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Last night I was at the Mill Theatre watching Balally Player’s “Studio Shorts”. It featured 3 short pieces, “Small Box Psychosis” by Barry McKinley, “Bar And Ger” by Geraldine Aron and “The Phildephia” by David Ives.

I love visiting the theatre. I find it far more engrossing watching a play than watching a movie. You rarely get distractions by other audience members munching on overpriced junk food or teenagers texting (or calling!) on their mobile phones. But that aside, there is something wonderful watching actors perform in good pieces of theatre on stage. I always sit as close to the front as I can when visiting the theatre (in contrast to sitting near the back in the cinema!), the front row being ideal. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cinema, however watching a great actor in a great play on stage is far more rewarding and inspiring than watching a great actor in a great movie.

The theatre scene in Ireland has a massive divide between professional and amateur. Not in terms of talent, as the standard with many amateur actors and theatre groups in Ireland is high and often on par with the professional scene. But open a national newspaper and check the theatre listings and you will usually only see listings for the main national theatres which are out of reach for the majority of theatre groups. You’d also be forgiven for thinking that you had seen many of the listing performances before as the professional scene is often littered with rehashes of Irish plays amongst others. Granted the same can be said about many amateur groups, but perhaps I expect more, or indeed too much from the professional scene.

Nobody likes watching a bad play or a bad performance but no different to the movies, there are plenty of sub par performances in all walks of theatre life. Maybe its the high expectations or high ticket prices but when I experience poor performances in the professional scene, I often feel cheated. Couple that with a production that has been done to death, and well we would get into “walk out” terrority if it were cinema!

I enjoyed last night’s Studio Shorts overall. In particular I loved “The Philadelphia” which was directed by Brian Molloy who also starred in it. Performing alongside Brian was Sean Murphy and Claire O’Donovan. It’s a short piece at only 10 minutes but very clever and funny. The scene is set in what appears to be a New York restaurant in a ‘Twilight Zone’ styled universe. The performances were excellent and the accents were commendable!

“Bar And Ger” was directed by Gary Wall and Fiona Walsh. It starred Joe McCarthy and Aoibhinn Finnegan. It’s a simple story of the relationship between a brother and sister played out over their life. While I wasn’t particularly excited by the subject matter itself, the performances from Aoibhinn and Joe were excellent with the chemistry between the actors demonstrating some heart warming and touching moments and kept me engrossed throughout.

“Small Box Psychosis” was directed by Óran O’Rua and starred Sean T. Daly, Ronan Horgan and Pat O’Grady. It’s set in an elevator in New York that appears to break down and an off the wall plot ensues between a lawyer and 2 lift operators. An interesting piece, often funny although I felt the it was over long and could have done with edits in the script. That being said it was entertaining piece and in particular Sean did a good job of earning the empathy of the audience, which was important given what unfolds in the lift!

“Studio Shorts” runs in the Mill until the 25th Feb. You can visit Balally Player’s website here.

So today was our first rehearsal for Whose Life Is It Anyways? It has been an exciting yet challenging few weeks for me as I had some strong auditions to mull over and casting decisions to make. It’s fair to say that assistant director Brendan, along with Vonnie and Christine who sat in on all the auditions shared the challenge as we had lengthy discussions about casting.

But decisions were made and the cast was confirmed!

Ken Harrison – Kevin O’Flynn
Dr. Emerson – Brian Quinn
Dr. Scott – Sophie Van Het Erve
Sister Anderson – Saskia Carroll
Nurse Sadler – Ellen Hallinan
John – Shane Robinson
Gillian Boyle – Pearl O’Rourke
Andrew Eden – Harry Walsh
Dr. Travers – Cathal O’Donovan
Dr. Barr – Albin Lahore
Phillip Hill – Alan Rogers
Ms. Kershaw – Sinead Dunphy
Justice Millhouse – Ken Ryan

The ensemble brings a mix of hardened No Drama veterans and more recent members who will be making their No Drama debut but the talent amongst all is strong.

Today’s rehearsal consisted of some warm up exercises and a full read through of the script. One of the warm up exercises is taken from my briefcase of improv games, which tests people’s memory, concentration and teamwork skills! There was much giggling and laughing as the cast struggled with the game, however as the rehearsal process goes on, I’m sure they will be dab hands come show time!

The read through went well and it was great to start to see things moving along. I’m looking forward now to getting the blocking done. (or to use a less technical term, directing!)

One faux pas of mine today, I brought my camera to the rehearsal with the purpose of taking cast shots. But I forgot to take pics. I hope my cast will better at remembering lines than I am at remembering to take photos!

Jason (centre) pictured with Cariad (right) and Berkan (left).

I spent last weekend braving the Siberian weather in the UK and attending a Long Form improvisation weekend of workshops with Jason Chin. Jason hails from the infamous iO Theatre in Chicago where he has been involved with improv for over 15 years. He has held the positions of the iO Associate Artistic Director, as well as the Director of their Training Center. Jason created the improvised news satire, Whirled News Tonight, which has been running for over 8 years. He is the author of Long-form Improvisation and the Art of Zen Jason was in the UK as a guest of The Maydays.

Or in short, he has the credentials!

