We are delighted that The Ark’s production of The Giant Blue Hand has been nominated for three awards in The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for 2009 including a nomination for Best Production.

The Giant Blue Hand, written by Marina Carr, directed by Selina Cartmell and produced by Muireann Ahern, The Ark’s Theatre Programmer and Producer, enjoyed a sold out run in February and March 2009.

Monica Frawley has been nominated for Best Design: Set for her work on The Giant Blue Hand while Gaby Rooney has been nominated for Best Design: Costume.

Eina McHugh, The Ark’s Director said “We are honoured to be nominated for three Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. The Ark continually aspires to raise the profile of children’s theatre by being an international exemplar of good practice. At the heart of The Ark’s programming vision is the belief in providing the best possible opportunities that will ensure our young audiences have quality theatre experiences.”

The awards will be presented on Sunday 28 February.

For details of all nominees, please see:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0116/1224262450715.html

The Ark is currently running a ticket competition for our Facebook fans.

Become a fan and enter our competition to win 4 tickets to The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly. The competition closes at 1pm tomorrow!

Best of luck!

There was a tremendous atmosphere at The Ark when RTÉ came to film Winning Streak and spin the wheel on Saturday 19 December. Fifty children and their families joined us for filming and the building was soon filled with excitement as we waited for the wheel to arrive!


In the theatre, Nico Brown and Martin Brunsden opened proceedings by performing a taster of Music at Christmas.

Presenter Geri Maye interviewed The Ark’s Director, Eina McHugh and one of our youngest regular visitors, 4 year old Lennon. Eina expressed her thanks for support from The National Lottery, and explained how, from such generous support, The Ark can continue to offer high quality programming for children and provide opportunities to explore the wonderful world of artistic and cultural expression.

Tony Gillen and his family had travelled from Donegal to spin the wheel. Everyone in the theatre held their breath as we waited to see where the ball would land and we were thrilled to see him win €20,000!

You can watch the segment here until the 9th January - it starts at 40mins 35 secs.

On 17 and 18 December 2009 another 15 Ark staff, artists, interns and volunteers were trained on the Keeping Safe Programme in child protection by The Ark’s General Manager (Keeping Safe Cascade Trainer). Participants will receive their certificates this week.

The Ark will run further Keeping Safe programmes for our artists, part-time staff, interns and volunteers in 2010.

All Ark full time staff have completed the course.

For further information on The Ark’s Child Protection Policy go www.ark.ie/child-protection.html