The Mavens Lab

The Mavens Lab enables playwrights who have participated in the Mavens Programme to solidify their output and reflect on the learnings they gathered throughout the course of the programme. It also enables us to build and nurture professional relationships with these playwrights.

Having identified that a core component of our audience is middle aged and older women, we aim to create theatre in which they can see themselves represented in the contemporary world. Our ambition is for one of the Mavens plays to be further developed to production at the dlr Mill Theatre in the future.

The Mavens Programme seeks to upskill, encourage and empower later age female playwrights. We create space for those returning to practise after leaving due to a multitude of reasons. We have a number of structures in place to increase accessibility of the programme including pay, travel expenses and online sessions.

Both the Mavens Programme and the Mavens Lab are supported by the Arts Council.

8th-12^th of January: Mavens Lab

The Mavens Lab is a further stage of development for the Mavens 2023, by providing the playwrights with a week to experiment and hear their words read aloud. The peer group element of the programme will continues. Jo Mangan, Director, along with Dramaturg, Pamela McQueen and 6 professional actors worked with each playwright to provide observation, feedback and further exploration.

Thank you so much to Jo, Pamela and our six actors for making it a week to remember here at the Mill theatre.

Actors: Catherine Walsh, Grainne Keenan, Ebby O’Toole Acheampong, Feral McElherron, Caitriona Ennis, Maeve McGrath