IAC Commissions: Eoin Colfer and Liam Bates

"Eoin Colfer's [work for adult readers] has all the charm, wit and imagination of his beloved children's fiction."—RTÉ 

Eoin Colfer is the author of the internationally bestselling Artemis Fowl books, which has sold in excess of 25 million copies worldwide. His writing has won numerous awards, including the UK Children’s Book of the Year, the Irish Children’s Book of the Year, and the German Children’s Book of the Year, and has been made into acclaimed films and television series. Eoin also wrote crime novels Plugged and Screwed, which feature Irish bouncer Daniel McEvoy and are being developed for television by Double Nickel productions. Eoin has collaborated with some of his favourite writers and artists, including Oliver Jeffers, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano and PJ Lynch, and has recently finished a two year term as Ireland’s Children’s Laureate. For theatre, Eoin has written scripts for the musicals The Lords of Love and Noël with composer Liam Bates, and the plays Holy Mary and My Real Life have toured nationally. Eoin’s latest books are The Fowl Twins and Highfire, a fantasy novel for big children.

Promax World Gold Award winner and World Soundtrack and IFTA Awards nominee Liam Bates is a composer, songwriter, arranger, and conductor working in film, musical theatre, and the concert hall. Liam’s movie scores include Last Passenger, directed by Omid Nooshin for NDF International and Pathé; Earthbound, directed by Alan Brennan for Paperdreams and Rippleworld Pictures; Out of the Blue and I Hate Musicals, directed by Michael Lavelle; Mr Crocodile in the Cupboard, directed by Morgan Bushe; Ghostwood, a horror movie for Maxim Pictures produced by Ned Dowd; An Créatur, directed by Peter Foott; Pump Action, directed by Frank Reid Beechinor; The Faeries of Blackheath Woods and The Puppet, directed by Ciarán Foy; and La Jalousie and Razor Fish, starring Brenda Fricker.

Wexford born actress and singer Aileen Mythen is a graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin. Theatre credits include The Miami Showband Story (GBL Productions), Noël, written by Eoin Colfer and composer Liam Bates (VenuWorks Theatricals, USA), The Belle Bottoms for the Vodafone Comedy Festival, The Spiegeltent, Wexford, The Dead, Alice in Funderland (The Abbey), Misappropriated (a one woman show written by Derek O’ Connor), Lords of Love (Wexford Opera House), Holy Mary (Wexford Arts Centre/Bewleys), The Country Girls (Red Kettle), Desert Places (Druid), Borrowed Robes (Island), Playboy of the Western World (Yew Tree), Alone It Stands (Lane Productions), Little Red & Skater Jack (The Civic & Guna Nua), Silly Bits of Sky (Barnstorm), Red Hot Runaways (Storytellers), Pinocchio (An Griannan), and The Desert Lullaby (Galloglass).

For RTÉ Radio Drama Aileen has performed in many radio plays including Cowboys, Indians & Penny Hairnets, Farkham Hall, Playboy of the Western World, Nothing and No-one Go to the Moon, and Sam & the Animal Man.

TV and film credits include Space Chickens (Disney/Gingerbread productions), Rainbow Rangers (Genius/Telegael), Myago (RTÉ), Space Pop (Telegael/Athena Films), Louis & Luca & The Snow Machine, Two by Two (Moetion Films), The Ugly Duckling and Me, Niko and The Way to The Stars I and II, Lily The Witch (Magma Films), Zombie Hotel (BBC, Magma Films), Grabby Bag, Teenology, Crap Rap (Brown Bag Films), Ballybraddan (Monster Animation), and Jo & Jack (Dancing Girl Productions).

As a singer/songwriter Aileen has performed in venues across Ireland, the UK and Europe, and recently finished recording a second album with her band the Remedy Club with five-time Grammy-winning producer Ray Kennedy in Nashville.

Viko Nikci is a writer and director for film and theatre. Born in Kosova, raised in NYC and based in Dublin, Viko has worked in the arts every since taking a wrong turn in Chelsea and stumbling into the Irish Repertory Theatre at age 15. With a fake ID swearing he was 18, he walked out with a job and the start of a life-long journey in the world of storytelling. Award-winning films include Coming Home and Cellar Door and the short film Take it Back, set to be adapted into a feature. Recent screenplays include Sarajevo Calling, Chasing Your Ghost, Catch a Kite, and the upcoming Lineage. From chairman of Filmbase to founding a children’s charity, Viko has held many roles—but none as cherished as father to three little heroes.

The pandemic has forced humanity into an involuntary state of uncertainty that may last a long time. This is troubling, of course, but, as with any of life’s terribly sad moments, is not without redemptive possibility. We are challenged to find a new comfort level with uncertainty as a more constant companion. 

Like everyone, we at Irish Arts Center are entering a new phase of grappling with all of this. We still don’t know when it will be safe or allowable to gather in groups for live performing arts experiences. We continue to innovate our digital programming and prepare for our magnificent new building that awaits us, soon enough we hope. We develop scenarios and contingency plans. 

And we challenge ourselves to lean into the moment. For this, as ever, we rely on the artists. 

To that end, we have commissioned more than two dozen artists reflecting a range of perspectives across our artistic community, to create short works that respond to the idea of finding grace in uncertainty, to find meaning in the chaos, and perhaps even some redemption, as we recognize the fear and sadness we feel. 

In his work On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic just weeks after 9/11, John Adams sought to create a “memory space” for those who suffered loss of life, of loved ones, of innocence, and to evoke the feeling “that we are all united by a common bond of humanity.” 

In a similar spirit, we wish to inspire a volume of artistic responses that might form a kind of tapestry of emotion, a chronicle of the moment, work that can be appreciated now and for the long-term.

The common bond of humanity unites these artists—and will carry us all through this moment.