Rough Magic eatre Company awarded 0,000

29 November 2013

Rough Magic Theatre Company awarded 230,000

Rough Magic Theatre Company has been announced as the next Sky Arts Ignition partner, as part of Sky Ireland's commitment to the cultural sector. Sky Arts Ignition will provide 230,000 in funding to Rough Magic, enabling them to deliver a new and innovative production. In addition, Sky will offer further support through programming, as well as its strength in the digital space to help bring the production to a wider audience across Ireland and the UK.

Rough Magic, one of Ireland's leading theatre companies, will join forces with Opera Theatre Company to create an extraordinary production of the political satire The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The production will run at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin from 12 - 22 June 2014.

The theatre company won the award against very strong applications from Ireland's leading arts organisations. The Sky Arts Ignition application process was supported by Business to Arts, and made exclusively available to Irish arts organisations.

JD Buckley, Sky Ireland's Managing Director said: Sky Ireland is proud to support Ireland's vibrant arts and cultural sector and we are confident that this will be a very fruitful partnership for all of us. This investment, as part of our broader contribution, highlights Sky's commitment to Ireland, particularly at a time when arts organisations need support to produce creative, original and entertaining work. We would like to extend a special thanks to the many arts organisations throughout Ireland who have supported this initiative to date and offer a warm welcome to Rough Magic and Opera Theatre Company.

Lynne Parker, Artistic Director of Rough Magic and directing the production, said: The Sky Arts Ignition award enables us to bring an electrifying work of art to one of the city's most beautiful and atmospheric theatres, creating a new relationship between the audience, Brecht's epic satire and Kurt Weill's groundbreaking score.

James Hunt, Director of Sky Arts said: It was a particularly competitive year for applications for Sky Arts Ignition across Ireland, and we're delighted to be able to build on the successes of the past two years by partnering with Rough Magic and Opera Theatre Company on such a unique project. We look forward to bringing this extraordinary piece to viewers and visitors across Ireland and the UK. We'd like to thank Business to Arts for its support throughout the application process.

The piece will be staged in one of Dublin's great 19th century music halls, the Olympia Theatre, which will be re-imagined and transformed to create a totally immersive experience. The action will take place all around the space - in the boxes, parts of the dress circle, the parterre stalls, as well as the stage. The production will feature a 60-piece orchestra and a line-up of leading Irish singers and performers.

Sky Arts Ignition: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is just part of Sky's growing commitment to Ireland, which includes its Sky Sports Living For Sport initiative that launched this year. Sky has operated in Ireland for over 20 years and over the past 12 months has created 850 jobs at its offices on Burlington Road in Dublin and announced a 1.25billion investment in Ireland over the next 5 years. Sky also supports young talent through Sky Academy Arts Scholarships, which support five young artists a year with a bursary of £30,000 each, enabling Sky to back the creation of their new creative work as well as offering mentoring to nurture emerging talent. Applications are open to artists in Ireland and the UK until 6th December at www.sky.com/academy

-ENDS-

For further press information on Sky Arts or Sky Arts Ignition, please contact:

Katherine Solomon, Sky Arts, on 0044 20 7032 0599 or katherine.solomon@bskyb.com

James Elms, Sky Ireland on 086 4528406 or james.elms@bskyb.com

Victoria Keogh, Slattery Communications on 087 2349707 or Victoria.Keogh@scomms.ie.

For information on Rough Magic: please contact Christine Monk on 087 675 5329 or christinemonk@eircom.net.

Notes to Editors:

About the Production:

The opera was first staged in Leipzig in 1930. It tells the story of the creation and destruction of the city of Mahagonny, which was founded by three criminals and soon descends into chaotic scenes of gambling, fighting, debauchery and murder. The opera gained huge notoriety for its satirical bent, seeking as it did to subvert and deflate what many considered the pompous arrogance of traditional opera.

Ireland's leading architects, Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey, who recently designed the award-winning Lyric Theatre in Belfast, will play an important role in reimagining the use of the stage in the Olympia to ensure the most compelling audience experience. David Brophy, principal conductor of the RT Concert Orchestra, whohas also collaborated with artists such as U2 and Sinead O'Connor , will conduct Weil's eclectic score. Oscar-nominated Consolata Boyle will design costumes, with lighting design by Aed n Cosgrove.

Rough Magic is based in Dublin and is one of Ireland's leading theatre companies. Opera Theatre Company is the national opera touring company of Ireland.

The Goethe-Institut in Dublin will curate a series of events to provide a context for the production and for the work of Kurt Weill.

About Sky:

Sky is the UK and Ireland's leading home entertainment and communications company, and is the UK and Ireland's biggest investor in television content, investing more than 2.75 billion a year in channels such as Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Arts, Sky Sports, Sky Movies and Sky News. Around two-thirds of Sky's content spend is home-grown and Sky is the fastest-growing

LINK:	http://corporate.sky.com/media/press_releases/2013/rough_magic_theatre...
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