Announcing Dublin Fringe Festival 2023 Associate Artists
We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Shanna May Breen and Dafe Orugbo as Dublin Fringe Festival Associate Artists for 2023. We are excited to collaborate with Shanna & Dafe, supporting them to share their expertise and mentorship with the Dublin Fringe community and to see their work continue to develop and grow.
“Dublin Fringe Festival has always had artists as its compass. This is a new way for the organisation to hear the perspectives of artists, and to share their many skills among the community of early career makers that Dublin Fringe champions each year. We have envisioned these new Associate Artist roles with improved career sustainability for artists in the city in mind.
I look forward to welcoming Shanna and Dafe on to our team. They are both exciting independent artists, who bring cross-industry experience to the role, as well as their many talents as innovative makers across art forms in music, spoken word, live art and theatre.” - Ruth McGowan, Artistic Director & CEO
Inspired by climate conversations, performance artist Shanna May Breen creates multi-platform artworks to carbonate change.
Previous works have seen her plant a micro native forest in her hometown to devise a performance about trees - Root, Dublin Theatre Festival 2021, compose a “plastic pilgrimage” on board a coastal train - Mould Into Shape, Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 and build a miniature mega city live on stage with her mum - Superstructure, The Peacock 2019. In 2018 Shanna was awarded the Dublin Fringe Festival Next Stage Wild Card Award for The Sound of Phoenix, a travelling soundscape of Phoenix Park on board a 1920s bus.
Most recently, Shanna curated and produced GULL, a site-specific city project dedicated to the Dublin (sea)gulls - a co-commission by the Abbey Theatre and Dublin Fringe Festival 2022. The project featured the work of five multidisciplinary artists, a Currach rower and an Ornithologist. GULL was developed alongside the Pan Pan International Mentorship Programme 2022.
Shanna is currently crafting a walking project with collaborator Wayne Jordan. The duo will walk from West Cork to North Donegal to devise a new performance - Walkscape, Arts Council of Ireland 2023/24.
This summer, Shanna was selected by the Irish Theatre Institute as a Six in the Attic participant and was also appointed as an advisory board member of Athrach.
Shanna recently graduated with a Diploma in Climate Entrepreneurship from Trinity College Dublin. In 2014, Shanna was scholarshiped to complete an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice and Scenography at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In 2011, she graduated with a BA in Contemporary Devised Theatre from Dartington College of Arts.
Shanna also mentors artists, teaches workshops and has been developing a solo climate start-up with Enterprise Ireland at Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Dafe Orugbo is a multidisciplinary artist with a dynamic artistic practice coupled with years of industry experience. He is particularly interested in art that centers the audience experience, as seen in his work with the Dublin Fringe or the Word Up Collective.
One of Ireland’s most creative and forward-thinking musicians, Dafe Orugbo has achieved international acclaim as one half of hip-hop duo Tebi Rex, releasing two albums and touring Ireland, UK, and Europe. He writes on topics ranging from modern-day Ireland to Greek mythology and is an experienced public speaker, live performer, writer, spoken word artist, and podcaster. With an MA in Critical & Creative Media, he has become a leading cultural commentator and a respected mentor to young people. Selected as one of the lead artists for the 2022 Dublin Fringe, he created Filmore! - a project inspired by internet and meme culture that combined an interactive art installation with live performance.
Dafe Orugbo has also developed and teaches hip-hop, spoken word, and songwriting classes for the Word Up Collective. Projects include Criunniú na nÓg, Youth Reach Tallaght, Grainstore Cabinteely, Music Generation, Rua Red Tallaght, Foróige