Thursday
March 5th
Thinking Better Together: Brains, Bodies, Stories, Systems.
Exploring the interplay between cultures, creativity and health-making systems.
All events are free to attend, but capacity is limited, so please book early to secure your place.
Please note that this is an IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE ONLY event in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin.
10.00am-11.30am
Introduction
- 10.00am – Welcome from Nicholas Johnson
- 10.05 – 10.30 – Reflection continues Autumn Brown and Alejandro López Valdés
- 10.30 – 11.00 – Dementia Care and Provision in the Majority world – Iracema Leroi
- 11.00 – 11.30 – The many roles for theatre, drama and performance – Nicholas Johnson
Contributors
Autumn Brown is a research fellow at Dublin City University and an associate researcher at the University of Cambridge. She has published across numerous fields including science education, science and society, and equitable access to education. Her research interests include decolonial science learning, histories of scientific knowledge, STEAM pedagogies, and cold war art-science innovations. She holds a masters degree in Science Communication and Public Engagement from The University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Science Education from Trinity College Dublin.
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-brown-558884139/
https://twitter.com/fairytalesci
https://twitter.com/ArtPlusSciSalon
www.Instagram.com/dr.fairytalescience
Nicholas Johnson is Associate Professor of Drama and GBHI faculty member at Trinity College Dublin, where he directs the Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies and convenes the interdisciplinary Creative Arts Practice research theme. His books include Beckett’s Voices / Voicing Beckett (Brill, 2021), Influencing Beckett / Beckett Influencing (L’Harmattan, 2020), Experimental Beckett (Cambridge UP, 2020) and Bertolt Brecht’s David Fragments (1919–1921): An Interdisciplinary Study (Bloomsbury, 2020). He co-edited the “Performance Issue” (23.1, 2014) and the “Pedagogy Issue” (29.1, 2020) of the Journal of Beckett Studies (Edinburgh UP). Directing credits include Virtual Play (2017–19) and world premieres of The David Fragments (2017), Enemy of the Stars (2015), and No’s Knife (Lincoln Center, 2015). He works as dramaturg with Pan Pan, OT Platform, and Dead Centre and facilitates theatre workshops internationally. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 2021.
Websites:
https://tcd.academia.edu/NicholasJohnson
Social Media:
Iracema specializes in pragmatic interventions for cognitive and neuropsychiatric issues in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. She leads the HRB-CTN Dementia Trials Ireland and was Chief Investigator for the EU-funded SENSE-Cog programme, exploring the links between hearing, vision, and cognition in older adults. She now heads the HRB-funded EMERALD Lewy research program, focused on advancing the diagnosis and care of Lewy body disease in Ireland. At St James’s Hospital, she established the ‘Mind and Memory’ clinic, supporting individuals with cognitive and behavioral issues related to Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia.
Iracema is also an accomplished open water swimmer, with swims including the 44km Manhattan Island Marathon.
Websites:
Currently, an Assistant Professor in Neural Engineering and Brain Health affiliated to the School of Engineering and The Global Brain Health Institute. He strives to contribute to the creation of applicable and scalable methods and solutions to support brain health throughout the lifespan. His research focuses on applied neural engineering supporting, aging, sensory dysfunction and cognition.
Born in Mexico, he has a background in biomedical engineering, and specialized in neural engineering. He has industry experience in the fields of ophthalmology surgery medical device service and management, medical device design, and auditory assistive devices research and development.
He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico. Completed his Master’s of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Groningen and Trinity College Dublin through the CEMACUBE programme funded by the European Union. He holds a PhD in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, specialized in neural engineering, from Trinity College Dublin.
Before joining Trinity College Dublin as faculty, he carried out research in the area of cognitive hearing sciences and brain hearing technologies at Eriksholm Research Centre in Denmark.
Websites:
https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=alopezva
Social Media:
11.45am-1.00pm
Case studies and strategies
- Audience engagement process – Dominic Campbell and Jenny MacDonald
- The Navigator programme – Jim Culleton artistic director of Fishamble introduces a GP inspired short play series, two of which will be read by Marion O’Dwyer, Camille Lucy Ross and Paul Reid.
- Creative Approaches to Critical Conversations: Kitti Baracsi and Sornchai Chatwiriyachai (Sonny) present a collective journey of curating and sharing creative community practices.
Contributors
Kitti Baracsi works at the intersection of art, critical pedagogy and urban research, curating community and cultural initiatives, as well as collective and multimodal artistic creations, with a focus on urban inequalities, collective practices and rethinking knowledge production.
