Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! Opens

OPENING NIGHT for the show has come and gone and at time of writing we’ve got Steven sweeping the stage, Angela being tended to by Louise (makeup), the cast are in the green room costuming up and I (Ken) get to sit in the theatre and reflect on last night’s performance, with just over two hours to go to tonight’s.

So how did it go? From an actor’s perspective it went very well. The reactions from the audience were nothing short of fantastic (and thank you all to those who were at last night’s show). From the opening of the first act through flying doors, flying mustaches, millet soup, burst bags of pasta, exploding clocks and all the way to the rousing conclusion of the show, we couldn’t have asked for a better opening and, looking back on last night, I don’t think we could have anticipated it either.

Taking off the acting hat and switching on the producer’s hat, it was great to see last night take to the stage, then take off altogether. Front of house, back stage, makeup, costumes, sound, lights and more, everyone is packing their A-game for the week and that’s what we’re looking to deliver on all fronts.

The show has indeed opened, no blood this time (Accidental Death of an Anarchist did genuinely see glass smash and blood spill on the opening night) and we’ve got four more to go.

This is our first major production for 2010 and the conclusion of our Dario Fo season of works so we’d love to have you along. There are tickets available for each night (though by the sounds of things if you’re looking for tickets on Friday or Saturday, advance demand is quite high) and they can be booked by calling 056-7765133 (Langtons), dropping into Rollercoaster Records on Kieran Street in Kilkenny or you can order and print your tickets online here.

I mentioned on my own blog earlier that there is indeed free wifi available in Set Theatre so if you’re tweeting during the show or throwing anything out online, why not use the #cpwp tag to keep track of everything?

Note: For security purposes we’ve replaced the name of our makeup artist with “Louise”. Errr… yeah.

Writing For Stage & Screen at the National Library

The National Library announced details of their new Library Late series which runs from this month through May, the theme for the coming season being that of writing for stage and screen. Admission to the talks at the National Library in Kildare Street (that’ll be in Dublin, folks), is free. For the four nights, the library have lined up John Carney (Once, Bachelors Walk), Mark O’Halloran (Adam & Paul, Garage), Paul Mercier (Homeland, Down The Line – Abbey productions) and award-winning writer Mark O’Rowe (From Both Hips, Terminus, Intermission).

The theme of Writing for Stage and Screen highlights the Library’s vast collection which is an indispensable source for the history of Irish film and theatre production – from photographs of stage productions to first night reviews in newspapers, unique portrait drawings, rare theatrical ephemera and outstanding collections of manuscript papers of notable playwrights and papers relating to famous theatres.

John Carney (he who brought Once to the world), who began his career as a bassist for the rock band The Frames, is one of four leading Irish stage and screen writers to feature in the Spring Library Late series. Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival (2007), the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film and the Academy Award for Best Original Song, Carney also co-wrote and co-directed the highly successful RTÉ drama series Bachelors Walk. In his interview with Sophie Gorman, arts editor of The Irish Independent on Wednesday, February 24th at 8pm, John Carney will talk about his craft.

Writer/actor Mark O’Halloran will be the Library’s guest on Wednesday, March 24th at 8pm. O’Halloran’s screenplays include Adam & Paul and the screenplay for the film Garage which was awarded the CICAE award for best film Cannes Film Festival 2007. On Monday, April 26th at 8pm television and radio broadcaster John Kelly will interview writer/director Paul Mercier. Mercier’s twelve plays include Studs, We Ourselves and Spacers in addition to Homeland and Down The Line for The Abbey. Among other work, he has also written and directed three short films including Before I Sleep, Lipservice and Tupperware.

Playwright and film writer Mark O’Rowe brings the Library’s season of stage and screen to a close on Wednesday, May 26th at 8pm. An award-winning writer his work for theatre includes From Both Hips, Howie the Rookie, Made in China and Terminus and screenplays Intermission (2003), Boy A (2007) and Perrier’s Bounty (2010).

Kick off is February 24th, again, admission is free and details are available on the National Library’s website.

Dublin Fringe Festival Call For Acts

Myself and John were having the usual post-rehearsal chat last night the eventually wound its way around to one-acts, festivals theatre, getting out and about – all of which reminded me that the Dublin Fringe Festival is looking for submissions for this year’s programme of events with Absolut Fringe running from September 11th – 26th in various venues around Dublin City.

