Get out of your comfort zone! Booking now open for all three of our Spring courses.

screen-shot-2018-02-16-at-17-48-07“Act the Maggot took me to a place I haven’t been since I was a child. A place of pure joy. You meet great people from all walks of life and form firm friendships. I got to express myself in a way that I could never do in any conventional adult learning scenario and it made me feel like I was 10 feet tall.” – Shane Lynam, Director, Elearn.ie

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Try one of our signature beginner classes and you won’t regret it! Always been curious about the acting game? Try our six week Thursday night class in Beginners’ Acting for Adults starting March 22. quote4-wFond of developing story-lines and characters but don’t know how to get started with a writing project or just haven’t developed a good discipline? Try our six week class Tuesday night class in Beginners’ Creative Writing.

Or have you always liked drawing or just want to try it out? It’s a fantastic way to unwind and relax. Try our six week Tuesday night class in Beginners’ Drawing.

Life drawing #pencil

Life drawing #pencil

At Act The Maggot – everyone is a beginner!! Some of our maggots have tried all three at different times of the year. Take a look around and make up your mind. We answer queries at acttthemaggot@gmail.com

Happy New Year 2018

Wishing all you maggots, non-maggots and maggots-in-the-making much health and happiness for the coming year. May you entertain and be entertained.

Draw your way into the New Year!

Would you like to begin your new year in a fun, creative way? Have you ever wanted to get into drawing? Maybe you used to draw a lot and now everything is all done on computers and you feel removed? Want to get back to basics with pencil and paper? Do you want to develop a relaxing hobby? Do you need to develop storyboarding skills? Join our artist teacher and learn the rudiments of drawing in a chilled out group on Tuesday nights in Dublin city centre. This group will focus on line drawing, perspective, shading, still life and in true act the maggot vein will also have lots of fun drawing from the imagination. Click here if you want to read about our next beginners drawing course.
Five Good Reasons to take a drawing class.
1. Making art may reduce stress and anxiety.
2. Creating visual art improves connections in the brain.
3. Art making can help us get over sadness.
4. Mindless sketching can help focus.
5. Turning our problems into narratives can help us work through them.

If you want to read the full article on this subject click here

Last Beginners Acting class of now 2017 SOLD OUT!

img_4446.jpgThere are lots of people in Dublin who want to act the maggot!! Many sign up for different reasons.To learn how to act, how to improvise, have fun, meet new people, develop confidence or to just get off that couch! Thanks for all your queries and especially to all our previous maggots who support us by great word of mouth. Thanks to all of you, the Nov 2 to Dec 7 class is now completely sold out. Sorry to disappoint. Drop us a line at actthemaggot@gmail.com to book your place on our next six-week Beginners’ Acting class which will kick off on January 25, 2018. We look forward to AkinDaMagga with ya in the New Year!

Making movies is no longer pie in the sky but the script is all.

typewriterSo we are in Dublin. It’s not Hollywood, Bollywood nor Nollywood – but there are tons of film and television production companies based here and even more directors and producers on the hunt for new material. And one thing we do well in this town is tell a story. People come to Dublin from all over the world to celebrate writers and storytellers and that’s not just in the bars and nightclubs! Yes, what we believe at Act The Maggot is that, with a clear focus and some work, your screen dreams can be realised. In the film world, your short film is your calling card. You can make it yourself with a bunch of friends on a shoestring budget. Hell, you can make it on your phone. You can apply for the RTE Filmbase Short Shots annual competition and if you win that, you can get it made with funding. You have to start somewhere, but you must start with a script. In six short weeks acting the maggot, you can complete your first short film script and get a feel for the whole area. There is enormous pleasure in finishing a written project. In the beginning was the word….Seriously, emerging filmmakers often make the mistake of not spending enough time on the script. The script is all. It’s the blueprint for your film. The road map. So many production details can be ironed out or solved if the script is tight and economical. If you want to read more, take a look at our website and consider signing up for our next six-week course in Temple Bar.

Five reasons to take an art class

screen-shot-2017-05-31-at-09-45-241. Making art may reduce stress and anxiety.
2. Creating visual art improves connections in the brain.
3. Art making can help us get over sadness.
4. Mindless sketching can help focus.
5. Turning our problems into narratives can help us work through them.
Read the full article here
Read more about our next beginners drawing class

DCU Recovery College

Yesterday, I received this beautiful sunflower from my students and one of them brought in this poem by Mary Oliver which I asked her to read aloud for us.

Come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
Their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines
creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky
sugars of the sun.
Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy
but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young –
the important weather,
the wandering crows.
Don’t be afraid
to ask them questions!
Their bright faces,
which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds –
each one a new life!
hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,
is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. Come
and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning.

sunflower

It was so appropriate for our group. I finished facilitating an experimental course with them where they played with drama, movement and creative writing and last week, I finished a drama course in Navan for the same organisation. Recovery College is a new venture and for me, working with them – has been an enriching, enlightening and very rewarding experience. I was given free reign to do what I do – design and facilitate course modules that are useful and empowering for adults working on their own recovery from mental health distress. It is encouraging to see people smile and have fun and feel safe while exploring their creativity despite what life has thrown at them. The power and support in these groups is inspiring. I wish them all the very best. Many thanks to the tireless efforts of Recovery College who are working so hard to provide much needed peer-led courses in this area. If you have an interest in mental health, work in mental health or have had mental health distress in your life, contact them and see if what they are offering this Autumn is up your alley. Most of the courses are on during the day.

Check out the latest testimonials from the May Beginners’ Acting

BEGINNERS“I absolutely loved every second of it and the teacher was amazing.”

“Exceeded expectations! The teacher was very good at creating a safe space and was very encouraging all the way through. Amazing positive energy!”

“I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Such an amazing teacher and the rest of the class were great fun and very supportive.”

“Very enjoyable. Activities are multiple and various. There is no boring time! I liked it.”

“It was wonderful. So many games to play, so many moments where you could try things out you would never do in normal life. The teacher was so kind, motivating and fun. The group was friendly, tolerant and supporting all the time. We became closer and closer with each session, just because we shared one passion: Escape yourself for two hours and feel as free as a child again.”

If you are interested in joining our next beginners acting class contact us at actthemaggot@gmail.com or 087 3744926 and we will see if there is a place for you.

A few spots left…..hurry!

tootootGrab your place while you can. Our final Beginner’s Acting class before the summer break starts next week. There are still a few places left so give us a bell or an email to guarantee six weeks of silliness and laughter for yourself. Hurry. It books out every time! Yeah, get out and about! Sure, what else would you be doing with those long summer evenings, except acting the maggot? Read some of the testimonials to help make up your mind.

If I had my life to live over again?

thisisitWorth pondering over these thoughts from 85-year old Nadine Stair when she was asked this very question.

If I had my life to live over again,
I’d dare to make more mistakes next time.
I’d relax.
I’d limber up.
I’d be sillier than I’ve been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances,
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.
I would, perhaps, have more actual troubles but fewer imaginary ones.
you see, I’m one of those people who was sensible and sane,
hour after hour,
day after day.

Oh, I’ve had my moments.
If I had to do it over again,
I’d have more of them.
In fact, I’d try to have nothing else- just moments,
one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute.
If I could do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had to live my life over,
I would start barefoot earlier in the spring
and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances,
I would ride more merry-go-rounds,
I would pick more daisies.

– Nadine Stair

Also worth having a read of what Mrs. Mindfulness has to say about slowing down. She thinks we all ought to hurry up and slow down!