Sligonians on the loose…

A few unmissable appearances from the lively pool of Sligo theatricles over the next couple of weeks which I thought I’d quickly sign in for…

John Carty in ‘The Chairs’

Blue Raincoat are on the move again to bring Ionesco’s ‘THE CHAIRS‘ to The Project in Dublin for one week from May 28th to June 2nd, before shipping out to Scotland to perform at The Traverse in Edinburgh from June 7th to 9th, and then to The Tron in Glasgow from June 13th to 16th.

        The Man In The Woman’s Shoes

Whilst Blue Raincoat are off on their working holiday Mikel Murfi comes to Sligo to perform his one man show “THE MAN IN THE WOMAN’S SHOES’ as part of the Bealtaine Festival. He will perform as follows:

St Johns Nursing Home Sligo Town Fri 25 May, 2pm
Cliffoney Hall Sat 26 May, 2pm
Ballymote Cinema / Theatre Wed 30 May, 2pm
Hawk’s Well Theatre Thurs 31st May, 7pm

Then, this time in the director’s chair, Mikel stops off again in The Hawks Well Theatre with the tour of Edna O’Brien’s ‘THE COUNTRY GIRLS’.

The cast includes Sligo’s Bob ‘I’m jumping out of a plane soon’ Kelly.

See you all at all.

Short and sweet.

X

Things I liked:

 

Spooky houses, & Half Person’s over oil spills.

This Sunday in Berlin, I’ll be reading a beautiful play ‘The Way of Water‘ written by Caridad Svich and directed by Jake Witlen at English Theatre Berlin, Fidicinastrasse 40 10965 Berlin (Kruezberg) at 8pm. The play will be read in theatres across the world to mark the 2nd anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill. Admission is free. So please tell all your Berlin friends to come along. More information here.

Last September I shot a trailer for Spare Time Productions called GALLOW HILL HOUSE. The last few months the team have been busy in pre-production and are now ready to start shooting on May 25th. I play a character called Becca, and lets just say I read the script the other night before bed and it Creeped. Me. Out!  This is what IFTN had to say…

Irish Supernatural Short to Begin Shoot in County Louth

Altogether very proud of my friend Glen Gannon who won RTE’s TV50 DOC on the BOX. Glenn now goes on to make a 25 minute documentary called ‘Stripped’ which will be screened on RTE in the Autumn. The documentary ‘tells the story of a 20-something Sligo lad who is dealing with the effects of living in recessionary Ireland. He has lost his job, lost his house and lost in love but will not let the odds get him down’.

Last week saw a very interesting celebration of Polish and Lithuanian writing hosted by Polish Theatre Ireland with a post show Q&A with Dublin Theatre Festival Director Willie White. I was lucky enough to be asked to read a lithuanian play (in english) ‘The Girl Who Feared God‘ by Gintaras Grajauskas. ‘The aim of this event is to evoke a discussion on the themes mentioned above and to try relate them to Irish society who, for so long, have also tried to define their national identities in terms of political and economical changes over the last 100 years.  These same questions of freedom and identity are none more prevalent than right now, as Ireland faces stark choices regards its future political and economic independence’-Polish Theatre Ireland.

You can’t miss what I’m about to tell you not to miss. ‘HALF A PERSON‘ at Speak Easy Cafe Bar, Dublin (beside/near Odessa) all this week until this Sat 12th. It has three of my favourite actresses Joe Quinn, Aoife Moore and Aine Ni Laoghaire. It’s directed by Hazel Cullen who has given us the following TEN reasons NOT to miss it:

My big gay play starts today, and there are loads of reasons you should come and see it;
1. I wrote it (and you care about that kind of thing)
2. It’s fashionably lesbian.
3. It’s only a tenner.
4. IIf you go and see a play when you’re hungover, you won’t feel like such a waste of space.
5. There are two performances today, for your convenience: 4.30 & 8pm.
6.Joe Quinn, Aine Ni Laoghaire and Aoife Moore are in it. And they’re all rides.
7. Woody Allen said that he wishes he directed it, and that it made him want to be less of a creep.
8. My little brotherStuart will be at the door to greet you. Don’t pretend that’s not a reason.
9. It’s not too long. So if you hate it, you won’t have to suffer for hours.
10. It’s in a bar! Also, Speakeasy Cafe Bar are serving Dave’s Pizzas, which are cheaper than a pint bottle of bulmers.