Here’s their blurb…

Dublin Fringe Festival is delighted to welcome submissions for the 2010 edition of ABSOLUT Fringe, running from 11-26 September. For two weeks in September Dublin will be captivated by theatre, dance, music, visual art, live art and street performance from Ireland and around the globe. We invite you to join us in making it happen.

Dublin Fringe Festival has always been the natural home of artists who are ambitious, adventurous, innovative and fearless, and who make work in all kinds of places and spaces around Dublin city. This year, a continued emphasis will be placed on new work that reclaims more of our city’s empty spaces and experiments with performance and experiential arts on a grand and minute scale.

In 2010 the festival will have a particular focus on works that engage with the theme of community, to be interpreted as liberally and imaginatively as possible by the artists we work with. Too often ‘community’ becomes a byword for disadvantage and exclusion where the myriad possibilities of community, both on and offline are ignored. Dublin Fringe Festival would like to re-imagine the idea of community in 2010. To do this, we need you, artists and thinkers, to make it happen. We want to hear your ideas whether you work in theatre, music, dance, visual art, street-art, film, multi-media or beyond.

The deadline for applications is 6pm on Friday March 12th so you’ve a few weeks to go yet. For anyone interested in apply, the organisers have a pre-application workshop taking place on Wednesday February 10th at 6:30pm with the festival site also providing an online FAQ, a guide to venues and of course, the online application.

Devious road trip to Dublin? C’est possible (says he in an out-rrrrrageous French accent)…

Advanced Theatre Workshops with ArtLinks

ArtLinks, set up to connect and promote arts communities in the south east (they’re based here in Kilkenny) have announced details of their next round of theatre courses. We’ve been along to some of them ourselves over the past year or two and for people starting out in theatre they can be of great help and information. The next round of courses on offer are advanced theatre workshops, delivered in association with the new GB Shaw Theatre at Visual in Carlow.

ArtLinks are going to sponsor one application from each of the five ArtLinks counties, those being Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County (not Waterford City). Here’s the skinny…

The course is intended to provide an insight into professional performing arts practice and to assist amateur and professional performers and theatre artists to develop their practice and understanding of movement, voice and text, performance, and directing. This intensive advanced theatre course is open to anyone with previous performing arts experience at amateur, student or professional level. It will run 10.30pm to 4.30pm every Sunday in March 2010.

Places are extremely limited and participation in the workshops is by application.

Course dates and tutors are as follows –

• Sunday March 7th 2010 Movement with Bryan Burroughs
• Sunday March 14th 2010 Voice and Text with Andrea Ainsworth
• Sunday March 21st 2010 Performance with Aaron Monaghan /li>
• Sunday March 28th 2010 Directing with David Horan

Applicants must submit a brief biog/ CV outlining their performing arts experience along with a short letter of no more than 600 words explaining their interest or what they hope to gain from the course.

Applications must be received by February 19th 2010. Applicants should email info@gbshawtheatre.ie with Theatre Workshops Application as the subject line of the email or by post to Theatre Workshops Applications, GB Shaw Theatre, Old Dublin Road, Carlow. Successful applicants will be notified of acceptance within seven days.

The course fee for participants is €170. Applicants should not forward fees until their application has been accepted.

ArtLinks is sponsoring one place on the course for ArtLinks members from each of the five ArtLinks counties. Applications for these subsidized places should be sent to the members County Arts Officer instead of The GB Shaw Theatre. ArtLinks Applications must be submitted by 19th February 2010 to your ArtLinks County Arts Officer.

In the case of Kilkenny, applications should be delivered to Mary Butler at Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, 76 John Street, Kilkenny, or if you’re passing through John Street, the arts office is now located in what was the old Meubles furniture store on the lower part of John Street. For more details on ArtLinks check out ArtLinks.ie, registration on the site for arts practitioners in the south east region is free.

Seven Deadly Scenes Returns

New local theatre group What’s On Tom are reviving their production of Seven Deadly Scenes this weekend with two performances in Kilkenny on Friday and Saturday night. The programme is made up of seven new short plays featuring some works from local writers including our own John Morton (writer Heart Shaped Vinyl, Smitten). You can read John’s own review of their first performance last November.

