The Age & Opportunity Creative Ageing Writing Bursary aims to generate discussion, debate and knowledge about the arts and ageing in Ireland.
The bursary is intended to afford time and space for an artist or writer to reflect on their practice as it relates to the arts and ageing. This reflection can include the learnings, insights but also challenges the artist or writer has faced as they have gotten older or as they have gained more experience in their work with older people. In the coming years, we hope to contribute to this growing body of knowledge of the arts and ageing in Ireland as we continue to offer this award. The essay is intended to be useful for people who work with or are thinking of working with older people (including older artists), while generating discussion and debate about this area of work.
The bursary, worth €1000, was first offered in 2021, and 2022 awardee is actor and playwright, Noelle Brown.
We are delighted to share Noelle’s resulting essay commissioned by Age & Opportunity, which reflects on her learnings as an artist while working on her play Creaking with a group of older people.
Noelle’s essay is available to read in full here.
Noelle has been an actor since 1987 and became a writer and theatre-maker in 2013. As an actor, she has worked extensively in theatre, film, television and radio. Drawing on her own experiences of being an adoptee, she co-wrote her first play Postscript with Michèle Forbes.
Postscript, in which Noelle also performs, toured all over Ireland, played at the Centre Cultural Irlandais Paris, at the Abbey Theatre (Peacock), and the London Irish Centre. It was nominated for the Fishamble New Writing Award and the Bewley’s Little Gem Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival.
Foxy, her play about prejudice towards the Travelling Community, premiered at Project Arts Centre, Cube. Creaking, a play about older people, toured Ireland as part of the Bealtaine Festival. In 2018, she became a stand-up comedian, gigging all over Ireland and at the London Irish Centre. Recently, she was Lead Artist and Curator on the Abbey Theatres Home: Part One. Noelle is also a campaigner for Adoption Rights in Ireland.
For more information on this and our other arts development initiatives please see the Age & Opportunity website.