I posted a speech a few weeks back given by John Malkovich to mark International Theatre Institute’s – World Theatre Day. Some of you have asked to read it again, so I’ll post it here for all to see. “I will address my brief remarks to my fellow theatre workers, peers and comrades…May your work be compelling and original. May it be profound, touching, contemplative, and unique. May it help us to reflect on the question of what it means to be human, and may that reflection be blessed with heart, sincerity, candor, and grace. May you overcome adversity, censorship, poverty and nihilism, as many of you will most certainly be obliged to do. May you be blessed with the talent and rigor to teach us about the beating of the human heart in all its complexity, and the humility and curiosity to make it your life’s work. And may the best of you – for it will only be the best of you, and even then only in the rarest and briefest moments – succeed in framing that most basic of questions, “how do we live?” Godspeed. - John Malkovich

 

And finally, this Friday is the general cinema release of CHARLIE CASANOVA. Watch the trailer.

Watch out world…

Love X

Things I liked:

RUNNER

Sometimes things just work. Sometimes people come together and magic happens.

Not always… but it does happen… and you know you’re in the midst of it when you don’t want it to end. When you don’t notice how cold and tired you are because there’s something more important to think about, something far more pressing to be intent on. You know you’re part of something special when the hem of your skirt keeps getting caught in your heels but it’s not driving you crazy, when you’ve inhaled your body matter from the smoke machine but that’s ok, when the blood has run from your fingertips because your hand has been in the air for 7 hours and it doesn’t matter, when you’re perfectly aware that if you don’t go to bed soon you’ll have less than 3 hours sleep before having to get up again, and when you do get up its to lie in a ditch for the morning and that’s exciting. And then it’s 2am and you still have an entire scene to shoot before calling it a day, and it doesn’t matter, because the most important thing in the world is to get that drop of blood to land in the exact right place. All that matters is the film, the people, and being together making magic.

This magic is called RUNNER.

And I’m unashamedly proud…

Paddy Slattery 

Tristan Heanue

John Phillipson

Mark McCauley

Jass Foley

Paul Noble

Carmen Reig

John Desay

Karl Doyle

Dave O’Sullivan

Grace Coughlan

Eilís Ní Abboid

Ciara Mary O’Donnel

Lorna Weightman

Allan Woods

Matthew McCormack

Claire Tobin-Dunne

West Patrick Connolly

John Slattery

David Foley

Lorcan Dunne

The Hendy Family

And all the Slattery family for their cooking, hospitality and generosity. X

“If I Told You Everything Inside My Head Could We Still Be Friends?”

“If I Told You Everything Inside My Head Could We Still Be Friends?”

That’s the title of a little something new from up the sleeves of Aoife Hyslop, Joanne Quinn, and moi. Our sleeves are long and woolly, and the things inside our heads are many. How many of these things we decide to reveal depends, (mostly on funding ;-0) but expect to find us in a theatre somewhere, soon. Right now, the idea is being developed and stretched, and squeezed, and poked, and bitten into, and crumpled up, and ironed. Our summer will be filled with residencies, and rehearsals in the Italy( ;-/) until the things inside our heads are ready for you.

Before that, we’ll be watching our old Iphegenia In Aulis friends in a play which you should watch too. AGAMEMNON is previewing as we speak and will open on Monday. This is the first installation in The Oresteia Trilogy written and directed by Andy Hinds, with the following two scheduled for later this year. It runs at The Project from 19th -21st March nightly at 8.15pm. That’s Lesa Thurman in the picture as Clytemnestra. She makes the best cheesecake this side of Cheesevile. (Lesa does, I wouldn’t trust Clytemnestra’s cooking.)

By the skin of my teeth, I caught a preview of Rough Magic’s IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY directed by Lynne Parker the other night at The Gaiety. It’s lighthearted and gay…hooray! Running until March 24th.

 

 

Calling GALWAY!!! An exhibition presented by 126: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW with Lucy Andrews and Carl Giffney, curated by Padraic E. Moore. Runs from March 17th – April 7th, 2012 at 126, Queen St, Galway.

 

I’m going off soon to do a film, or fillim as they say, called RUNNER directed by Paddy Slattery, a paranormal drama with a touch of psychological surrealism. Here’s the link to it’s :fund:it page. I seem to say those words a hundred times a day…:fund:it :fund:it :fund:it. There are still a few days to go before the :fund:it deadline for RUNNER, although thankfully the target was reached some time ago. To those that have funded the film, eternal thanks. If you still want to contribute follow the above link. Many thanks, and I’ll try to limit my :fund:it requests.

I must say thank you all for reading! There are so many of you now, maybe I should start watching my Q’s & T’s, or is it P’s & Q’s. Maybe not.

Off I go…

Things I liked: X

Encounters and sleepwalkers with rhinoceroses in raincoats.