Having staged a three night run in Thomastown around two months ago, the group are taking their performance to the Set Theatre on John Street this Friday night, returning to the Bridgebrook Arms in Thomastown on Saturday night. Tickets for each night are available from their respective venues, priced €10.

Performed on the night are The Widow & The Bride by Hillary Gallagher, Waiting For Double O by Gillian Grattan, adele_edwards@slander.com by Alan Cliff, The Murder of My Mother by Hugh Cardiff, Lungfish by Dermot Corrigan, Dumped by Arnold Thomas Fanning and Tenterhooks by John Morton.

Performances each night start at 8pm and given that it’s a night off rehearsals for us, some of the cast and crew of Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! will be taking in the shows as well. If you’re heading along on Friday night, we’ll see you there, and if you’re reading this and involved in any of the performances this weekend, best of luck from ourselves at DTC.

Learn How To Be A Standup Comedian

Every town has one. Every large company has one. Every pub has one. Every class room has one. The comedian, or at least someone who fancies themselves as a comedian. Well, if you’ve ever thought about getting into standup, there’s a workshop taking place in Kilkenny this Saturday that will get rid of your fear of public speaking and turn you into a standup comedian, all in one day. Of course, there’s no point in testing you out amongst the group of people on the workshop, no!

Once the workshop is complete, you get a short break before the doors open to the public for a standup show. All of this takes place in Cleere’s Theatre, this coming Saturday. We’ve already mentioned our love of Cleere’s as a venue, having staged some of our own productions in the space, but you’ll also get to follow in the footsteps of many a headlining Irish comedian with Cleere’s a staple venue in the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival annual lineup.

The course is being delivered by coach and comedian Padraig Hyland and according to Cleere’s yesterday, there’s already seven places on the course gone but places are limited.

The course itself aims to build your confidence, improve your presentation and public speaking, have fun and “an amazing experience”, learn how to make people laugh and ultimately get you up on your feet as a standup comedian because “if you can do standup comedy, you can do anything”.

The workshop is on Saturday January 23rd 2010 in Cleeres Pub, Parliament Street from 10am to 5pm with the show starting at 7pm. One day workshop and stand up show in the evening is 120 Euro. Contact Liam on 0863442003 or email at lpjryan13@gmail.com to book a place.

The Theatrical Early Bird Catches The Cheaper Ticket

Bit of a long-winded title there but you get the drift. I wrote on my own blog last week or thereabouts on our online ticket sales process and how we were going to discount some online tickets for those of you who took the first step with Accidental Death of an Anarchist in terms of buying tickets online.

In my best Harvey Norman-type voice, we’re giving you theatrical early birds three Euro off each ticket purchased between now and February 1st. Consider it a Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! early bird special. How do you avail of this offer? When purchasing your tickets from our ticket portal, click the “enter discount code” link and use the code cpwptwitter (we gave the code out on Twitter this morning).

There are no restrictions on this code. Feel free to use it as often as you like, on as many tickets as you like and share with as many people as you like. Our standard ticket price for the show is €13, so we reckon a €3 discount on tickets is a nice way of saying “thank you”.

The discount code will expire on February 1st, at which time we’ll have to restore ticket prices to €13. Those who bought tickets for Accidental Death of an Anarchist online will still be available to avail of a discounted ticket price but we’ll be contacting you individually to let you know of your own special once-off code.

Reserve your Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! tickets today.

Note: This discount only applies to tickets purchased online. Ticket sales are handled by Eventbrite and incur a booking fee. The discount applies to the cost of your ticket, ex-booking fee. Though subsequently, as the booking fee is percentage based on the cost of the ticket, the booking fee is reduced to €1, stretching your saving to a whopping €3.07 per ticket. Physical tickets will be on sale in locations around Kilkenny from next week.

We Too Will Drink To Pub Theatre

So I had a completely different post in mind and lined up for today, but having been prodded by another of my own extended family (who happens to be a great actress herself – and no, that’s not to score brownie points) to Peter Crawley’s piece on pub theatre in today’s Irish Times, I felt it was worth a response.

The piece, in today’s ‘Ticket, centres around the upstairs at The Plough on Dublin’s Abbey Street and the comeback of pub theatre.

