In the quiet room of the Armagh City Youth Hostel, the instructors have convened for a very important meeting: there is a bottle of cherry wine that must be consumed. There’s one problem: there’s no corkscrew in the hostel and it’s after 6PM in Armagh! After much consideration, they’re heading off to McAnerney’s, the Catholic […]

Today, at the John Hewitt International Summer School, my colleagues and I presented the culmination of our month of work in Armagh to a crowd of unsuspecting strangers. I know, right? We were pretty stoked going into it, as you’d expect, since many of us aren’t actors. But, still, filing up the stairs from the […]

It’s that time of the night again where everything is bleary, my fingers are numb from typing two other blog posts, and a sentimental air fills the quiet room of the Armagh City Youth Hostel. I look out the window, and it’s pure dark and I wonder, with the end of my journey rapidly approaching, […]

As promised, in a continuing fit of self-involvement, another blog post in the same night! Part of the Hewitt Summer School is the completion of a workshop that meets three out of the five days and presents its work on the last day of the festival. These workshops cover a variety of writing genres including […]

So for those of you that don’t keep a running calendar of all the international writing festivals taking place in Armagh City, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, this past Monday marked the beginning of the John Hewitt International Summer School, which is an international writers conference and seminar that features presentations, readings, and yours […]

. . .because an American writes for their self! Yes, Chloe McDaniel appeared in the dining area like a plot device and got Terri talking about ketchup and catching up and I’ve become acutely aware that I haven’t posted a blog update in God knows how long. Worse still, I haven’t posted a preachy, anti–American […]

Alright, after the salt that was yesterday’s post, it’s time to talk about something I love to do: acting! Why do I love acting (and, by extension, the rehearsal process)? Let me confess something. I’m not good at acting. I’m not good at maintaining a dialect. I’m not good at keeping a straight face. I’m […]

What is one character from Beauty Queen of Leenane? What is their super objective and why? One character from Beauty Queen of Leenane (you’ve read it, right?) is Maureen. (Score! Half done!) Maureen’s “super objective”, that is to say, her overarching goal for the entire play, is to get laid. ‘Why is she so determined to […]

I know I like to self–righteously talk a lot of the time. I’m a fan of my voice, what can I say? But I am also a man of the people, a blue-collar, hard-working joe and I have my sleeves rolled up to prove it. So, although it pains me, it’s clear that some people are […]

Now that I’m done pontificating for the moment about the deeper truths of the universe, why not recollect the positively silly hijinks of a bunch of Americans let loose in the most cosmopolitan, tourist-ready municipality on the whole Irish island? On both nights, drink ran gratuitously, songs were sang (beautifully, of course), dancing, frivolity, whatnot […]