On this week's Artbeat, presented Ciara Murphy spoke to Artistic Director of Anu Productions Louise Lowe about her current show 'Vardo'. 'Vardo' is currently running as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Ciara also spoke to Lynette Moran, Producer for Anu Productions about the 'Now-Then-Now' Symposium taking place in The Lab on October 7th and 8th.

Artbeat Presenter Ciara Murphy attended this years Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival and made a documentary about her experience. Ciara spoke to patrons of the festival and volunteers over the two week duration. She also spoke to Artistic Director Kris Nelson, Award nominee Phelim Drew, Fishamble Artistic Director Jim Culleton, previous award winner Peter Daly and many more.

Welcome to this special edition of Artbeat on Dublin City FM. This week, appropriately enough for a radio programme, we're going to look at the extraordinary growth in speech and art radio content over recent years. This upcoming weekend (5/6 September) sees Sounds Alive - Dublin’s Audio Festival take place in the Freemasons Hall. Des FitzGerald brought Julien Clancy from Sounds Alive into the station to talk all things aural and press play to share some of his favourite recordings...

See soundsalive.ie for full details

In this show Ciara talks to Liam Halligan about his role as Director of 'The Importance of Being Honest' showing in Bewley's Café Theatre until September 6th.

Tom Lane, composer of 'HARP: A RIver Cantata' talks to Artbeat about this amazing spectacle which is set to open the TIger Dublin Fringe Festival 2014.

Finally Artbeat talks to Bert Wright, the curator of 'Mountains to Sea' Dun Laogharire Rathdown book festival.

In this edition of Artbeat, Adrian Colwell talks to Padraig Naughton, Director of Arts and Disability Ireland which is a national organisation that champions the creativity of artists with disabilities, promotes inclusive experiences for audiences with disabilities and works to enhance the disability-related capacity of arts organisations.

In the interview Padraig discusses his own art practice, the history of Arts and Disability Ireland and the new performing arts residency that ADI are running in conjunction with Axis Ballymun. Following several successful residencies across various disciplines, ADI and Axis will work together to offer a residency and bursary to an artist with a disability who is interested in developing their performing arts practice.

This year is Benjamin Britten's centenary and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra is celebrating in some style with the second in a series entitled Big on Britten. Declan McGovern, RTÉ NSO General Manager joined Artbeat's Des FitzGerald to talk about this fascinating composer.

Born in the fishing port of Lowestoft in Suffolk, on England’s east coast, the sea always had a strong pull on Britten and the Four Sea Interludes is the the most outstanding example of this influence. Composed as orchestral pieces to divide the opera Peter Grimes: Dawn; Sunday Morning; Moonlight and Storm capture the North Sea in all its moods. Britten spent the early part of the Second World War in America and the concert reflects this with Bernstein’s On the Town (Three Dance Episodes) and Copland’s ballet score Appalachian Spring. Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, based on a selection of six nocturnal poems by, among others, Blake, Jonson and Keats also features.

Big On Britten: Britten & America

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

Friday 18 October at 8pm

National Concert Hall

Prices: €35, €30, €24, €18, €10

Box office: 01 417 0000

Photographer Aga Maru joined Des FitzGerald in studio to talk about her new exhibition 'Sunday Utopia'. From the press release: "While most of Dublin's residents are relaxing in their homes eating Sunday lunch and reading the papers, Maru finds herself wandering through empty streets observing the other side of the Sunday Utopia. The sedate atmosphere cherished by most, for Aga as an adoptive citizen, it feels strangely intimidating. What on another day might feel like a new home, stripped of its midweek bustle and vigour, seems foreign and desolate to Maru."

Sunday Utopia runs from July 31 – August 4 at 33 Mill Street agamaruphotography.com for more on Aga's work.

Earlier in the week Adrian Colwell caught up with Aine Macken the founder of Art Clash night classes. See artclash.net for full details.

With four performances only the world renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet returns to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from tomorrow, Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 July. The company is bringing its renowned production of Giselle marking Birmingham Royal Ballet’s return to Dublin following the celebrated performances of Coppélia in July 2011. Des FitzGerald talked to Ballet Mistress Marion Tait from Birmingham Royal Ballet who's been with the company since she was fifteen.

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Grand Canal Square, Docklands, Dublin 2

Tickets: Priced from €25.00

Thursday 4 July 2013 7:30 pm; Friday 5 July 2013 7:30 pm;

Saturday 6 July 2013 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm

Ticketmaster: 0818 719 377

bordgaisenergytheatre.ie

The Ten Days in Dublin Festival kicks off tomorrow and among the many offerings is a new play Scabs about the Lockout in 1913. The play’s writer and director Naomi Elster joined Des live from a technical rehearsal (with apologies for the sound quality). The interview also features an extract from the production with actors Robert Harrington and Áine de Siún.

The Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street

July 4th–6th, 2013 @ 8:30pm

Tickets: €10/€8 concession - available on the door

Brendan Teeling, Deputy Dublin City Librarian, spoke with Suzanne Parker about this year's IMPAC Literary Award.

Adrian Colwell has the visual arts what's on guide for the week.

Jessie Jones of the Prosperity Project and Chris Maher from the Dublin City Soul Festival join Suzanne Parker on Artbeat this week