Tuesday, July 23, 2013

And So It Begins...


The time here in Galway is flying...when not in rehearsal or postering or printing programs, we're doing radio interviews, going to openings, volunteering, and seeing other artists' work at the Fringe and the Galway Arts Festival.  But to begin at the beginning...

After all meeting up at JFK, we flew out on Thursday, July 11 on American Airlines (AA), with a connection in Heathrow.  The flight was lovely; we chased the sunrise across the ocean, arriving at Heathrow Friday morning.  The Heathrow experience was - umm, challenging.  With barely enough time to make our flight to Dublin, we sprinted through Heathrow, looking for the elusive Gate 77.  (George is still recovering - the wheelchair was temporary!)  We just made it aboard our British Airways flight to Dublin.  In Dublin, we found that George’s suitcases was "lost" – and might take days to get back to us…the only thing that made it bearable was how wickedly funny (and on top of things) the Irish staff was about it all. 
 
Then – we stepped outside!  It was a whole new Ireland to me.  Blinding sunlight – incredibly hot – brilliant blue sky.  “This could be LA!”, said Parrish, as he fished out his prop sunglasses.  A three hour bus ride on a new-built, generic highway across the country brought us to our beloved Galway – and, incredibly, the same Mediterranean weather.  Ireland was in the midst of what would be a 3 week long “heat wave”, with weather not seen since 1995 (officially!).  The whole country was at the beach…

Except our landlord, Tom Lyon, who after a few frantic payphone calls, found us at the (other) bus terminal, loaded  us up in his SUV, took us ‘round to the bank to get things sorted, and then gave us the tour of our new home for the next 2 weeks.  After traveling for almost 24 hours, it was like reaching nirvana! 

And a lovely nirvana it is…a 2 story flat at 23 Hynes Yard on the Docks, the city dockyards on Galway Bay that has hosted several Volvo sailing festivals, and is ringed with lovely new apartment buildings.  Instead of looking under tourist accommodation, we found it on Daft.ie, the Irish home site for homes and rentals.  Three bedrooms, 2 baths, a smaller balcony and a full terrace upstairs looking out over the bay, off of the living area/kitchen.  All mod cons, right smack in the centre of the old city, and our own loudly welcoming sea gulls circling the terrace – perfect!

Wired now – sleep? why? – Parrish, Karen and myself headed over to the 6pm Fringe Launch at the Dominican Hall, behind the Claddagh Church.  We crossed the River Corrib near the Spanish Arch in the heart of Galway, passed the famous Claddagh swans, and found our way to the Hall.  The City had a carnival feel to it – not only was it Festival time, but the weather was just gorgeous, and it wouldn’t get dark until almost 11pm.

The Hall was hung with a visual arts exhibition celebrating Galway artists, and both tea and wine were being served, in Victorian tea cups and cut Irish crystal goblets respectively, tho’ when the wine goblets ran out, the porcelain tea cups did just fine.  A duo played great Celt-folk music while artists and Fringe staff minglesd.  We picked up our first copy of the big, beautiful festival programme – yep, there we were!  Felt a bit unreal – or was it just lack of sleep? 

I caught with friend and photographer Darius Ivan, official photographer for the Fringe…we’d met when I was editor of the Oughterard Magazine just up the road, and Darius was the new photographer in town.  James C. Harrold, Arts Officer for Galway, opened the evening with a lovely speech, celebrating the magic that is Galway and it’s arts and artists.  He was kind enough to warmly welcome Selkie back to Galway, noting that once you get Galway in your blood, that’s it…there’s no staying away.

As we walked out into the beautiful Irish summer dusk and crossed the bridge back into the singing, dancing, medieval heart of the city, past a lone tin whistle player playing something aching and ghostly, we couldn’t agree with him more.
                                                                        




Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Some American Artists Abroad...


Greetings from Galway, Ireland!

Selkie is here with our production of Mac Wellman's Terminal Hip for the Galway Fringe Festival 2013, during Galway's long festival season - the Film Fleadh and the Colors Festival just wrapped, The Galway Arts Festival just kicked off, The Fringe Festival is everywhere, and giant leather dragons are wandering down Shop Street.  Musicians, dancers, actors, buskers, poets, painters, street artists, puppeteers, burlesque artists, directors, film makers, writers, craftspeople, famous and fledgling, young and old, from all corners of the globe - they're all here in Galway, right now, and there's no place we'd rather be - it's magic.

Starting later today, we'll be blogging about our journey and posting pictures and videos...so stay tuned!  And - thank you again to all our friends, supporters, and Kickstarter supporters who made this cultural journey possible!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

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

Sunday, July 24, 2011

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