I just wrapped up my third year as facilitator for the Six in the Attic programme run by Irish Theatre Institute. I love working on it. Each year I get to know an exceptional bunch of artists who make theatre all over the island and hear what their concerns and ambitions are. I see them take the reins of their career and emerge at the end of the programme with a stronger sense of who they are as artists, a lot of insider knowledge of how theatre works in Ireland, and a cohort of peers to support them into the future. As always, Irish Theatre Institute offers unparalleled practical support to them and to me – and the ever-growing crowd Six in the Attic alumni.

This year I got to work with the exceptional line up of Alison Teahan, Amy Kidd, Aoife Sweeney O’Connor, Ari Bhatti, Cara Christie, Dagogo Hart, Darren Yorke, David Ferreira-Alves, Fiona Breen, Hannah Carberry, Nyree Yergainharsian, Samuel Yakura, and Thomas Collins. (Pictured above with myself and Niamh and Narod of ITI, sweltering in the Belfast sun earlier this year.)

In this role I’m not quite an ‘us’ and not quite a ‘them’, but a third party. I get to offer my knowledge and experience as both an artist and arts worker, and sometimes I think of myself as a orbiting satellite, observing what is going on and periodically buzzing into communication with the people working away on the planet. Over the past years I have developed similar roles working alongside other organisations on the artist support programmes that they administer. Currently I’m working with Irish Theatre Institute, Mermaid Arts Centre on Gap Day, and Kunstverein Aughrim on their Creative Producers Programme. It seems that satellites are pretty useful.

Looking forward to next month when I get to begin working with my fourth Six in the Attic group… although there’s never just six.