Pan Pan: Cascando Program

Director’s Note

First broadcast in 1963, Cascando begins with the character Opener setting the scene: the month of May, a time of “reawakening”. Whilst the month of May is past, this presentation of Cascando here at Skirball can certainly be thought of as a reawakening. Prior to 2020 international touring had been the lifeblood of Pan Pan’s work, working with international partners and audiences enriching each year’s programme; the restrictions of the pandemic having curtailed that for 2 years we’re delighted to have been invited by Skirball Arts Centre and supported by Culture Ireland to reawaken our relationship with audiences in New York where we were last in 2016 with our production of Beckett’s All That Fall.  We hope you enjoy your time with us and the journey that Beckett’s text and our reading of it will lead you on.

Cast and Creatives

  • Directed By Gavin Quinn
  • Designed By Aedín Cosgrove
  • Sound Design and music by Jimmy Eadie
  • Sound Engineer Rachel Conlon
  • Assistant Director Grace Morgan
  • Dramturg Nicholas Johnson
  • Voice and Opener played by Andrew Bennett and Daniel Reardon
  • Performers: Taiz Szilagi, Mazvita Chanakira (June 21 and 22), Francisco Arcil (June 23 onwards)

Biographies

About Pan Pan Theatre
Pan Pan Theatre was founded in 1993 by co-artistic directors Aedín Cosgrove and Gavin Quinn. The company has created over thirty theatre and performance pieces, touring their work to the most prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, including BAM, The Lincoln Centre, The Kennedy Centre, The Barbican, Hau Berlin, NCPA Beijing, and Sydney and Melbourne Festivals, with the support of Culture Ireland. The company has received multiple national and international awards, including the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival 2013.

Pan Pan aims to create original performances that are accessible and engaging for diverse audiences. Using various artistic disciplines in unique combinations, they hope to challenge the conventions of theatre. From initial concept to full production, they encourage collaboration, experimentation and originality in creative artists by providing the tools and opportunities to realise their artistic goals.

Since its inception, Pan Pan has constantly examined and challenged the nature of their work and have resisted settling into well-tried formulas. Developing new performance ideas is at the centre of the company’s mission. Pan Pan tries to approach theatre as an open form of expression and has developed an individual aesthetic that has grown from making performances in a host of different situations and conditions.

Gavin Quinn – Director
Gavin Quinn is, with Aedín Cosgrove, co-founder and joint artistic director of Pan Pan. Selected credits and awards include; Endgame by Samuel Beckett (Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2019), The Sleepwalkers (A Pan Pan and Dublin Youth Theatre production), The Temple (Malthouse Melbourne), ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley (nominated for two Irish Times Theatre Awards) NŌ NŌ NŌ, The Tempest, Brave New World (Theater Bonn), The Importance of Nothing, The Seagull and Other Birds (NCAP Beijing and Dublin 2014), Embers by Samuel Beckett (Winner of Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival 2013) All That Fall by Samuel Beckett (Winner of Best Sound Design and Best Lighting Design, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2011, Winner of Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival 2013) Georgetown Festival Penang. The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (Winner of Best Production and Best Set Design Irish Times Theatre Awards 2010) MACBETH 7 (nominated for Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Production 2004) Quad by Samuel Beckett (Edinburgh International Festival), Crumb Trail (FFT Dusseldorf), Oedipus Loves You (Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, Ps122 New York, Sydney Festival)), The Playboy of the Western World (Beijing and Dublin, in Mandarin and with a Chinese cast, Irish Times Special Jury Award 2006), One – healing with Theatre (Digital Hub, Dublin), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Standoffish (Best Production, Advertiser, Adelaide 2000), Newcastlewest (Dublin Theatre Festival).

Outside of his work with Pan Pan, Quinn’s opera directing credits include Don Giovanni (Opera Theatre Company/ Dublin Theatre Festival), The Four – Note Opera, Carmen, Hamelin, The (little) Magic Flute (Opera Theatre Company), Cosí FanTutte (Opera Ireland) and The Abduction from the Seraglio (Hackney Empire).

Aedín Cosgrove – Designer
Aedín Cosgrove is co- artistic director of Pan Pan Theatre Company and as a set and lighting designer has worked extensively in Ireland and internationally. Recent work includes The Temple at Melbourne Malthouse Theatre, ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley, The Good House of Happiness, A Doll House, Do Di Zhu (Fight the Landlord) and Playing the Dane for Pan Pan Theatre. Sacrifice at Easter, The Numbered and Faraway on Spike Island for Corcadorca, Schone Neue Welt, Der Sturm (The Tempest) and NŌ NŌ NŌ in a co-production between Pan Pan Theatre and Theatre Bonn; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Aedín’s most recent designs are TimeTimeTime by Jennifer Walshe for the Borealis Festival Norway 2019; Endgame by Samuel Beckett and Pasolini’s Salò Redubbed, a Dylan Tighe and Abbey Theatre co-production for Dublin Theatre Festival 2019.

