I’ve been told by poetry instructors, when writing about a specific term, to write the term over and over and over again until you’ve distilled all of the riding luggage the word carries from the true meaning and sensation of the term. I’ve been prompted to write about the true truth of Faith Healer, a […]

I was tasked with paging through a Northern Ireland newspaper and commenting on an article within with my American sentimentalities. Fortunately, as would be the case, I frequently flout the prompts that we’re given to write about something I want to write about. I wanted to talk about what struck me when flipping through the […]

Tell us about the people you have connected with in Northern Ireland. I know this is supposed to be about an Irish person I met. It’s not said, but the prompt is pretty clear in its implication. So, moving on then, something I would much rather talk about, as an American, is the beauty of […]

For those that aren’t familiar with the central conceit of my 10-minute play, there are two main characters, Dean McLaughlin and Rev. O’Neill, that argue about how to handle the failing infrastructure of the St. Patrick’s Anglican Cathedral steeple. I’d like to reveal some more scintillating information about these two individuals by answering an age-old […]

I know I’ve made pithy, shade-throwing references to American superiorism over the past week-odd of blogging, but now that I’m heading back from Belfast, I feel almost obligated to unashamedly comment on the trouble that I will be departing from in a matter of hours and 3000 miles away from in a matter of weeks. […]

Today, I will tell you the story of Belfast. Once upon a time, there was a city named Belfast and through it ran a wall.   On either side of the wall extended fields of community, poverty, and decay, each staked out by two different Christian sects with slightly different rules and regulations on respecting […]

A few days ago, I referred to my typically American sentiment to come here to “fix” Northern Ireland with a heavy-handed, judgmental political diatribe disguised as a play. Now that the Fourth of July is mere hours away here, I can’t help but reflect on the meaning of what it is to be an American, […]

The theme of the John Hewitt International Summer School, the venue where we will be performing our plays in a number of weeks that I care not to remember, has a theme of “Living Among Strangers: The Lost Meaning of Home”. I just wanted to share a doodle that I ‘composed’, to state it pompously, […]

Today’s adventures in Armagh remind me of a trend I usually field in my nightmares: being chronically lost in a strange, empty space. As I wondered through Armagh, pondering the subject of my upcoming play and idly searching for Friar Tucks for lunch, when it became quite clear that I really didn’t know where I […]

While on a walking tour of Armagh yesterday, I was bombarded with inspiration as to the source material for my upcoming ten-minute play. In a town so rich with culture and history, there is no wanting for a muse. It’s as if they’re all lined up with signs on the street, looking for work. And, […]