Associated Projects

Bridge Street Project

Date
2015
Location
Callan
Commissioned by
Trasna Productions
Collaborators
Asylum Productions, Studio Weave, Equinox Theatre, Fennelly's, Workhouse Union, Barnstorm Youth Theatre
Funders
Arts Council Arts Participation Award, Kilkenny Leader Partnership and Kilkenny Arts Office

The Bridge Street Project looked at rediscovering the possibilities of Irish town centres through a collective re-imagining of Bridge St, Callan as a public space with a civic future. The project was developed over a year long-period as an interdisciplinary collaboration between the two disparate disciplines of theatre and architecture. Each discipline independently responded to the same challenges faced by the town centre, with the common goal of a ground up re-imagining of the civic space within Callan.

Together with Asylum Productions, a cast of community volunteers created a immersive on-site spectacle based on research gathered from the locale. The production led to a week of performances during the 2015 Abhainn Rí Festival.

Architectural interventions, realised through engagement workshops facilitated by London-based architects Studio Weave were inspired by the existing distinct infrastructure. The narrow street allows for the two sides to constantly cast shadows on the opposing facade.

This inspired a proposal to imprint each facade onto its opposite with community painting workshops, tying in with the narratives in the theatre script of different times and places coexisting, and cycles of change and transformation.

Whilst the architectural interventions, realised through engagement workshops, provided lasting infrastructural improvements to the town & a renewed civic pride.

Images

Bridge Street Project Report (PDF)
Studio Weave, Bridge Street Project
Courtyard Screen
Bridge Street Project
The intervention of mirrored facades on Bridge Street © Neil O’Drisceoil
Plans for Studio Weaves intervention on Bridge Street © Studio Weave
A Bridge Street Project Workshop © Brian Cregan
A Bridge Street Project Workshop © Brian Cregan
A performer from Asylum Theatre Production © Brian Cregan
Bridge Street Project
During the Bridge Street performance © Neil O’Drisceoil
Bridge Street Project
Bridge Street Project
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