2009 News
- News Archive
Head of Drama Receives Award
The Head of Drama at St Mary’s University College, Trevor Walker, has received an Allianz Business to Arts Award for his production of Nell Dunn’s Cancer Tales.
The award for ‘Best Use of Creativity’ was presented by the Irish President, Mary McAleese, at an award ceremony in Dublin on May 20th.
The award, shared with the play’s sponsors, Mundipharma Ireland, recognises excellence in partnerships between the business and arts communities. The ‘Best Use of Creativity’ award is given to a project that uses the imagination, innovation or creativity of artists or the arts in a business context. Projects in this category establish a model for the arts and business communities to work together in the future.
Cancer Tales is a verbatim piece which looks at the lives of five remarkable women and their struggle with cancer. Trevor worked on the play from its inception and admits to being “amazed by its reception from both medical practitioners and members of the general public. It seems that all our lives are touched by cancer and the play has raised important issues in relation to communication between patients and doctors.”
Having already performed the play across the UK and Europe in February / March of 2009, Trevor led a tour to Cork, Galway and Dublin playing to healthcare professionals. Together with an accompanying workbook, Cancer Tales: Communicating in Cancer Care, the play has been used as a training tool by all the major cancer care charities and has recently been presented at medical conferences in London, Valencia and Berlin and at the World Cancer Congress in Geneva.
The production will also visit Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Belfast, London and Birmingham later this year.