My inability to read emails correctly resulted in me arriving in the UK on a Thursday night, for a course that would not kick off until Saturday morning. I spent the Thursday night and Friday taking in the local offerings in Cambridge. Those offerings consisted mostly of snow and cold though. And a search for a scarf.

But I digress. So after a miserable night’s sleep I rose from the dead early on Saturday morning to take a train to London. My destination was “The Nursery” in Southwark. (Note to Irish readers, it is not pronounced South Wark!) An upbeat Jason greeted us at the door and in total there was about 16 of us ready to get stuck in! There were a couple of familiar faces from my previous improv adventure with the Maydays in Leela as blogged about here.

But lets talk about the venue, The Nursery. It was as if the room was built under a railway bridge, with the walls filled in cement and a door added. No, this is not a metaphor, the room really was under a railway bridge! The room was cool and quirky. But, it had no heating. And it was freezing! Thanks to the brainwaves of one of the participants, a few phone calls later we had a flurry of portable heaters which helped to stave off some of the cold by lunchtime. Every little helps!

So Jason gave us an introduction and we got stuck in. After a couple of warm up exercises, we spent most of the day (and the following day) in a variety of open scenes. It was quickly obvious that most people in attendance were experienced improvisers and some people perform regularly. The talent on display was excellent and equally hilarious! But Jason brought an additional edge to the proceedings. He is a fantastic teacher, very attentive and offers great insight into improvisation with his thoughts and feedback. His ability to plants seeds in your head brought out very fruitful results on stage. Jason put much emphasis on emotional reaction and the +1 and it was as if everything just ‘made sense’!

I personally find performing improv, especially long form, very liberating. The concept of “Group Mind” during a scene creates a strong bond between performers and the experience and energy becomes shared. There were many hugs, claps and back pats after each scene which only serves to highlight the enjoyment and bond that performing together brings. While you become used to it with your own troupe, its rejuvenating to experience it with new people.

There were so many great scenes over the 2 days (and probably even more during the showcase on the final day which due to my flight home, I missed), many colourful characters and hilarious quotes. Moments like when during a scene Jesus cries, “If I can’t repair a rusty hinge how am I expected to perform miracles!” Or after a scene involving a character receiving a banana on his birthday, Jason asked Andrew how he felt in the scene and Andrew replied, “Was that before banana or after banana?” All classic spontaneous moments!

I met some great people over the 2 days and I’m looking forward to meeting again, be it on stage or viewing from the audience. I’m also looking forward to my US trip in 2013 when Chicago is on the agenda!

Every time I attend or partake in anything improv related in the UK, I am inevitably filled at some point with jealousy at how large and cohesive the improv scene is there compared with Ireland. Its not that we don’t have great improvisers in Ireland, we have some great talent too. But we need more troupes, more venues willing to open their doors to improv and we need to raise the profile of improvisation in Ireland to a higher level.
To quote a friend who used to perform with me in improv shows, “I told people in work that I have done improv before, and thoroughly explained exactly what this entails. Despite this, many a conversation has been started with the line: ‘Did you know Dave did stand-up?’”

But lets not end on a downer. A fantastic weekend of improv with great people and great tutoring was had. If you have a chance to train with Jason in Chicago or indeed The Maydays in the UK, just do it!

You can follow Jason’s blog here

You can visit the Mayday’s website here

So No Drama Theatre is in pre-rehearsal’s with our current production of Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clare. (Subject to performance license) The privilege of directing has fallen to me, and its something I’m excited to be doing once again. The production will hit the stage in May. Inspired by the blog of esteemed No Drama Theatre colleague, Dave McGowan, I have decided to follow in his footsteps and blog the journey from script to stage. You can read Dave’s original blog here.

Whose Life Is It Anyway? was written in the 70′s and focuses on the plight of Ken Harrison. A talented man who has been left a paraplegic following a horrific car accident. He has become physically helpless with no movement below his neck. Ken decides his life is already over, and embarks on a legal battle to take control of his life and thus, the choice to end it. The play was made into a film in 1981 which starred Richard Dreyfuss in the role of Harrison.

Today we kicked of the first day of auditions in our usual No Drama haunt, and as with all our productions, there were a mix of new and old faces showcasing their talents. Joining me in the crew is Brendan Dalton as Assistant Director and Christine Leonard as Production Manager. Brendan is no stranger to the stage, having performed in a number of No Drama Theatre productions as well as directing in our bi-annual Shindig. Christine was Production Manager on our previous production, Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues, and made it look easy! I’m looking forward to working with the team as the production goes on.

We have 13 roles to fill. All bringing challenges with each one. But its going to be exciting production as not only do we take on a topic that is regularly featured in the news and media, but we take on a play that is a hardcore drama. The play brings many challenges to the performers, in particular the role of Harrison where nearly all of his person will remain lifeless throughout the play! Lets hope he doesn’t get an itchy nose during the show!

I have a vision in my head for what I want to achieve with the production and while the play has not been cast, it would be unfair on those involved in the auditions if I was reveal that at this point. But I will reveal more in a future post.

So this is page 1. We have another day of auditions on Tuesday and from there we will go through call backs. I’ll update the blog regularly with the hashtag #whoselife?