A new drama workshop for black actors has been set up in response to our increasingly multicultural society, writes Ian Kilroy. The Black Actors' Workshop aims to give black residents of the Republic an opportunity to get involved in theatre and film projects. Based at City Arts Centre, in Dublin, the workshop was founded by Aoibhinn Gilroy, a Dublin actress. "I set it up hoping that it would grow organically into a production company," she says. "A few years ago, there were only one or two black actors in the country and almost no parts on offer. Then, when a production needed a black actor, the producers didn't know where to go to find one." The workshops, given by practitioners such as the actor and writer Donal O'Kelly, also focus on writing, directing and teaching. Since its inception in February of this year, the success of the Black Actor's Workshop has been evident: it has been approached by film and television producers looking for black actors for their projects. The first black actress on Fair City, New Yorker Elisa Joy White, passed through Gilroy's workshops, while Druid Theatre Company, in Galway, recently cast two Nigerians from the workshop for a rehearsed reading of a play. Amnesty International has also cast workshop actors for some of its recent advertising campaigns. Anyone interested in finding out more about the workshops can go along to City Arts Centre from 1 p.m. on Saturdays, contact Aoibhinn Gilroy at 086-8937138 or e-mail blackactorsworkshop@hotmail.com.

While attention will be focused on what's going on inside London's Royal National Theatre over the next few weeks, as its new director is chosen, film and video artworks projected onto the outside of the building will fight for the attention of passers-by. On the south bank of the Thames yesterday, Public Art Development Trust, an organisation based in the city, presented two new commissions, by the Irish artist Dorothy Cross and the Swiss video artist Piplotti Rist, in an outdoor projection that transforms the Lyttelton Theatre's fly tower into a huge outdoor screen. The projections are part of a programme called Fourth Wall, which aims to "test the boundaries between art, theatre and film, performer and audience, viewer and viewed, inside and outside, and real and imaginary space". Cross's two-hour film, Come Into The Garden Maude, is based on the work of a Victorian zoologist who lived on Valentia Island, off Kerry. It is the first in a three-part work in progress, called Medusae, that she is creating in collaboration with her brother, Tom Cross, a zoologist. Using images of jellyfish, accompanied by the sound of songs hummed underwater, it follows the rhythms of the sea. Come Into The Garden Maude will be projected from October 5th to 20th at 8 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. On October 18th, Cross will discuss her work with Marina Warner at Tate Modern, Bankside, London, at 6.30 p.m.

Belfast's Linen Hall Library has curated an ambitious exhibition examining theatre practice, criticism and audiences in Ulster in the past century. Called State Of Play?: Theatre And Cultural Identity In 20th Century Ulster, the exhibition and accompanying publication select 30 plays, from The Enthusiast, in 1904, to last year's superb Convictions, staged at Crumlin Road Courthouse during the Belfast Festival at Queen's. Fact files with play summaries and extracts, scripts, reviews, photographs and illustrations will be an invaluable resource for researchers and performers alike. The focus is on key texts that have been of cultural and theatrical significance in Northern Ireland, including plays on political and social themes such as interrogation, paramilitarism, sectarianism and mixed marriage. The exhibition, which opens tomorrow, will be accompanied by lectures, debates and performances. Further information from 048-90872211, or see www.linenhall.com.

Music not heard since the early 18th century will make its radio debut on Sunday. The Birthday Ode to Queen Anne, composed by an Englishman, John Abel, is thought to have been first performed in Dublin Castle. The score was discovered among the papers of the late composer Brian Boydell, by his son Barra, and is being recorded by Lyric FM with members of the Christ Church Baroque ensemble. Excerpts will be broadcast in Woven Figures (Sunday, noon) a four-part series presented by Denis Costello, which explores the music of 18th-century Ireland.

Edited by Helen Meany

arts@irish-times.ie