PRESS RELEASE: New Play by Northern Ireland Writer Set to Premiere in Derry Next Month

23 Apr

Omagh-born playwright James McAnespy’s first play Sitting Up for Michael will premiere at Derry Playhouse on Saturday May 19th.

The new play, the first production by his company King’s Fool, is set at a wake house in rural county Tyrone.

McAnespy has expressed concern that the increased pressures of modern lifestyles and increased youth emigration threaten the viability of sitting up for the deceased in a wake house.Image

“Irish wakes are a unique form of mourning,” McAnespy said. “It allows the mourners to celebrate the life of the deceased as well as providing a platform for people to offer their condolences if the death was a tragic one.

“It is unfortunate that we are already seeing the tradition is being practiced less and less in city environments.”

The comedy, which McAnespy will be acting in, is a bittersweet comedy about the tensions that arise when the truth comes to the surface, especially when emotions are already high and liberated by drink. Through this prism, Sitting Up for Michael explores themes of family,
bereavement, youth unemployment, bullying and many other aspects of 21st century life in Ireland.

“Everyone has been to a wake,” McAnespy said, “and people will recognise the characters in the play that are in every small town in Ireland, so audiences will be able to relate to the action on stage.”

The cast of seven is a blend of youth and experience and is made up of actors from across the province, including some who are making their professional debuts. Brian Kennedy from Strabane plays the grumpy Brian, Marianne March plays his ambitious sister, Benjamin Gould plays the
charismatic Joe, Naomi Rocke plays the spiteful Carla, Michael O’Sullivan of Dublin plays the troubled Billy, and Cathy Brennan-Bradley plays the charitable Doris. The director, Helen Donnelly from Newry, has been training in London and is now establishing herself as one of the leading
young directors in Belfast.

Following the Playhouse premiere Sitting Up for Michael will play Belfast, Omagh and Strabane.

Tickets for the premiere priced £11, £8 concessions are available form Derry Playhouse Box Office via http://www.derryplayhouse.co.uk , in person or by phone on 71268027

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Sitting Up for MIchael and The Odd Couple – A busy May!

11 Apr

This month I am going into the busiest month of 2012 so far as I’ll be embarking on two stage productions, my own Sitting Up for Michael and Skewiff Theatre Productions’ version of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. 

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The Odd Couple, which is being directed by Mary Lindsey, who was in the rehearsed reading of …Michael, is part of this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, and is one of the Belfast Telegraph’s picks of the festival. It’s incredible I get to be part of the festival, as it has been a huge success over the years, and this year proves to be no different, with talent such as Rachel Austin, The Rubberbandits, and Dylan Moran just a tiny fraction of the entertainment on offer. The cast for the quick fire comedy is appropriately enough comprised largely of stand up comedians, led by Joe Lindsey and Morgan Hearst as the eponymous Couple, with support from Christian Jackson (who was in Incident at Vichy with me), Griffin Madill, Ruaidhrí Ward, Monnine Dargan and Emma McErlean. The play will be on in the Dark Horse Cafe from May 9 -12 and tickets can be purchased here.

While that is going on, I will also be in rehearsals with …Michael, which is set to tour across the province in May and into June, but I will discuss that in a future post.

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Éalú and Bóithre Iarainn to air on TG4 in the coming weeks.

6 Feb

You wait months for your TV appearances to air then two come along at once!

The two TG4 series I filmed in 2011 are going on air in the first couple of weeks of February.

The first is a documentary series, Bóithre Iarainn, which details some of the incredible stories of major events that took place on Ireland’s railway network in the early part of the twentieth century. The episode I featured in involved a bloody shootout at the border station of Clones, as the IRA tried to get their hands on the military weapons that were on board. The series starts on Thursday February 9th at 8pm.

The second series is Éalú, a series about daring prison escapes by Irish convicts. My character, Sean Bourke, was an anarchic communist sympathiser who masterminded the breakout of another prisoner from Wormwood Scrubs. This airs on Thursday 16th February at 7pm.

Both shows were fantastic shoots, so I can’t wait to see the final product.

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Sitting Up for Michael at the audition stage

12 Jan

Over the last while I have been preparing King’s Fool Productions for our first major production, my play Sitting Up for Michael. We will be holding out audition on Sunday having received over 400 applicants from all over the UK and Ireland.
The standard was so high, it was excrutiatingly difficult to have to choose who to invite.
I’ll be sitting alongside the director Helen Donnelly, who directed the rehearsed reading in November, but my role will mostly be to read in.
We are still sorting out then locations of the tour, but we’ll be touring across the province in May and June, and I’m really looking forward to it.

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King’s Fool Productions

7 Nov

King's Fool Productions

King’s Fool Productions has been taking up the bulk of my time recently, so these pastures have been left untended recently. Not to worry, when the launch has taken place later this month full service will be resumed.

