Acting for the Future: Recent Awards and Upcoming Events

By Kate Morgan on Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 in News.

 

Smashing Times Theatre and Film Company are delighted and honoured to be awarded the daa Arts Award at the Allianz Business to Arts Award Ceremony 2017 at Board Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin. The event, which took place on 4 September 2017, was a powerful celebration of world-class partnerships across the arts and business. Mary Moynihan, Artistic Director, Smashing Times and Daire Murphy, Director, Dublin Samaritans, were both present on stage to receive the award.

 

According to daa Chief Communications Officer, Paul O’Kane, the daa award is given ‘to reward an arts organisation that has particularly impressed the judges in a given year.’ Smashing Times Theatre and Film Company are delighted to have received this award and look forward to continuing and expanding Acting for the Future, which uses participative theatre workshops, professional performances and post-show panel discussions with counsellors and clinical psychologists to promote active healthy lifestyles, positive mental health and suicide prevention. The project is implemented by Smashing Times in partnership with the Samaritans and Irish Association of Suicidology and takes place across Ireland and Northern Ireland, with second level schools, universities and with a range of youth and adult groups and the general public.

The aim of the project is to use workshops, performances and discussions to reduce stigma and break down silences surrounding suicide and mental health, to promote and raise awareness of the importance of looking after your physical and emotional well-being, to promote active healthy lifestyles, emotional resilience and coping skills, and to highlight support services available to those in danger of or affected by mental health issues.

The professional theatre performance central to Acting for the Future is the highly acclaimed Testimonies by Mary Moynihan and Paul Kennedy that consists of five dramatic monologues adapted from the experiences of those who have lost loved ones to suicide, and of those who themselves have been through a mental health crisis and survived. Each performance is followed by a post-show panel discussion with a counselling psychologist and invited guest speakers from the Samaritans and other organisations. Young people and audience members are invited to discuss the issues raised by the performances.

Acting for the Future has also previously been awarded a GSK Ireland Impact Award and a Dublin Bus Community Spirit Award.  These awards are all a special recognition for the power of the arts in promoting positive mental health and well-being.

The project reaches over 3,000 young people and adults annually and is delivered in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to secondary schools, universities, youth and adult groups and the general public. Participants are senior cycle secondary school students (transition, fifth and sixth class in the Republic of Ireland) and senior cycle students in Northern Ireland; students from all years at university level; and young people and adults from youth and community groups and the general public. We work with a range of national, European and international partners and stakeholders to develop learning in relation to the importance of looking after your mental health. Acting for the Future was independently evaluated as part of Arklow Mental Health Week and the evaluation stated that the project was ‘an example of best practice in how it was organised and delivered’.

In 2017 Smashing Times are presenting ten performances of the highly acclaimed Testimonies by Paul Kennedy and Mary Moynihan which will take place in a range of spaces including Arklow Mental Health Week and with schools in Dublin, Wicklow and Louth. More information on this project can be found at this link.

For further information please contact Company Manager Freda Manweiler

Smashing Times Theatre Company

Tel: + 353 (0) 1 865 6613       Tel: + 353 (0) 87 221 4245

Email: freda@smashingtimes.ie

Website: www.smashingtimes.ie

Follow on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/smashingtimestheatrecompany

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smashing_Times