). This included a keynote lecture (delivered by Dr. Noel O’Connell), a showing of scenes from the play performed by theatre students and a round table discussion with the writer, students and sign language interpreters chaired by Dr. Claire Edwards (Applied Social Studies/ISS21, UCC) with contributions from Eoin Nash (Manager of Arts and Creative Therapies at the Cope Foundation in Cork) and Dr. Gill Harold (Applied Social Studies, UCC).