Jauffe – Armagh Project 2015

Armagh: Final Thoughts; The End; Armaghetting Outta Here

Jauffe — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 10:28:59 +0000

I have greatly loved my time in Ireland, despite my pun in the title. We had a great group of students attending from various parts of the country to make it a truly wonderful experience. I have learned not only a lot about Ireland (far more than I ever knew based on what I learned 8 years ago during my last visit), but a bit more about my writing process and myself as a person. I have learned most importantly from all of this is that, even at 25, or older, we’re all human– imperfect, but uniquely special. I like Armagh; as I’ve stated before, I’d love to live here (seems my mother was fine with that notion when I told her earlier over the phone). I will shortly be getting on a plane to leave the Emerald Isle. Certainly, I plan on settling in and sleeping as soon as I am home, and eventually going back to the milieu I know best in America; however, I will not forget Armagh and the experiences I have had and I will do my best to reflect on those lessons back in the states in my writing and my way of life.

Thank you Armagh and thank you Armagh Project 2015. Stay green.

Hewitt: Night

Jauffe — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 00:32:27 +0000

Friday: the last day of Hewitt-Con. The first panel of the day may have been the best; Alistair Moffat talked about the history of the DNA of the Irish people– all people actually. He spoke of the migrations of people over the millennia, climate changes, and substantial markers in DNA variants. I learned that porridge helped small tribes actually start to grow larger as women no longer needed to wean their children for extended periods of time and could resume bearing children when porridge is easy to eat and provides many proteins they’d get from breast milk. We had to do some recordings of our work for a promotional video, so that cut into other presentations, but I saw the fiction one. We also had a session where students from each workshop read their work to the audience, Carolyn was the only one who read from the Armagh Project. Malachi’s debate was the culminating event of the festival, he spoke with a Presbyterian minister, a Sinn Fein politician who used to be in the IRA, and a protestant woman who is married to the PUP chairman and runs an Irish language school.

Malachi questioned them all on the role of Irish language in cooperative negotiations, how can we all get along, where are we going from here? After the panel, Malachi warned me about politicians in public, since the Sinn Fein member had previously killed people in the IRA, and would be considered a terrorist by our standards, so he might not be as cheery as he presents himself. I felt the woman was the most sincere, as she represented parents concerned about segregation and promoted the learning of Irish history, despite being British. She stated she was communist, which got a few remarks out of Malachi, though.

We ended with a pleasant wrap-up dinner and those who were attending the festival via bursars received certificates. We, attending the festival gratis, did not get certificates. Overall, I enjoyed the festival and found some panels very enlightening and fascinating.

Hewitt: Dusk

Jauffe — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 11:40:13 +0000

Thursday primarily reminded me that we are nearing the end of the trip. Tess Gallagher’s reading struck me the most today, her poetry combined urbana and nature well. Mary Costello provided some insight into adapting memoir/life events into fiction stories, without totally making the main character a copy of yourself. The scriptwriting workshop was actually pretty good, we didn’t do anything creative, but we reviewed the whole concept of a story, which is always useful. The instructor made me feel better about my process; I feel like I’ve always been taught that character drives the plot and to start with the character. I often find myself as a big-picture person, looking at the plot first (which is probably best for videogame writing, since the player is the main character and will be playing as she wants to). The instructor stated that starting with plot is fine– creating a world and the story and then figuring out “what kind of character would go through this” and expand from there. So, I say the workshop was beneficial.

That night we went to Newbliss, a one-man show written and performed by the actor. He was a jazz player who struggled with alcoholism from his youth. He played many instruments throughout and used a voice overs to aid the presentation. Honestly, I felt the show could have been 30 min shorter. After 45 mins, the play lacked any real stories, it felt like exposition rather than scenes of his life. He rhymed the entire time, which I think detracted from the quality of the words he could have used, but the constraint was commendable. Some of his ukelele songs were a bit repetitive; the sax and clarinet songs were very strong, however.

We ended the night with an open mic, where many of us read our poems, I picked a few from poetry last fall, nothing that has been read or published before, however.

Hewitt: Day

Jauffe — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:07:45 +0000

Wednesday was rather full, I attended all but one presentation, since Malachi spoke to us about the future of Northern Ireland during the afternoon. I greatly enjoyed the poetry of Iggy McGovern, which contained great puns and lots of correlations to the sciences. The poems about his youth were my favorites. Ian Knox presented on his cartooning, all of which were very informative. There was a tense moment during a comic that showed a man arguing for slavery and another 100 years later arguing for the hunting of hares. Knox did not mean to equate the lives of black people to those of hares, but he meant to show that the same type of arguments, that have been shot down before, are being utilized again and again to justify wrong acts. The Irish people in the audience showed their collective concern and embarrassment, as many came up to us an apologized after the presentation. Malachi brought up the interesting notion that one day Britain might just leave the union, and Northern Ireland wouldn’t really be missed by current administration if it left, unlike Scotland. That night, we saw Two Sore Legs directed by Martin Lynch was an exceptional one-woman play about a woman growing up and dealing with love and out-of-wedlock children, her range of characters was very strong. The show goes onto Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival next month. We ended the night with a poetry reading performed by a gang of Belfast students accompanied by Paul Maldrun.

