IAC Commissions: Jan Carson

"One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation."—Sunday Times

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has two novels, Malcolm Orange Disappears and The Fire Starters; a short story collection, Children’s Children (Liberties Press); and two micro-fiction collections, Postcard Stories and Postcard Stories 2 (Emma Press). The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland in 2019 and the Kitschies Prize for speculative fiction in 2020. It was also shortlisted for the Dalkey Book Prize in 2020. The Last Resort, a ten-part BBC Radio 4 short story series and accompanying short story collection, was published by Doubleday in April 2021. In 2018, Jan was the inaugural Translink/Irish Rail Roaming Writer in Residence on the Trains of Ireland. She was the Open Book Scotland Writer in Lockdown 2020.

Nicky Harley is an actor and theatre maker originally from Derry. She is a regular on stages across the UK and Ireland, and also performs for radio and TV. More recently, she has adapted her practice to online production, becoming the first recipient of Best Individual Performance for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth at the Red Curtain International Festival. Recent work with the Lyric Theatre includes the audio adaption of John Morton's Denouement, a co-production between the Lyric and the Traverse that premiered in autumn 2020. 

A drama graduate of University of Ulster, she has further trained under practitioners Philippe Gaulier, Joe Dieffenbacher, Mooky Cornish, Patsy Rodenburgh, John Wright, and Fiona Shaw. 

Nicky is represented by the Production Exchange Management.

Rhiann Jeffrey is a freelance theatre director and associate director for Prime Cut Productions. She is currently directing In the Pause Between Now and Next for Irish Arts Center, New York, in association with the Lyric Theatre; On the Street Where We Live, an eight-part radio drama produced by The Mac; and Ensemble Colours, a large-scale community project developed with Prime Cut. Recent directing credits include: Belfast 2050: Under the Albert Clock, produced by the Lyric Theatre in association with Origin Theatre Company (a New York Times Critics Pick); Life From Time, a short film by Caoileann Curry-Thomspon; No Explanation, a short film by Kyron Bourke; VERGE, a series of new play readings for Prime Cut Productions; Glory: Desire for NI Opera Studio; The Right Twig for Fighting Words; The Tempest for Rose Bruford College, and Every Day I Wake Up Hopeful, by John Patrick Higgins, for Prime Cut Productions.

Ross McClean is a filmmaker from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has studied documentary in Canada, Hungary, Portugal and Belgium, and recently graduated from the European documentary directing masters program DocNomads. Following graduation, he received support from the Scottish Documentary Institute and NI Screen to create a film set in Belfast. 

Through interaction and submersion, his work seeks to explore the depths of the human experience, and has been broadcast on the BBC, competed in DOK Leipzig, Clermont-Ferrand, and premiered in IDFA and Hot Docs. 

His film Hydebank was recently awarded Best Short Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, London Short Film Festival, Docs Ireland, and Best British Short Film in the Leeds International Film Festival. 

Currently, Ross is developing his first feature length documentary focusing on life following a prison sentence supported by BFI Docsociety.

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.