Pub theatre, an age-old phenomenon that reached its zenith here in the 1970s, appeared to wane during prosperity. Now it’s making a comeback. As you read this, a long room full of promise above The Plough on Dublin’s Abbey Street is being prepared for theatrical use (see panel, page 21). This involves draping its cheery walls in black, banishing all natural light from the room, and de-cluttering a small area up front for performance.

It’s a modest space, currently marked only by a new sign that reads “theatre” and bears a small arrow to show you that its managers (the actor and director, Karl Shiels, the writer and director Paul Walker, and the technician Andy Cummins) mean business. When there’s no money in the economy, they decided, you can either drown your sorrows or raise a toast to bare boards and a passion.

Pub theatre holds a special place in the hearts of the acting community in Kilkenny. Whether it was in the back of John Cleere’s on Parliament Street where many a fine production has been staged over the past two decades, to running three plays a night in Kyteler’s on Kieran Street (theatre in there long since gone), or in the back room of any other establishment locally or around the county for that matter, many a local group has opted to “raise a toast to bare boards and a passion”. We fall right into that group as well.

Over the past four years we’ve been lucky with venues having notched up performances in Cleere’s Theatre, The Barn, Rothe House, Watergate Theatre and Set – all that just locally – but only one of those venues is a purpose-built function theatre (for theatre). But for us, it all started in the pub, and Cleere’s Theatre to be precise.

It’s not that far back to 2006 and our first production, Heart Shaped Vinyl. We had considered booking into the Watergate, staging a massive production for our first – given it was a familiar haunting ground to those of us forming the group having spent the best part of ten years treading the Watergate’s boards – but we looked at things in reality. A new group. A new comedy. A new bunch of actors. Hardly a penny between us to get something off the ground. Where better to start than the pub? I had already been using Cleere’s for a year at that point as a live music venue for the Kilkenny Music gigs, and being familiar with the space, and knowing the look we were going for, it seemed ideal.

Don’t let the name fool you. While affectionately known as a theatre and having staged and hosted some great names from the acting and music world down through the years, the theatre in Cleere’s isn’t more than a stone-walled back room space that would hold about 60-70 people at a max when seated. The tiered seating I remember as a child is long gone, replaced by the chairs we used to have in secondary school, the lighting is simple but I would recommend you bring your own gels, and if it’s a busy night, you can expect an interruption from one of the bar staff who have to cross the stage to get into the keg store to change a barrel. The door into the space is by no means soundproofed, but the stage door itself is so thick that you have to listen through a crack in the wall for your cue. The fire doors lead out to another pub’s beer garden, slightly problematic when the pub in that space (in 2006) would leave it’s back doors open and pump horrendous club tunes into the beer garden and subsequently into the theatre space, barely dampened by the temporary curtain hung over the door. The odd night would see glasses dropped or broken midway through a nail-biting monologue delivery, the scraping of chairs on the floor a sound you know you would never get in a furnished theatre space. And going back to Peter Crawley’s article –

“The only way it becomes a theatre every night is by an act of communal will.”

And so it did. We were reaching out to the community, trying to entertain the community. And of course, people coming to the venue knew there wasn’t any tiered seating, knew it might be a bit cold, or a bit hot (depending on whether we’d left the heating fan running), but for two hours a night for each performance of Heart Shaped Vinyl, they came, they drank, they laughed, they told their friends, and the cycle started all over again. As they continued, so did we.

Heart Shaped Vinyl returned for an extended sold-out run in the summer of 2007 before being resurrected one final time in October of the same year as part of the Rockfall Festival, both performances taking to the stage at the back of the pub. Then last year (2009), having played a museum in June, the Watergate in July with Stags and Hens, and knowing a trip was on the cards to Set Theatre for Accidental Death of an Anarchist, we managed to return once again to the pub for four performances of Shakespeare In Bits, again in Cleere’s, again with the pints and this time with a different pub next door pumping the tunes in under the fire exit.

The Bridgebrook Arms took up the ball then in Thomastown this past November, unveiling The Red Door Theatre and three nights of short plays from new group What’s On Tom? John’s verdict on the space being

…a fantastic small scale theatre and the folks there should be commended on the marvellous job they’ve done with it. A long yellow curtain (donated from an old cinema I was told) and a warm lighting scheme helped create a lovely theatre atmosphere. And it’s also got to be pointed out that the seats were very comfy indeed. You’d be surprised at how many theatre’s get that one wrong and do your derriere a complete disservice.

