My Working Life, part 2: Stage and Radio

There is nothing like the energy you feel when a play you've written, characters you have created, comes alive on stage. Sometimes you can feel the electricity and when the audience explodes to its feet, there is no feeling on earth quite as satisfying and exciting!

But the production won't always encapsulate exactly what you hoped for. The actors might not look the way you expect or may even misinterpret the tone you thought was obvious and to you, as the writer, it feels like a travesty but most of the time, no-one else will notice and only your writer friends will understand!

Here then are some of the pieces I've had produced on stage. What I am working on now is a newfull length play provisionally called 'A Fresh Gale and Cold Chicken' about George Farquhar, the best loved restoration playwright who hailed from Derry. We start preparing for a rehearsed reading (April, Smock Alley Theatre) this week. At first draft stage, hovering in the wings, are a first draft rom-com called 'PO Box 123' and a one-act called 'Salt on Our Skin' which I wrote for a fantastic and gifted producer and writer friend called Tanvir Bushe. (See her very humorous and vivid blog at holeyvision.com.)

I'll be putting up sample pages of all the plays in th near future.

STAGE AND RADIO

'Tasty Morsels'
Afternoon Play, BBC4. Broadcast 21.12.01.

1998
'Salt on our Skin'
Rehearsed Reading, London; currently looking at Dublin production.

'Fur Doesn’t Hurt'.
1. Still Players, Cork and south-west tour, 1997; Cork Arts Theatre.
“Brilliantly written play...Fascinating… language which is rich and full of powerful imagery.” (The Examiner, 2.10.97)

2. “Magnetic...a masterpiece of unusual, highly dramatic yet entertaining theatre that will live long in our memories.” (East Cork newspaper, 27.11.97)

3. Winner of Best Writer and Best Production awards, Cork Arts Theatre National Competition, 1997

4. Rehearsed Reading with Andrew Bennett, Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
“While I found the material extremely uncomfortable, to the point where the audience may be cast as voyeur, I also found a serious, committed and original style and voice at work.” - Judy Friel, Literary Manager, Abbey Theatre.

'Trade Me A Dream'.
Focus Theatre, Dublin, 1997.
“Gripping psychological drama… a startlingly good piece of writing.” (Sun. Independent)

1997 'On Your Behalf'.
Rehearsed Reading, Bradford Theatre on the Mill.

1996 'Trade Me A Dream'.
Winner of Best Writer and Best Production awards in Cork Art’s Theatre’s national competition. First time in 10 years that one play won both top awards. - “A terrifying piece of theatre which deserves to be done again and again.” (Competition Judge Don McMullin)

Honourable Mention, Society of Irish Playwrights/ PEN Play Competition

Pre 1990
'House of the Rising Sun'
FTC Theatre Company, International Bar, Dublin 2 (1989)

'Remember Me'
FTC Theatre Company, International Bar, Dublin 2 (1989)

'Go In Peace'
Writer/ Director –, Dublin City University (1986).

'The Jewel Thief', play commissioned by Betty Anne Norton for Summer Drama School (1985);

'Wine, Women and Song', local radio broadcast out of DCU 1986.