She has a background in Communication Science, Aesthetics and Pedagogy. Since 2006, she has been involved in education and community work with marginalised communities, and in research on education, housing, gender and migration in Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Based in Lisbon, she collaborates with movements, schools, associations, cultural institutions and universities across Europe. She is co-founder and collaborator of several collectives and initiatives in the field of social justice, art and culture.
Website:
https://afsee.atlanticfellows.lse.ac.uk/en-gb/fellows/2020/kitti-baracsi
Social media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baracsikitti
https://linktr.ee/kittibaracsi
https://www.instagram.com/kitti.baracsi
Dominic Campbell is leading the Creative Brain Week initiative. As Bealtaine Festival Director he steered its celebration of creativity and aging’s development over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration he transformed St Patrick’s Festival’s three shows into ninety growing production, managerial teams, financial support, engagement and impact.
Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” delivering 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.
He mentored “celebration of ageing” festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins, replicating it in San Francisco (2018) and Kentucky (2019).
Recognized as a key cultural influencer in Ireland by The Irish Times and by First Avenue as a Key Influencer in Aging in the US, in 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia. Currently developing an arts programme for the Irish Hospice Foundation as response to the pandemic and the Ageing Voices programme with Sing Ireland.
Website:
www.creativeaginginternational.com
www.gbhi.org/profiles/dominic-campbell
Social:
Bluesky: @creativebrainweek.bsky.social
Sornchai Chatwiriyachai works at the intersection of theatre, critical pedagogy and social innovation, creating community and cultural initiatives as well as participatory and applied theatre practices, with a focus on social inequity, collective healing, civic engagement and reimagining the role of art in public life.
He has a background in professional theatre performance, directing and screen acting. Since 2009, he has been working in education and community-based practice with marginalised communities, and in artistic and social research related to disability inclusion, migration, ageing, public health and social justice in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Based in Bangkok, he collaborates with communities, universities, civil society organisations, cultural institutions and international networks. He is the founder of Malongdu Theatre, Thailand’s first Theatre of the Oppressed company, and works across interdisciplinary projects combining art, technology and social change. He is also a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity (2021 cohort), and develops theatre-based work supporting people living with dementia and their caregivers.
Websites:
https://theatreforbrainhealth.
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sornchai-chatwiriyachai-b604964a
Jim Culleton is the artistic director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, including 11 transfers Off-Broadway. His productions for Fishamble have won Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards.
Jim has also directed for the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, Kennedy Center, Staatstheater Mainz, 7:84 Scotland, Audible, BBC, RTÉ, Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway.
Website:
Fishamble is an Irish theatre company that discovers, develops and produces new plays of national importance with a global reach.
It has toured its productions to audiences throughout Ireland, and to 21 other countries. It champions the role of the playwright, typically supporting over 50% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland each year. Fishamble has received many awards in Ireland and internationally, including an Olivier Award.
Website:
Social Media:
Jenny Macdonald is a theatremaker and facilitator whose practice encompasses writing / performing and directing / facilitating. Her most recent production, ‘The Tightrope Walker’ was presented at Smock Alley Theatre as part of First Fortnight Festival 2025. It has also been presented at the Civic, The Samuel Beckett Theatre, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and Beaumont, James and Tallaght University Hospitals. It was developed during her time as Writer in Residence at the Irish Hospice Foundation, 2022-2023. She is currently developing and facilitating applied theatre workshops for carers, in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre, and as part of the EMERALD-Lewy Research project at the Global Brain Health Institute, TCD.
In 2019, she founded SoloSIRENs, an intercultural collective of female-identifying artists in residence at the Civic, Tallaght. With SoloSIRENS, she aims to amplify female-identifying voices and to create more just, sustainable, and caring models of making and presenting theatre. For SoloSIRENs she has devised and directed “Careground” (Civic 2023), “Cessair” (Civic, 2021), “Dear Ireland III” (Abbey Theatre, 2020), and “Falling” (Civic, 2019). She has also curated two SoloSIRENs festivals and three symposia including ‘How Do We Care?’ Festival at the Civic, 2023 and Symposium as part of Creative Brain Week, 2025, and ‘Today When I Listen, This Is What I Hear’ Symposium as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, 2022.
She is an Associate Artist with South Dublin Participatory Arts (TCA) and with the Abbey Theatre. She is a lecturer in Socially Engaged Theatre at Trinity College, Dublin and New York University and is an artist representative on the editorial panel of artsandhealth.ie. She is an alumnus of Dublin Theatre Festival’s ‘The Next Stage’ and a mentor to many emerging artists and companies.
