The Cow and Hurricane Irene

Irene, the hurricane, played havoc with Bo, the Electric Cow and her U.S-to-Dublin  caretakers as they  boarded the last plane out of Philadelphia August 27, 2011.

  It was 9:30 pm Saturday that George and Kate  (and 181 other passengers)  boarded  US Air flight 722 to Dublin. The cabin of the plane was still being cleaned when the anxious stewards rushed everyone onto the massive 727 with the words - "store your gear quickly folks as you get seated, we must take off as soon as possible if you want to get out of Philadelphia tonight!."

Wind velocity topped 65 + mph as we taxied down the runway.  A less than exciting, jarringly bouncy takeoff had all holding hands. After about an hour, all was quieted, and the rest of the flight rather pleasant.

The cow in our luggage finally relaxed.

Angela (the Angel) and Ray welcomed us to Dublin Airport as we got started on another creative adventure with Bo Leictreach, The Green Play Festival, in County Offaly, Birr, Ireland.

We carried with us all the playwrights words from our Bethlehem Pa Green Play Festival, as well as the new plays by Irish writers about to have their works  produced as rehearsed readings, hopefully swelling an air of urgency to world environmental concerns.

Kate, too, was ready for Bo's bell to resume its purpose !

GBM

A Selkie Bloggers Delight

Inquiring minds want to know.....what is a Selkie.......

        Selkies (silkies, selchies, roane) are seal people, shape-shifters, living in the seas off of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, and along the many coasts if Ireland.

         When a Selkie comes ashore, they remove their seal skins and hid it well.  Should a human find the hidden skin and manage to hide it from the Selkie, the two are bound together. But if at any time, the Selkie finds the hidden skin, the Selkie returns to the sea, the home that it's been long for.

Some old folks say the Selkies are like magical spirits, that they once were fallen angels who were condemned to live in the sea, while others folks insist they were once were human beings or the souls of people who were drowned at sea and allowed to re-appear as humans one night every year.

           As a theatre company living in the two worlds of America and Ireland, we fell in love with these stories, tales of transformation, of changelings, of shape-shifters - not unlike theatre itself

           Two beautiful films inspired by the old Selkie tales are The Secret Of Roan Inish and the recent Ondine.  We highly recommend them both!  We will re-visit some our favorite Selkie tales with you in the coming months on this blog...

Thank you, Julie!  GBM / 7-24-11