Collectively, the actors within Devious – for the most part – cut their teeth on the Watergate stage. But as Devious Theatre actors, particularly those of us involved in founding the company, ours were cut in the back of the pub and it’s quite possible that a part of our hearts, or at least mine, lays there.

I’d read another article online yesterday that said something like “the safety net will appear when you leap”. That will be my advice for the day to anyone thinking on starting up a theatre company, or group of friends looking to perform a show. Don’t worry (yet) about having to book a big theatre space, or hire professional lighting designers, stage managers, technicians. Don’t worry about costs. If one of your local pubs has a back room, then take the leap. We did it nearly four years ago and we’ve been flying since…

Accidental Death Opens

So, we’ve finally done it.

We’ve gone and opened our latest show, Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, at the Set Theatre in Kilkenny. We opened last night which means today, we’re a little bit more relaxed.

I’ve never seen a group of people try to do so much in one day as we did yesterday to get the show open, between moving the set back into the theatre, re-lighting, finalising props, costumes, decorating and dressing, makeup – the whole nine yards. We’d been flat out for about 10 hours straight, getting a breather at 7:40 to open the doors, finish makeup and finally put the show to the public.

And that’s exactly what we did.

Standing backstage before my own first scene, the laughter from the crowd indicated we might well be off to a good start on this one and as it continued throughout the show it certainly put our own minds at rest as we ripped through the first act (well, time certainly did seem to fly) and made our way through a quite different second act (different in terms of contrast to the first).

Social commentaries, political rants, jumping, falling, slapping, kicking, singing, big mustaches, police corruption, chases, dancing, bombs, detonators, handcuffs – the show has it all.

So, with the show up on its legs and at the mercy of the public, we invite you to come along over the rest of the week. Tickets are available for each night by calling and collecting at Langtons prior to 7pm each night, calling and collecting at Rollercoaster Records on Kieran Street prior to 6pm each night, ordering online via our online ticket sales or purchasing tickets on the door. Tickets for each night’s performance cost just €12. Online bookings incur a €1.05 booking fee per ticket.

No more painting, drilling, hammering, sawing. It’s time for acting, and plenty of it. And we’ll be doing it again tonight at 8pm right up to Sunday night.

Do join us, let us know what you think and if you’re at the show and a Twitter user, why not use the #adoaa hashtag and let us know what you think?

Thanks also to Rita Tobin, who was in attendance last night, for sending us on some photos of the show. If you’ve anything you would like to share, you can email us to info@devioustheatre.com. We’ll be getting our own show, promo and rehearsal photos online following the run. A few hours to spare before heading back to the theatre, strange to have that additional time in the day

Interrogating John Morton

John’s been interrogating the cast for the week but today I’d my chance to corner the director himself and turn the tables on him to throw a few questions his way.

Describe your part or role in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist?

I play Inspector Bertozzo. He’s a fairly hapless, short tempered copper who tends to get the shit kicked out of him. A lot. (Ken’s note: There’s no word of a lie in that, I’ve actually nailed him in the head and connected some fantastic kicks in rehearsals. He is the director after all)

What’s been your favourite part of rehearsals?

Trying to maintain eye contact with David Thompson.

What’s the hardest thing about rehearsals?

Trying to maintain eye contact with David Thompson.
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What do you think of the Set Theatre?

I think it’s a beautiful venue and the audience are going to be very comfortable. But it’s Fort Knox like in it’s ability to enter or exit. Every day is like the opening titles from Get Smart.

How do you think the audience are going to respond to the play?

One part of me really hopes people get offended. But most of me wants them to laugh their arses off. As long as they’re not bored. So yeah, somewhere between throwing rotten veg and pissing the seats. A mess, basically.

Describe the play in 5 words.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist

How relevant is the play to Ireland at the moment?

Corrupt guards, insane people running the show, paedophile priests, ruthless journalists, the truth being taken out back and shot. Yup, once we get Jedward and floods in there we’ll be laughing.

What are you most looking forward to during the run of the show?

People’s reactions to David Thompson’s marathon performance and Ken McGuire and Alan Butler’s taches. Pretty hot shit all round if I do say so myself.

Nerves?

Without them I’d be nervous.

Finally, who would you most like to take into a police cell and beat the shit out of.

Thierry Henry. We’ll leave it there so.

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