Off we go with our Blue Raincoats and our Rhinoceroses to the Everyman Palace in Cork for one week. Cork!. Come see us from Feb 20th to 25th nightly at 8pm. While we’re gone…

There is a diverse group of people from Sligo making a community movie. “Encounter” is a short romantic comedy set in Sligo; African boy meets Irish girl and some people don’t like it… (the) story centres on Jonah, who visits Sligo from South Africa on business, but finds himself falling for Irish girl, Bella. He quickly realizes that the ways of Sligo are quite different to home and has to learn what makes an Irish girl tick”. This script is the product of Create’s Artist in the Community scheme. Filmmaker Sinéad Dolan worked with a community drama group for 3 months…workshops in screen-writing, art, acting and filmmaking…(exploring) themes of cross-cultural issues, identity and prejudice…”  If you have a spare bob you find should head over to :Fund:it and donate to a worthy project and  potentially receive a beautiful piece of art like the one pictured here.

There are MOMENTS left to vote for this: Vidileaks. Serena Brabazon and Andrew Legge are crying out for your votes for their Storyland project. It’s had most views but it’s not getting the votes to see it through to the next round. Have a look and show your support. It’s rather controversial and I wonder if that’s why the voting is slim, but it’s a moovie, and it’s brilliantly made, and they have some really interesting stuff up their sleeve for their next episodes, so indulge in your imagination of ‘what ifs’. Once more the link to vote.

 

Walker & Walker are due to open their show Sleepwalkers at Hugh Lane from Feb 22nd to May 6th, and Cléa van der Grijn continues to run Chance at The Hamilton Gallery Sligo.

Remember last year when we all (not me) thought we were playwrights for a while and wrote Tiny Plays for the Irish Times and Fishamble? Well they’ve been selected, the cast has been selected and the first round are due to be performed at The Project from March 15th – 31st. Here is the selection:

Safety Announcement by Joseph O’Connor

Poster Boy by Antonia Hart

White Food by Ardal O’Hanlon

Beat Him Like a Badger by Rosaleen McDonagh

The King’s Shilling by Mark Hennessy

Don’t Take It Personally by Rachel Fehily

Sure This Is It by Ciara Ní Chuirc

Between Us We Have Everything by Karl O’Neill

Pastoral Care by Gerald Murphy

Broken by Deirdre Kinahan

Commiserations by Niamh Creely

Calling Time by Michael West

Rainout by Jesse Weaver

A Body by Adrienne Michel-Long

A Deal Made in Drimnagh by Sean McLoughlin

A Life by Ronan Geoghegan

Debris by Evan Lee D’Alton

Dialogue by Gregory Rosenstock

The Nation’s Assets by Michelle Read

Tuesday Evening (Following the News) by Darren Donohue

The Audition by Rory Nolan

It’s a Lovely Day, Bill Withers by Jody O’Neill

Guaranteed Irish by Colin Murphy

Unrequited by Michael Cussen

Where Will We Go by Dermot Bolger

Directed by Jim Culleton

Dramaturgy by Gavin Kostick

Set Design by Sabine Dargent

Lighting Design by Paul Keogan

Costume Design by Niamh Lunny

Sound Design by Ivan Birthistle and Vincent Doherty

Produced by Marketa Dowling

Tiny Plays for Ireland will be back for a whole new production of a whole new set of plays within the next year. The second production will include the following plays…

Sanctuary by Liz Quinn

Weekend Abroad by Federico Storni

Ode to Life by Richie O’Sullivan

Hearts by Lucy Montague Moffatt

The Ramblers by Graham Stull

Soul Mates by Maeve Binchy

I Stand Here Before You by Tom Swift

Isolation by Joan Ryan

Blisters by Patrick O’Sullivan

The Straight Talk by Keith Farnan

Knowing by Geraldine McAlinden

Thorny Island by Sarah Binchy

Voices in the Tunnel by Garrett Keogh

Ground Meat by Conor Hanratty

Life in Two Syllables by Mike Finn

Light at the End of the Tunnel by Eleanor White

Naked Photographs of My Mother by Brendan Griffin

The Night Feed by Justine Mitchell

Phone Records by Kevin Gildea

The Cost of Your Forgetting by Henry Martin

Positive Protest by Christine McKeon

Grand Canal Dock by Tanya Wilson

Slanesman by Colum McCann

Things I liked:

They put the Hawk back in the Hawks Well, so they did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are lots of Hawks Well Theatre stories in our house. Many of which from a time when I was ‘in the buggy’ as my older brother Ronan was taken to the Feis. I remember the red paint on the handrails and the seats were blue. Mary McDonagh reigned supreme and I thought everyone was really cool. I still do.

