Freda Manweiler

Smashing Times is a not-for-profit charitable organisation involved in promoting social change through performance, training and participation. The work of the company is underpinned by a rights-based approach and a commitment to artistic excellence and social engagement. The company implements innovative national and transnational projects that promote a range of issues through high quality artistic processes generating discussion, debate and awareness raising in relation to key topics. A key priority is the promotion of positive mental health and suicide prevention through high quality creative processes. The work takes place on an all-island basis at local, national and transnational levels, in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Europe and internationally and is presented in a range of settings from the professional theatre space to on tour in schools and communities where we are invited to work collaboratively with people from all ages and cultures, particularly in disadvantaged, marginalised communities.

The company has five high-profile patrons – Sabina Higgins, Áras an Uachtaráin First Lady; Senator Joan Freeman, founder of Pieta House; Ger Ryan, actor; Tim Pat Coogan, writer and historian; and Mary Lawlor, founder of Front Line Defenders. The company remembers and honours our founding patrons – writers Maeve Binchy and Brian Friel, and the historian Robert Kee.

Aims
• To use creative high quality participatory artistic processes to promote a range of issues and direct access and social inclusion for local communities and communities of interest
• To support the use of the arts as a form of knowledge and as a means of transforming society so as to promote social justice, equality and inclusion
• To work in a range of settings from the professional theatre space to the local community with a focus on areas experiencing exclusion or marginalisation
• To engage directly with targeted communities to provide professional practice and to promote the use of theatre for personal and social development, for individual and community empowerment and the exploration of issues relevant in our lives today.
• Our vision is for a creative society where theatre is open for all to be involved in and enjoy.