Uillinnternship

Uillinnternship

Before the final year of study, after a year of dislocated distance, here is an opportunity to return to past surroundings and gain experience in the field of action. 

My name is Pádraig, I am a theatre student in University College Cork, and I am about to begin the fourth and final year of my bachelor’s programme. After much time spent adjusting to new ways of learning, academic rigor and other shades of collegian colour, I now stand on the edge of life cut loose, to fend, forage and flail for employment. In preparation for this point, I sought out somewhere I could learn more about working in the arts. 

For the last year I have been on international exchange in German, glimpsing another approach to the study of drama. Though not the very end of the Earth, and though my sojourn was marked by many new friendships and positive experiences, I felt both land and sea parting me from my home. 

With this in mind, I was left seeking new knowledge from familiar grounds. One locale where I spent much of my creative youth was the Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre. Nestled in the heart of West Cork, the Uillinn stands as a hub of artistic expression, connecting far-flung creators and dispelling isolation along this rural territory. 

In my adolescence I frequented the Arts Centre, as it was the base of the Rusty Frog Youth Theatre. Here I spent several years meeting and mixing, performing and pondering. I learned more than how to be on stage, and as the years bled through, I grew. It is a delight to return, facing head-on the work and effort that I thought little of as a child, but without which, this place would not exist. 

Housed in these auburn walls are the spheres of the strategist, the speaker, the builder, the designer, the player, and more besides. In my short time here, I am met with the chance to digitally design and promote, shape the spaces which can then represent what is in the minds of others, welcome the public to the wonders in their midst and plan my own dramatic sharing. For a brief participant, the Uillinn is a treasure trove of on-the-ground learning, bursting with a bounty of creative plenty.