Listening Differently: The Croon Collaboration

Listening Differently: The Croon Collaboration JOOLS GILSON-ELLIS PROJECT BACKGRO U ND Early in 2002 the National Sculpture Factory (NSF) and Meridian Theatre Company in Cork initiated a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the writer-director Johnny Hanrahan (artistic director of Meridian) and the visual artist-sculptor Daphne Wright. Hanrahan had selected Wright as an artist with whom he would like to collaborate. Wright was subsequently invited to participate , and accepted. Mary McCarthy (then director of the NSF) suggested inviting Jools Gilson-Ellis to engage in a critical reflection on the project. This was agreed, and Gilson-Ellis was invited to work on the project, and also accepted. In March/April 2002, the NSF applied for two awards from the Ans Council: a Commissions Award to allow Daphne Wright to develop a collaboration with Johnny Hanrahan, and a Critical Reflection Award to allow Jools Gilson-Ellis to write about the work. Both awards were granted. Hanrahan and Wright began tlleir collaboration in the spring of 2002, and Gilson-Ellis joined them in the summer of the same year. The initial context and starting point for the collaboration between Hanrahan and Wright was the city as a "universal concept idea" and Cork City in particular. Additionally, the collaboration was intended to provide "the context of a 'cultural laboratory' in which new ways of working (could) be explored.'" The starting point for Gilson-Ellis was to critically reflect on the development and success of the collaboration, and on issues related to each artist's individual practice as well as their arts disciplines in general. Additionally the critical reflection was intended "[tJo explore and critically evaluate the experimental or innovative nature of the project within the context of Irish theatre and visual arts.,,' This was the context within which this collaboration was conceived and initiated . From the beginning, however, practical problems of geography (Wright lived in England ), as well as other work demands, made sustained meetings Modern Drama, 47:4 (Winter 2004) 701 702 JOOLS GILSON-ELLIS difficult, not only between Hanrahan and Wright, but also with Gilson-Ellis. Instead, the process became dominated by meetings in airports and cafes. There were also several postponements of the final production, which came to be called Croon; initially planned for November 2002, it was then moved to November 2003, and subsequently to February 2004. By the time of production , the Wright- Hanrahan collaboration had been ongoing for nearly two years, and Gilson-Ellis' critical reflection for more than eighteen months. During this time there was also a changeover of the staff who had conceived of the coLIaboration at the NSF (the artistic director and program co-ordinator left and were replaced). Gilson-Ellis' work in relation to this collaboration was also challenging, firstly because of the itinerant nature of the HanrahanWright meetings, secondly because of the difficulty of incorporating a third presence in a developing collaboration, and lastly because of the loss of the guiding voices of those who had initiated the project at the NSF. Whilst there were significant difficulties related to this project, it also raised important critical and artistic questions about the nature of collaboration, commissioning. critical reflection, and the place of the artist scholar within Ireland. This article addresses some of these questions and comprises one of the outcomes of Gilson-Ellis' Critical Reflection Award.' CRITICAL REFLECTION AWARD In the Republic of Ireland, the Arts Council's Critical Reflection Award comes under the category of Artists' Bursaries.These are awards specifically aimed at the individual artist. Other awards in this category support travel, living expenses, training. residencies, and mentaring. The Critical Reflection Award is unusual in this context because it is aimed at developing critical practice in relation to arts praclice, which could be the artist's own, but need not be. All other awards under the Artists' Bursaries scheme specifically support artists doing or developing their own practice. This award seems to be located here because critical reflection is conceived as an aspect of arts practice worthy of financial support by the Arts Council. As such, its location is innovative as well as provocative.4 The introduction to the award in the Arts Council literature reads, "This bursary aims to broaden...