Jimmy Eadie – Sound Design and Music
Jimmy Eadie is an Audio Engineer, Producer and Artist whose award-winning work covers recording, sound design and installation. He uses a variety of sculptural and time-based media which are often presented through hybrid forms of installation and performance. His work has been presented throughout Ireland and internationally. He is a founding member of the Crash Ensemble (IRE) and is currently a creative partner. He has been nominated (2013) and won the Irish Times Theatre Award for best sound in 2011 and 2015. Jimmy has collaborated with artists, composers and performers from varied backgrounds and has toured internationally both as Sound Designer, Audio Engineer and Producer. As a professional musician, he released music on Chrysalis, Ensign and Setanta as well as many independent Irish labels. Currently, he lectures within the School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin.

Andrew Bennett – Voice
Andrew’s previous acting credits with Pan Pan include: ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley*; The Importance of Nothing; The Seagull and Other Birds; Embers; Everyone is King Lear in his Own Home; All That Fall; The Rehearsal: Playing the Dane; Oedipus Loves You; and Macbeth 7. Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Passing; Fool for Love (Irish Times Nomination for Best Supporting Actor); A Month in the Country; Homeland; The Importance of Being Earnest; The Playboy of the Western World; Lolita; Translations; The House; Good Evening Mr Collins; Sour Grapes; The Electrocution of Children; The Marriage of Figaro; Tarry Flynn; Saint Joan; The Rival; The Map Makers Sorrow; Tartuffe; Sons and Daughters; and The Wolf in the Winter (all for The Abbey Theatre and The Peacock). Happy Days; Freefall; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Everyday; Tenth Birthday; Streetcar; Big Bad Wolf; Car Show; The Seagull; and Foley (all for The Corn Exchange). Further theatre work includes Brave New World (Theatre of Bonn); King Lear (Theatre National Populaire); Philadelphia Here I Come! (Gaiety Theatre); Playboy of the Western World (Druid Theatre UK Tour); Conversations on a Homecoming and Tinker’s Curse (Livin Dred); Roberto Zucco (Bedrock at Project Arts Centre); God’s Grace (Semper Fi); Beckett’s Ghosts (Project Arts Centre); Family Stories (B*spoke); What Where; Medea Material and Early Morning (Bedrock); Landscape with Argonauts; The Spanish Tragedy and The White Devil (Loose Canon); We Ourselves (Passion Machine); Words of Advice for Young People and Alone it Stands (Rough Magic).

Daniel Reardon – Opener
Daniel Reardon has worked in Irish Theatre, Film, T.V. and Radio as Actor, Playwright, Producer and Director for nearly 50 years. He tours Nationally and Internationally with the award winning theatre companies, Pan Pan (The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane. The Seagull and Other Birds) Dead Centre

(Lippy) and Brokentalkers (This Beach) for which he was nominated Best Supporting Actor Irish Times Theatre Awards. Film and T.V. include My Left Foot, Night Train Love Eternal, The Silver Tassie, The Man Within, Fallout, The Clinic, Fair City, The Tudors. As Playwright his stage plays include Spenser’s Laye (Dublin, Cork, Edinburgh) The O.K. Thing To Do (Abbey/Peacock) Fun With Bamboo (Winner Bewley’s Café Theatre Award) and Bleeding Poets (Nominated Best New Play Irish Times theatre Awards). He wrote many plays for radio including the Daily Serial Riverrun. His poetry appears regularly in magazines and journals in Ireland, the U.K. America and Australia. His book of poems In The Lion House was published by Gallery Press. A second volume of poems, Fond Pageant was published recently by Somerville Press.

Co-sponsored by Glucksman Ireland House.
Logos: Glucksman Ireland House NYU & NYU Graduate School of Arts & Science

Part of Festival of New York.
Festival of New York logo (The O in New York is a heart)

Production acknowledgements

Pan Pan is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin City Council.

Support

Supported by Culture Ireland and The Arts Council of Ireland. 

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by Howard Gilman Foundation, Collins Building Services, Consolidated Edison, Harkness Foundation for Dance, DuBose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and Marta Heflin Foundation, as well as our valued donors through memberships and commissioning fund support.