Hewitt: Morning

Jauffe — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 11:35:48 +0000

Tuesday presented some interesting sessions, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown spoke on the struggles of Muslim women in the world and the growing freedoms/rejections of “tradition” such as covering the face, which, aparently, doesn’t have a place in the Quran. The scriptwriting workshop moved from character creation to monologues. It was only during the presentations of the others that I thought of what my character would be. Our showcase went very well. We had some great feedback from the audience members afterward. I might need to change the towns named in my play or clean it up a bit. Knocksedan was an Alliance town, not IRA, which explains why in Shadow of a Gunman, the IRA are going to do bombing there.

Hewitt: Dawn

Jauffe — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 16:39:30 +0000

The first day of the Hewitt Festival was nice. I use “nice” as a blanket to best describe everything. The presentation by Lord Steel, felt mostly like a propaganda moment to promote him as an official. The Ian Sanderson reading was rather amazing: loose in the term of “reading” but his presentation was wonderful and his poems were very inspiring. He has been working on a series of books that will take place in every historic county in England, focusing on a travel writer who will have to solve various crimes and murders as he writes on each county. Sanderson draws from his childhood for his writing. His recent book “Murder in Devonshire” takes items from his holidays in his youth around the area. Lastly, the workshop I am taking, scriptwriting, has been mostly the same as what I’ve done for my play this month. We started with character building, and as usual in a timed, forced-writing environment I didn’t get much from the creative juices.

Armagh: a View Again

Jauffe — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:05:32 +0000

Even long after my first impressions of Armagh, I find it to be a lovely place. Better than Belfast, better than Dublin, Armagh is quaint and perfectly reflects the “small town” definition. One of my favorite video games is Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask, where game play goes over three days and the townsfolk complete theor own sequence of story over those three days. I have been walking around Armagh quite a bit, visiting different shops and seeing some of the same people on all environments. Armagh is the first real small town I have spent a significant amount of time in on my own. I am fascinated. It’s not a video game, but I am able to see the lives of people over the week, for better than I can in a city like baltimore with lots of visiting tourists and the like. I have been contemplating the thought of moving to Armagh in a few years, or some place similar. The idea of being able to spend a week in the glens of Antrim is very enticing, and those towns are even smaller still. I have been down almost every street of Armagh proper and a few random neighborhoods, seeing the various treasures tucked into the smallest niches of the town. I won’t be able to look at cities like Baltimore again, as I will always be trying to relive what I achieved here in Armagh: the microcosm of culture and personal experience played out by the citizens I have grown to know well.

P.s. Derry is a lovely city; I think the program should spend a week there during the trip. There is tons of history regarding the troubles and the siege of 1689.

Things We Learn: ep 43, The Rehearsal Process

Jauffe — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:43:44 +0000

(Intro music)

Ah, I did not see you there, please remove yourself from my potted ficus… welcome to today’s episode of “Things We Learn.” Today, we will explore the rehearsal process. Like all important television shows on public access stations, like this one, rehearsing is an important aspect for polishing the performance, just so you have an idea of what you are doing on stage and saying to the audience. I rehearse sitting in this faux leather armchair every day for at least fifteen minutes, wearing various hats, because I own an extensive amount of hats to the point which I will never be seen on camera wearing the same one.

Not only do the actors benefit from the rehearsal process, but playwrights get some inspiration for their pieces as well. An actor or the director may alter a line or stage direction that allows the play to flow better, or maybe even be more than barely incomprehensible. The benefits are unimaginable.

As for the actors, they might have a vision of how to perform their roles, but the director comes forward to give them real purpose and aid to their craft, seeing all the roles as part of a working object d’arte. While one actor may see what she needs to do to full the role, the director can piece the individuals together so they understand their roles beside the other cast members.

Well, that concludes another riveting adventure into the world of learning. Tune in next week for another exciting episode, where I feed a live chinchilla, on “Things We Learn.”

(Intro music reprise)

The Audience: A Link Between Generations

Jauffe — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 08:21:48 +0000

For Soldier On, the audience partakes in the play directly when Conall gives his soliloquy . It can be delivered to the audience, which is the only time a character addresses them directly. When the soliloquy is delivered this way, the audience assumes the role of Andrew, Conall’s brother. Here’s where some time jumping happens. The characters partook in WW1, but the audience members are young enough to know people who fought in WW1 at the oldest. One might think the audience would be disjointed, but the soliloquy can actually be appropriated for other Irish conflicts: the troubles, etc. Or any civil war at all (rioting, etc.) The audience becomes aware of their experience with veterans and their struggles (even their own). James has the important role of representing the younger generation, whom all youths should connect with. Thus might help them understand the struggles of their parents or grandparents during WW1, the Troubles, the War on Terror, etc. The audience becomes concious of itself, and essentially the 4th collective actor in the play: Andrew.

The Flight of the Earls! End of Days! How’re We to Win the Championship, Lads?

Jauffe — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 15:40:00 +0000

I found an interesting article at the library complaining about football players being scooped up by talent scouts and going over to the States during the summer, during the local championships. The Antrim Commission couldn’t compete after losing 5 top players to foreign clubs in Florida. The article took a few approaches to the issue, mostly stating that some people leaving might be doing so just because it is the opportunity of a life time and also promote the sport in other countries; albeit, they might not get the fame they are promised by the scouts in the US. Apparently the scouts are a bit belligerent, popping up in the locker rooms to speak with players about coming to America, right in front of their coaches and teammates. If a player completes the paper work required to go abroad with enough advancement, that was fine, but erratic up-and-leaving is disappointing and harms the teams. As a solution, it was suggested that only players over 30 should be allowed to go abroad, as they would have the bigger names in the States anyway, and this would allow the younger players to continue on at their clubs and grow with them locally. Either way, the American talent scouts must be stopped from stealing our hard-playing boys!