Kimberley Lynne – Armagh Project 2014

Dancing at Lughnasa

Kimberley Lynne — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:30:32 +0000

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, 22 July, at 7pm in Common Room of the hostel, we’ll read Brian Friel’s 1990 play, Dancing at Lughnasa. Placed in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg, the play is loosely based on Friel’s mother and aunts when they lived in Glenties in west Donnegal. The story takes place around the harvest festival of the god Lugh, halfway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, that included religious ceremonies, ritualistic athletic contests, feasting, match-making and trading.
In Dublin, we ran out of time for Nessa’s Friel presentation, so she will post it on the blog later this evening.
For our reading, we’ll split the role of Michael into the older reflective voice and the younger 7 year old voice. The play is posted in Dropbox.
Cast:
Michael, older = Doug
Michael, the boy = Dan
Chris = Cori
Maggie = Clare
Agnes = Maureen
Rose = Kelly
Kate = Rachel
Gerry = Mateo
Jack = Kimberley
Stage directions = Terri

Looking forward to hearing it. I’ve seen it twice and love this piece.

Only 137 Wild Bees

Kimberley Lynne — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:03:25 +0000

We’ve asked the theatre pack students to write a Tweet version of their plays, because, at this point in the development process, compressing a ten-minute play into less than 140 characters is a good exercise. Plus, I’ve been asked to submit a play to a DC theatre and part of that application requires a Tweet description of the work. So, process and marketing rolled into one.

Here’s mine for my short Armagh Project play, Wild Bees:

Upset by Sean O’Casey, Yeats takes to his bed. After years of searching for Other Side confirmation, fairies climb in his bedroom window.

Casting for Playboy of the Western World

Kimberley Lynne — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 20:44:00 +0000

Tomorrow night in the Common Room of the hostel, we’ll read John Millington Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World. First produced at the Abbey Theatre in 1907, the production stirred protests. People, particularly Irish Nationalists, felt the story was an offense to public morals and an insult to Ireland. One Sinn Fein leader thought the play was not political enough. Many found the female characters offensive since they wore at one point, only their shifts or undergarments.

The play is very character-driven and an interesting exploration into the psychology of storytelling. The town would rather hear the story of the murder than condemn the possible killer. Certainly, there are parallels with O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman: the most obvious being the protagonist claiming to be something he is not.

Christopher Mahon = Mateo

Old Mahon = Doug

Michael James and a bellman = Kimberley

Pegeen Mike = Clare

Widow Quin = Cori

Shawn Keough = Dan

Philly Cullen and stage directions = Terri

Jimmy Farrell and Susan Brady = Rachel

Sara Tansey = Maureen

Honor Blake = Kelly

Nelly = Libby

Looking forward to hearing this wild play again and discussing it after.

Writer, Here!

Kimberley Lynne — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:32:30 +0000

Here on this lush island, the parameters of locality seem smaller; each town displays its individual personality. Perhaps identity shifts between villages, across fields and through streams, haystacks and the boughs of oak trees. Reach the next municipality and, like birds, the townspeople announce their territories: Armagh, here! Portadown,here! Lurgan, here!

“Landscape doesn’t have an accent,” was one comment from our discussion after Nessa’s review of Irish history on Monday. But, it might. Geography impacts voice and what stories we tell and how.

I’m from Baltimore, Maryland that has its own very distinctive way of pronouncing everything. Maryland is split not only by the Chesapeake Bay but by economics and politics. Its Eastern Shore is barely 25′ above sea level, mostly rural and pledged Confederate during the Civil War. In 2002, I was commissioned to write a ghost walking tour in the tiny town of Cambridge in Dorchester County on the Shore. The natives there were hesitant to talk to me; I was from the city-side, the Yankee side, the “main land,” and decidedly an outsider in my own state. Their xenophobia was palpable; they called me foreigner and threatened to dump me in the marsh if I kept asking questions about local hauntings.

“But I was born here!” I protested. It didn’t matter; their identity stretches only to the border of the next equally flat and damp county.

During the Troubles, the Armagh Mall was a no-man’s-land, splitting the population into tight tribes, and to this day, the Catholics and Protestants not only have separate churches, but different playing fields, schools, food stores, neighborhoods and pronunciations. A mile separates the two St. Patrick cathedrals and there’s the local parameter of that identity.

A million years walking upright, and we humans still huddle under the stars in a shaky niche-mentality; we hang in groups of like-minded people who corroborate our belief systems and grant us a sense of belonging.

