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DR Niall Rea

Jt Lecturer

Contact Details

Lecturer In Theatre Design
Academic Administration & Student Affair
B1083
4 Maugheraboy Estate
Sligo
County Sligo

T: +447905931491
M: +447905931491
E: rea.niall@itsligo.ie
 
researcher

Biography

Niall was a government funded researcher in the Brian Friel Centre for Theatre Research at Queen¿s university in Belfast from 2009 to 2015. His research explores the performance of queer identities in Northern Ireland through the conflict and post-conflict periods. He is especially interested in the disruptive agency of ¿queer¿ in that it destabilises both gender and sectarian binaries in society here, and proposes an alternative reparative structure of identities. He has published in ¿Deviant Acts¿ (Carysfort Press, David Cregan ed.), and in ¿Irish Masculinities¿ (Irish Academic Press, Caroline Magennis ed.) and has a forthcoming essay to be published in 2016 in Performing Ireland on his contemporary queer scenographic practice. He is artistic director of TheatreofplucK, Northern Ireland¿s first publicly funded gay theatre company. TheatreofplucK were in residence at the MAC, Belfast¿s modern contemporary arts centre in 2012/13, preparing four productions all of which examined LGBT people in society, and all either world or Irish Premieres. TheatreofplucK have recently opened the first queer theatre studio in Ireland called ¿The Barracks¿ in the heart of Belfast¿s cultural quarter. Their previous critically acclaimed productions include The Pirates of Portrush, TROUBLE, Tuesdays At Tescos, The Trouble with Harry, Divided, Radical, And Gorgeous, Bison and Automatic Bastard. As a designer, Niall has worked extensively all over the UK and Ireland, as well as in the rest of Europe and the USA. He is a lecturer in performance design at Sligo Institute of Technology.

Research Interests

Guest Lectures & Invited Talks:   ¿Thinking Outside the Box: Approaches to Scenography,¿ Theatre NI Master Class, The MAC Belfast, January 2016   ¿TheatreofplucK: A Queer Performance History,¿ Queering Ireland, University College Dublin, August 2015   ¿Introduction to Theatre Design,¿ UYAD Master Class, Lyric Theatre, May 2013   ¿Theatre Design Master Class Workshops,¿ RSC Open Stages, Lyric Theatre, June 2013   Conference Papers   ¿ Towards an Obscenography: Queering Performance Design,¿ International Federation of Theatre Research Conference, Barcelona, July 2013   ¿Troubled Queers: The Recurring Trope of the Homosexual on Stage in Northern Ireland,¿ delivered as part of Ireland and Modernity Conference at Queen¿s University in Belfast, November 2010.   ¿He is Handsome, He is Pretty, the Drag Queens of Belfast City: Fracturing the Ethnosectarian Discourse through the Performance of Gender Disidentification in Northern Ireland,¿ delivered at Irish Masculinities Conference at Queen¿s University in Belfast, February 2010 and at Irish Society of Theatre Research Conference at Trinity College in Dublin, April 2010.   ¿Theatre in Post-Conflict Sarajevo: The MESS International Theatre Festival and the Memory Module,¿ delivered with Michelle Young and Merita Zekovic at Queen¿s University in Belfast, December 2008.   ¿Ecce Homo: Sexuality and the Dysfunctional City, Queering Segregated Space,¿ delivered as part of Outburst Queer Arts Festival mini conference Queer at Queen¿s at Queen¿s University in Belfast, November 2008.

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2011) 'Belfast Drag: Performing Gender Disidentification in Northern Ireland'
Niall Rea (2011) 'Belfast Drag: Performing Gender Disidentification in Northern Ireland' In: Caroline Magennis and Raymond Mullen (eds). Irish Masculinities: Critical Reflections on Literature and Culture. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. [Details]
(2009) 'Sexuality and the Dysfunctional City: Queering Segregated Space'
Niall Rea (2009) 'Sexuality and the Dysfunctional City: Queering Segregated Space' In: David Cregan (eds). Deviant Acts. Dublin: Carysfort Press. [Details]

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
Irish Society for Theatre Research member /
Association of British Theatre Technicians member /
Society of British Theatre Designers member /
International Federation of Theatre Research member /
Equity member /

Modules Taught

  Term (ID)) Title Link Subject
202000 Yeats Academy Research Special 43919Yeats Academy Research Special
202000 Theatre Design Studio Skills 5 32526Theatre Design Studio Skills 5
202000 Theatre Design 3 Design for Pe 32518Theatre Design 3 Design for Pe
202000 Creative Practice Research Met 43899Creative Practice Research Met
202000 Costume Design for Stage and S 32494Costume Design for Stage and S
202000 Theatre Design (for Production 32498Theatre Design (for Production
202000 Yeats Academy Creative Practic 43914Yeats Academy Creative Practic