Backstage Theatre today announced some of its highlight events for the 3rd Lasta National Arts Festival, a festival of events programmed for young people by young people, which will take place between Fri 7th & Sat 8th June. Backstage is one of seven venues nationwide who have teamed up to present this exciting event in cities and towns across the country, from Letterkenny to Tralee, from Galway to Portlaoise.
Longford’s highlight events for Lasta 2024 include hit comedian Killian Sunderman, TikTok singing sensation Sammy Copley and acclaimed pianist Jamie Duffy. Tickets for these three events as well as full listing of industry workshops and free gigs throughout Longford town are now available on backstage.ie
The Lasta Festival, based on a project originally conceived and delivered by Backstage Theatre in Longford and now in its third year, has blossomed to include venues and individual curators nationwide, and an expanding programme of exciting, multidisciplinary work. In an innovative and exciting approach to programming, 19 young curators have been engaged by seven regional venues (including the Backstage Theatre) to programme a festival of work for young people nationwide. Under the guidance of theatre artist Maisie Lee, these young people will work collaboratively to deliver an ambitious line up of work. Featuring multiple disciplines and reflecting the diversity of modern Ireland, this festival offers a unique opportunity to develop our future arts programmers and producers. The line-up for this year’s festival will feature theatre, music, comedy, dance, film, photography and experiential moments promising a fresh, fun, and exciting festival.
The seven regional venues involved in the initiative are Backstage Theatre (Longford) www.backstage.ie Dunamaise Arts Centre (Portlaoise) www.dunamaise.ie glór (Ennis) www.glor.ie An Grianán (Letterkenny) www.angrianan.com The Lime Tree Theatre (Limerick) www.limetreetheatre.ie Siamsa Tíre (Tralee) www.siamsatire.com and Town Hall Theatre (Galway) www.tht.ie
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The Lasta programme for the Town Hall Theatre has been curated by three young Longford curators selected through an open call – Emer Tyrrell, Daire O’Muiri & Setanta Flood. Throughout the year, these Young Curators have had the opportunity to meet up with curators from the other venues nationwide. They received mentoring from industry professionals in marketing, touring and venue management and learned about negotiating deals, how to approach artists and companies, and how to manage budgets.
The Young Curators Programme is targeted at young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who want to gain experience in working in the arts, especially those interested in venue and festival management and programming. The curators were selected on the basis that they were from, Longford and had a passion for the arts and for attending performance; enjoyed working with a small team; liked organising events and making things happen; and being able to make the commitment to the programme if selected. The project is about programming and producing creative work in the performing arts – selecting shows that they may have seen for Town Hall Theatre’s programme of events or making a show in collaboration with the young curators in other venues. Curating will include managing the event from the first conversation with the artists to the day of the performance, making sure everything runs smoothly on the day. In this, the young programmers will be supported by the team at Backstage, the young curators at the other participating venues, and the professionals hired to support the programme including project co-ordinator Maisie Lee.
For more, visit backstage.ie