Website:
Social:
https://www.facebook.com/solosirens/
2.00pm-4.00pm
Workshop programme
Once the morning sessions are complete, you can sign up at the venue for one of the following workshops that will run in parallel in the afternoon:
- Improvising health – Led by anGie seah of Two Cents Collective
- Creative Approaches to Critical Conversations: A collective journey of curating and sharing creative community practices – Co-led by Kitti Baracsi and Sornchai Chatwiriyachai (Sonny)
- Embodied Stories and Collective Care – Led by Jenny McDonald and Solo Sirens with Neltah Chadamoyo and Martha Cosgrove
- The imagination and the Body – Led by Chukwudi Okoye and Melinda Szuts
Contributors
Kitti Baracsi works at the intersection of art, critical pedagogy and urban research, curating community and cultural initiatives, as well as collective and multimodal artistic creations, with a focus on urban inequalities, collective practices and rethinking knowledge production.
She has a background in Communication Science, Aesthetics and Pedagogy. Since 2006, she has been involved in education and community work with marginalised communities, and in research on education, housing, gender and migration in Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Based in Lisbon, she collaborates with movements, schools, associations, cultural institutions and universities across Europe. She is co-founder and collaborator of several collectives and initiatives in the field of social justice, art and culture.
Website:
https://afsee.atlanticfellows.lse.ac.uk/en-gb/fellows/2020/kitti-baracsi
Social media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baracsikitti
https://linktr.ee/kittibaracsi
https://www.instagram.com/kitti.baracsi
Sornchai Chatwiriyachai works at the intersection of theatre, critical pedagogy and social innovation, creating community and cultural initiatives as well as participatory and applied theatre practices, with a focus on social inequity, collective healing, civic engagement and reimagining the role of art in public life.
He has a background in professional theatre performance, directing and screen acting. Since 2009, he has been working in education and community-based practice with marginalised communities, and in artistic and social research related to disability inclusion, migration, ageing, public health and social justice in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Based in Bangkok, he collaborates with communities, universities, civil society organisations, cultural institutions and international networks. He is the founder of Malongdu Theatre, Thailand’s first Theatre of the Oppressed company, and works across interdisciplinary projects combining art, technology and social change. He is also a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity (2021 cohort), and develops theatre-based work supporting people living with dementia and their caregivers.
Websites:
https://theatreforbrainhealth.
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sornchai-chatwiriyachai-b604964a
Martha Cosgrove is an emerging theatre facilitator, maker and manager with a particular interest in ecological, participatory and accessible practice. She works frequently SoloSIRENs theatre company, in facilitation, production, and administrative capacities. She also facilitates with groups such as Freshly Ground Theatre, and as part of the Tallaght Community Arts Act Up Festival. She is a core artist on the environmental arts programme We Are Nature Protecting Itself delivered by Tallaght Community Arts. She is a comh-stiúrthóir (co-director) of Scaoilte theatre, a bilingual theatre collective, with Cian Ó Náraigh. Martha graduated with First Class Honours Degree from Drama and Theatre Studies in Trinity College Dublin in 2025.
Jenny Macdonald is a theatremaker and facilitator whose practice encompasses writing / performing and directing / facilitating. Her most recent production, ‘The Tightrope Walker’ was presented at Smock Alley Theatre as part of First Fortnight Festival 2025. It has also been presented at the Civic, The Samuel Beckett Theatre, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, and Beaumont, James and Tallaght University Hospitals. It was developed during her time as Writer in Residence at the Irish Hospice Foundation, 2022-2023. She is currently developing and facilitating applied theatre workshops for carers, in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre, and as part of the EMERALD-Lewy Research project at the Global Brain Health Institute, TCD.
In 2019, she founded SoloSIRENs, an intercultural collective of female-identifying artists in residence at the Civic, Tallaght. With SoloSIRENS, she aims to amplify female-identifying voices and to create more just, sustainable, and caring models of making and presenting theatre. For SoloSIRENs she has devised and directed “Careground” (Civic 2023), “Cessair” (Civic, 2021), “Dear Ireland III” (Abbey Theatre, 2020), and “Falling” (Civic, 2019). She has also curated two SoloSIRENs festivals and three symposia including ‘How Do We Care?’ Festival at the Civic, 2023 and Symposium as part of Creative Brain Week, 2025, and ‘Today When I Listen, This Is What I Hear’ Symposium as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, 2022.
She is an Associate Artist with South Dublin Participatory Arts (TCA) and with the Abbey Theatre. She is a lecturer in Socially Engaged Theatre at Trinity College, Dublin and New York University and is an artist representative on the editorial panel of artsandhealth.ie. She is an alumnus of Dublin Theatre Festival’s ‘The Next Stage’ and a mentor to many emerging artists and companies.
