From January to February 2015 first and second years Theatre Studies students of the BA (Hons.) Arts programme at Waterford Institute of Technology devised and performed a site-specific monologue. Their performance work was informed by practice-based research, archival research and wider reading about the socio-historical background of the buildings at the College St. Campus.

 

As part of the theatre practice workshops, students were encouraged to enter into a dialogue with the physical structure and sensory experience of the building. They had the freedom to choose any site on the campus and could follow any narrative to which they were drawn. In the next phase of this module, the students are working on a site-specific group performance that will combine elements of each monologue. The self-selected research question guiding their practice is as follows: what can contemporary theatre practice contribute to an understanding of memory within this site?

 

Photographs by John Loftus: http://www.jlcreative.ie/