I’m not just an American and a Baltimorean. I want to be defined by what I do. Is that even possible? I’m a writer first, no matter where I live or where I was born.

The History of the Troubles Casting

Kimberley Lynne — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 19:25:29 +0000

Hello writers! Great reading tonight of Shadow! Good for you!

Tomorrow night we read The History of the Troubles (accordin’ to my Da) by Martin Lynch, Conor Grimes and Alan McKee. We’ll meet Martin next week 18 July in Belfast. History of the Troubles was first performed in May 2002, commissioned as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in Belfast. Martin produced it (he’s a theatrical producer as well as a playwright) and Grimes and McKee performed in it.

Usually only three actors play all the parts in the play, but for our reading, we’ll spread out the many roles amongst us.

Gerry = Cori

Fireball = Kimberley

Seamus = Mateo

Andy = Maureen

Eugene, the brother = Doug

Vinty, the IRA man = Doug

Felix = Dan

Derek = Kelly

Colm, the son = Kelly

Maggie = Clare

Benny = Maureen

stage directions and voice over and music = Terri – as well as Mr. Bryans, NewsReader, Reporter

Eleanor, the wife = Libby

Young Carson = Libby

And all the other bit roles = Rachel, including civil servant, Jack Lynch, Community Worker, Mr. Carson, banjo player, Goon, Country man, warder, Barman, Taxi Driver, DeLorean and Colm’s Mate

Looking forward to hearing this out loud as well. Have fun reading it!

Great Grates

Kimberley Lynne — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 19:07:11 +0000

Today’s visual blogging prompt is patterns. I like how we now notice the details around us and under our feet.

The Secret World of Bees

Kimberley Lynne — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 18:23:33 +0000

We asked the students to post a visual journal focusing on texture.

I like bees; their means of communication and their social structures are fascinating. Plus, they make honey. I also like the contrast of the furry bee bodies to the bell-like and heavy with pollen blooms.

The Shadow of a Gunman

Kimberley Lynne — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 11:07:24 +0000

Tuesday night, we’ll read Sean O’Casey’s 1923 play, The Shadow of a Gunman. The play is set in May 1920 during the Irish War of Independence and is the first in O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy, that also includes Juno and the Peacock (1924) and the Plough and the Stars (1926).

Nye Heron directed a grand version of this powerful play for the BBC, starring Kenneth Branaugh and Stephen Rea. Link below.

Our cast for Tuesday night:
Donal Davoren = Mateo
Seumas Shields = Dan
Tommy Owens = Terri
Aldophos Grigson = Kimberley
Mrs. Grigson = Cori
Minnie Powell = Kelly
Mr. Mulligan = Doug
Mr. Maguire = Libby
Mrs. Henderson = Clare
Mr. Gallogher = Maureen
An Auxiliary = Kimberley
Stage directions = Rachel

We will discuss further in class, but, as you read, consider O’Casey’s treatment of themes of war, religion and cowardice. I am struck each time I read it by Donal’s repeated quotes from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound: alas, pain, pain, ever, for ever; how the Irish view a joke as a serious thing and a serious thing as a joke; and how Donal feels at the end that it is worse to remain alive than to die as a martyr as poor Minnie Powell does.
Nessa said an interesting thing about the play last year: before this play, no one had discussed the Irish who did not want to fight and that made O’Casey unpopular.

Looking forward to hearing it out loud again.

An Article About Next Week’s Marching Days

Kimberley Lynne — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 10:26:48 +0000

Our beloved friend and faculty member, poet and dog owner, Nessa O’Mahony, sent us this link to an Irish Times article about next week’s Marching Days. We’ll discuss this further when Nessa reviews the history of Ireland in Monday’s morning class. Give it a read.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/lack-of-progress-on-the-march-1.1855651?page=1

Third Impressions

Kimberley Lynne — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 22:24:54 +0000

This visit is happily my third Armagh Project. This morning, early and pre-tea, I was talking with the Armagh City Hostel security warden. He asked me why we return to Armagh each summer.
“It’s beautiful,” I sighed.
“Everyone says that,” said he. “But I live here, and I’ve seen everything.”
I breathed deeply and stared out at the sun bouncing off the rugby field. “The air is sweet.”
A smile curled in the corner of his mouth. “Yes.”
“And the water is sweeter.”
He fully grinned. “And we don’t have to pay for it.”

One of the many benefits of these Projects is the gift of reminding the natives how absolutely beautiful home is.