Website:
Social:
https://www.facebook.com/solosirens/
Chukwudi Michael Okoye is a Lecturer with the department of Theatre and Film studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. His research interests include Applied Theatre and Management. He is presently researching on the engagement of Drama in rehabilitating children and young adults with disabilities in Nigeria through the concept of RehabDramatics. Dr. Okoye has taught and supervised undergraduate students in the department of Theatre and Film studies, NAU for over a decade. He is also a Drummer, Actor Trainer and Poet.
Website:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/chukwudi-okoye
Social Media:
anGie is a multi-disciplinary artist from Singapore with over two decades of socially engaged practice, integrating visual arts, sound, and performance to explore well-being, ageing, and emotional labour through transformative encounters shaped by lived experiences.
Two Cent Collective is made up of Atlantic Fellows anGie seah, Will Dean, Rohith Khanna Deivasigamani, and Colin Regan.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/angie-seah
Social Media:
https://instagram.com/angie_seah
https://instagram.com/2cent_collective
SoloSIRENs is a theatremaking and producing collective based in Tallaght and in residence at the Civic. Its core team is director Jenny Macdonald, producer Jennifer Webster and theatre artist Martha Knight. SoloSIRENs amplifies female identifying voices onstage and beyond. They work to address gender inequality and intersecting inequalities through their practice and productions. They collaborate with other theatre artists and with a local, intercultural and intergenerational community collective. They also collaborate with local arts organisations including Rua Red – South Dublin Arts Centre and TCA-South Dublin Participatory Arts. In 2024 they launched a mentorship cofacilitated with the Abbey to upskill diverse facilitators from South Dublin County and a schools programme (funded by South Dublin County Council) to explore key themes and approaches in their work with children in the county. They have created and produced two festivals at the Civic in 2019 and 2023; two symposia-one online in 2019 and one presented by Dublin Theatre Festival at Trinity College, Dublin Long Room Hub in 2022. Other collaborations and productions include ‘Dear Ireland III’ with the Abbey Theatre (2020), Cessair with the Civic/TCA (2021), and The Compassionate Culture Network with Irish Hospice Foundation (2022).
https://www.facebook.com/solosirens
https://www.instagram.com/solosirens/
Melinda is a lecturer in drama and theatre studies, and a freelance theatre director and dramaturge. She is a graduate of Eötvös Loránd University (BA English and Film Studies, 2013; MA English Literature) and the National University of Ireland, Galway (2021, PhD in Drama and Theatre Studies). Since 2017, Melinda has lectured on BA and MA levels on the subjects of history of drama and theatre, directing and dramaturgy. Her field of research is the relationship of physical theatre and dramatic text, investigated from the perspective of theories of space and place and space dramaturgy. Beside her academic work, Melinda is also actively engaged in making theatre as a director and dramaturge, delivering projects mostly in Ireland and Hungary.
Website:
Social Media:
4.00pm-5.00pm
End of Day Reflection
Autumn Brown and Alejandro López Valdés and guests invite the audience to share their thoughts.
Contributors
Autumn Brown is a research fellow at Dublin City University and an associate researcher at the University of Cambridge. She has published across numerous fields including science education, science and society, and equitable access to education. Her research interests include decolonial science learning, histories of scientific knowledge, STEAM pedagogies, and cold war art-science innovations. She holds a masters degree in Science Communication and Public Engagement from The University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Science Education from Trinity College Dublin.
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-brown-558884139/
https://twitter.com/fairytalesci
https://twitter.com/ArtPlusSciSalon
www.Instagram.com/dr.fairytalescience
Currently, an Assistant Professor in Neural Engineering and Brain Health affiliated to the School of Engineering and The Global Brain Health Institute. He strives to contribute to the creation of applicable and scalable methods and solutions to support brain health throughout the lifespan. His research focuses on applied neural engineering supporting, aging, sensory dysfunction and cognition.
Born in Mexico, he has a background in biomedical engineering, and specialized in neural engineering. He has industry experience in the fields of ophthalmology surgery medical device service and management, medical device design, and auditory assistive devices research and development.
He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico. Completed his Master’s of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Groningen and Trinity College Dublin through the CEMACUBE programme funded by the European Union. He holds a PhD in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, specialized in neural engineering, from Trinity College Dublin.
Before joining Trinity College Dublin as faculty, he carried out research in the area of cognitive hearing sciences and brain hearing technologies at Eriksholm Research Centre in Denmark.
Websites:
https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=alopezva
Social Media: