Institute of Art Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire
Ireland’s campus for the Creative Industries

Sally Nolan 

BA [Hons] Design for Stage + Screen Production Design

Hi I`m Sally Nolan- soon to be graduate of Production Design for Stage and Screen. While I love theatre I`ve found over my four years in IADT that I`m time and time again drawn to the world of film. I communicate my ideas best through concept art, AutoCAD models and lots and lots of storyboards.

The Plough and the Stars

For my major 4th year Major project I chose to design a film adaptation of The Plough and the Stars, originally written as a play by Sean O`Casey. The setting is 1915/1916 and follows the lives of a group of tenement dwellers in the lead up to the Easter Rising.

This text offered me an opportunity to expand upon the world that O`Casey is giving us a glimpse into- the chance to explore a wider variety of locations than would be possible with the limitations of a stage setting.

My goal for this project was to create a collection of sets that showed a realistic depiction of the hardships endured by the working class of Dublin



An Investigation into the Interdependent Relationship that existed between Yakusha-e Prints and Kabuki Theatre during the 18th Century in Edo Japan

My thesis is based around the topic of Kabuki theatre, a form of traditional Japanese performance art that originated in Japan in the 16th century along with a genre of woodblock prints known as yakusha-e or actor prints. I focus on the interdependent relationship that existed between yakusha-e prints and Kabuki theatre in 18th century Edo Japan.

The majority of woodblock prints that I discuss in this thesis came from the Chester Beatty Library`s Japanese collection, which can be found at Dublin Castle. The Japanese collection at the Chester Beatty comprises some 1800 works dating mostly to the Edo period (c. 1603–1868). The collection includes paintings, manuscripts, prints and printed books as well as smaller decorative arts (netsuke, inrō and tsuba)

The significance of narrative in Kabuki theatre was one of the main reasons that I was drawn to this research topic. My interest in the actor prints from the Chester Beatty tie in here as they played their own role in conveying Kabuki narratives through the medium of print. Kabuki was and still is to this day the theatre of everyday people. Hence the narrative told on stage not only had to appeal to ordinary people, but it was attitudes and morals of this audience that dictated what kinds of narratives were written and performed in the theatres.