The Hawks Well has seen many changes in it’s 30 years, a few lows like most theatres, but many highs. Recently they threw a huge party to celebrate their 30th birthday. Druid Theatre Company were in the house with their touring production of Big Maggie, Garry Hynes gave a speech, and Val Balance from the Arts Council explained that although Co. Sligo gets more arts council funding than any other county, it’s justified considering the county’s input artistically, and at the very least historically. So hurray for the Hawks Well’s future and continued success.

We’ve already played two nights in Garter Lane Waterford, so here are the remaining tour dates for our show, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company’s Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco:

Roscommon Arts Centre. Feb 15th.
http://www.roscommonartscentre.ie/events/listings.php#e339

Ballina Arts Centre. Feb 16th.
http://www.ballinaartscentre.com/events/theatre/

Everyman Palace Cork. Feb 20th – 25th.
http://www.everymanpalace.com/2011/08/rhinoceros/

Town Hall Theatre Galway. Feb 27th – 29th
http://tht.ie/1362/Rhinoceros

Siamsa Tire Tralee. March 2nd.
http://www.siamsatire.com/event/370

Sorry I’m a little late…

… in talking about THEATREClub’s The Family which ran at The project in January (sorry Grace & co), but I will say it was excellent. Each time I have a cup of tea I remember Louise’s character when she says (I paraphrase) ‘In our life we’ll make thousands of cups of tea for the people we love’. One of the more sentimental moments. We went on a night where there was a ‘talk’. A panel consisting of Dearbhle Crotty, Peter Crawley, Tom Hickey and Tom Murphy sparked a very interesting debate on the device of ‘the family’ in Irish theatre. Love THEATREClub.

Shall we talk about the Oscars now? Nah, boring. IFTAs? Nah. Terry McMahon was robbed at the IFTA’s by the way. Charlie Casanova should have got Best Film and Best Director. Although, I think overall it should win the day in terms of film posterity.

Bye for now. X

Things I Liked:

A Corporeal Mime Quickie

In preparation for the Blue Raincoat adventure I’ve been getting to grips with the art of corporeal mime with Valentina Temussi from Italy, Oliver Pollak from Germany, and Ireland’s Sandra O’Malley at The Blue Raincoat Theatre Academy. We joked that the process was similar to bootcamp given the rigorous physical work. The daily conversation with Oliver Pollack went something like this:

Oliver: How are you?

Nichola: I hurt!

Oliver: Nice! Where?

Nichola: Everywhere!

Oliver: Excellent. I love it!

Nichola: I don’t!

Oliver: You do! You just don’t know it yet!

I wanted to share some Corporeal Mime footage on the link below.

THE MAN WHO PREFERRED TO STAND (1994), the repertoire of Etienne Decroux 

The above footage is “THE MAN WHO PREFERRED TO STAND (“l’Homme Qui Voulait Rester Debout”), is the first ever reconstruction of major pieces of ETIENNE DECROUX. The reconstruction and direction was done by the last assistants of Decroux, STEVEN WASSON and CORINNE SOUM for their company the THEATRE DE L’ANGE FOU. The pieces range from The Carpenter, 1931, to Decroux’s last works created on Soum and Wasson in 1983-84. This work took over a year to accomplish and was premiered in Philadelphia in April 1992. These excerpts are from a two month run at the Theatre le Ranelagh in Paris, 1994. THE MAN WHO PREFERRED TO STAND toured again to the states and throughout Europe. The last performance was in 2007 in Warsaw. This work is the basis of the Repertoire class taught at the Theatre de l’Ange Fou school, THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF CORPOREAL MIME in London”.
Theatre le Ranelagh, Paris: with
Steven Wasson, Corinne Soum, Ivan Bacciocchi, Griet Maes, Doron Aviman, Renaat Scheelen, Nadja Turenko, Anna Teixeira, Geung Go Nam, Jean Philippe Richer, Shinobu Fichu, Jorge Gayon.

My understanding of this form after a very brief introduction (it takes years to perfect) is that corporeal mime gives the actor a physical vocabulary on which to create character and story, in human, spiritual, abstract ways, and beyond. Unlike pantomime (in the european sense, not the ‘he’s behind you’ pantomime) it is not a silent form of expression but rather equips the performer with a physical structure in which to understand or interpret human behaviours and emotions.

The master of corporeal mime Etienne Decroux, (1898-1991), explained  ”One of the characteristics of our world is that it is sitting down. Corporeal mime stands up. It enjoys representing the world, and all those who work with their body… To be in mime is to be a partisan, a partisan of movement in a world sitting down.”

That’s it for now. Just enough time to holler a quick ‘Yey’ for the reopening of The Lighthouse Cinema, and another quick ”Yey” for Sarah Glennie’s appointment as director of IMMA, although I’m sure there are tears at the IFI.

See ye later. Or as they say in the corporeal mime world ‘Get me home for a hot bath’

X

Things I liked: