Anna Newell Theatre Adventures Hosts SING ME TO THE SEA

Anna Newell Theatre Adventures will make a splash at hydrotherapy pools in Wicklow, Kildare, Cavan, Limerick, Cork and Dublin this summer, with their immersive multisensory adventure for children and young people with complex needs.

Anna Newell is a Tonic Theatre Award winner (2017) for 'women who are changing the face of theatre and the performing arts' and a finalist of the Ellen Stewart International Award 2016 for 'theatre makers whose work with/for young people has a major social impact'. Her work SING ME TO THE SEA is an immersive multisensory adventure for children/young people with complex needs. It is performed in hydropools with 3 audience members per show, each with an adult companion - with everyone in the water!

The successful show now in its sixth year and in partnership with Enable Ireland and St Gabriel's Foundation is touring this summer and will be making quite the splash with its audience. The three performers take the audience on a magical journey of exquisite harmony singing and gentle water play designed especially for children with complex needs, embracing and celebrating the sensory dialogue that they have with the world around them.

SING ME TO THE SEA is both a piece of art and a piece of advocacy for the right of all children and young people to experience the arts in a way that connects, engages and delights.

Originally created in 2018 with funding from Wicklow Arts Office. Created in partnership with Enable Ireland and St Catherine's School:

"a unique production which engages individuals with even the most profound level of disability in an enriching musical and artistic experience. As a society, we aim to remove barriers to participation; we make art galleries and concert halls physically accessible. However, for so many children, their disabilities go beyond the physical. They may be able to physically access buildings which house the arts, however, the content of these buildings is not often meaningful to them. Sing Me to the Sea brought an experience of the arts to the children of St Catherine's. It was beautiful, it was awe inspiring and it was meaningful." - Physiotherapist, St Catherine's School, County Wicklow

Anna Newell is one of Ireland's leading theatremakers for young audiences and her work for extraordinary audiences has been seen on six continents. In 2020, she set up The Network For Extraordinary Audiences (www.extraordinaryaudiences.com)

Generously funded by Arts Council Ireland, Sing Me To The Sea will be performed at Enable Ireland locations across Ireland and also at St Gabriel's Foundation, Limerick.

Anna Newell's work is carefully crafted with regular collaborators like Composer/Musical Director, David Goodall who worked with Newell for 34 years. He was also a fight director, film-maker and actor and food blogger; IFTA nominated Costume designer, Susan Scott, whose background is mostly in TV and Film production. Scott has spent more than 20 years creating looks for actors including Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Sean Bean and Jessie Buckley; Neil Harrison, who has photographed almost all of Anna's shows since 2006; and Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, a research scientist fascinated by babies' innate capacity to connect - and who has been instrumental is steering Newell's work with crucial insights into early years neuroscience which inform and enrich her work.

Each child/young person should have an adult guest in the water with them.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director - Anna Newell
Composer/Musical Director - David Goodall
Costume Design - Susan Scott
Performed by - Anna Newell, Ruby Campbell & Will Guppy

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