King’s Fool is my new production company, and I have been working away trying to book venues for Sitting Up for Michael, a full professional production which will be touring in Summer 2012.

Head over to the website, designed by Alex McCooke, or Like the Facebook Page for further updates.

Also, don’t forget, …Michael is getting his stage debut in the Ulster Hall on November 16, in a rehearsed reading by Accidental Theatre. The cast is set in place, with a variety of people I’ve worked with before (Ed Boyd, Chris McCurry, Charmaine McBride) as well as some new faces (Francis Mezza, Victoria Gleason, Chris Grant and Mary Lindsay) and the director is Helen Donnelly, another artist who I haven’t had the pleasure of working with yet, but having spoke to her about the play, I’m confident she will do a brilliant job.

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King’s Fool Productions, Guidelines for a Long and Happy Life/earth2.0, Culture Night, The Portrait Keeper,

26 Sep

My posts have been much more sporadic recently, and I’ve been unjustifiably grouping several disparate projects into one long post, rather than the individual post they deserve. This has largely been due to the fact that I’ve so much going on, I haven’t had the time to give each project it’s due cyberspace. This post is continuing that long and noble tradition, starting with the main vampire of my time recently, Hatfield Productions King’s Fool Productions.

King’s Fool Productions is the name of the production company I am starting, dealing initially with theatre, but with plans to expand into moving image, digital media, and perhaps even fashion!

I have gone on the Go For It programme, and as a result, I have been staring at spreadsheets and talking to marketing people for the last fortnight – exactly the kind of things I got into acting to avoid. Luckily, there was disproportionate amount of creative people there, who I’ll probably end up doing business with in the foreseeable future.

The next step will be getting the logo done, so I can start doing the website and printing stationary, with the intent of having a launch night in early November. Watch this space!

I have also got involved with Tinderbox Theatre’s next show, Guideline for a Long and Happy Life. It is being put on as part of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s, and is being performed in an abandoned warehouse the Old Victor Stationery Warehouse.

The post apocalyptic set is huge, but it sounds like it will be incredible, with audience interaction, horror elements, and poisoned ground, only scalable on stilts. Directed by Michael Duke, from Paul Kennedy’s script, the play is sure to imprint itself on anyone who sees it.

As part of the project there is earth2.0 following the lives of other inhabitants of the post apocalyptic world. It is a devised piece featuring the chorus from the main show, and it is being performed in the same venue on Sunday Oct 23rd. The ensemble, lead by Patrick Sanders, with help from the cast of Guidelines…, is incredibly creative, and the show is set to be another masterpiece.

On Friday, Belfast’s 3rd annual Culture Night took place, and as part of it, I was reviving my role in the latest Wireless Mystery Theatre. This time I played the announcer, and a variety of other roles with a total cast of 23 set in St James Hill furniture store. The rest of the night was a triumph as well, as this event is growing exponentially and it is a great showcase for Belfast’s monumental creativity. Next year Hatfield Productions will be there, and if all goes to plan, will be a already recognised name.

Also this month, I was in the latest of Accidental’s Biscuit Tin Readings, The Portrait Keeper, by Roy Endean. This expressive work was Roy’s first staging, and he travelled up from Cork to see it. I played Chum, the blind milktoast to Matt Faris’ tyrannical Barth. Susan Davey and Jason McLaughlin played the seductive mistress and ambitious painter, while Mary Frances Doherty was directing. It’s a testament to Accidental’s increasing reputation that they can repeatedly attract talent of this quality to all their projects. I’m playing Hitler in the next reading, William Patterson’s Stumpergasse 31, and after that Sitting Up for Michael will be read on November 16.

Oh, and I turned 26.

Update (6 November 2011): Hatfield Productions became King’s Fool Productions prior to it’s launch.

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Bruiser Graduate Academy

23 Aug

This past week I have been in rehearsals with Bruiser Theatre Company as part of the Bruiser Graduate Academy. The week has been intense but as the show takes shape, it is clear that it’s going to be incredible for the showcase on Thursday.

The main aspect of the showcase is an ensemble performance of the farcical satire, “Out of the Flying Pan” by David Campton in the Brian Friel Theatre. Among the fantastic ten-strong cast are Natalie Murphy, Philip Rafferty, Kim Moylan, Roger Dane, Shannon Hegarty, Mary McGurk, Richard Priestly, Paula Guzzanti and Caroline Brennan. I had worked with Caroline in Lunch last year, with Philip in Hope and Roger, briefly, in Incident at Vichy, but it’s the first time I’ve worked with everyone else. The play is being directed by Lisa May with the assistance of Bruiser’s Musical Director, Ross Anderson.

Further to the play, the showcase will involve each actor performing a monologue, which we were honing today with Matthew Reeve who travelled from England. He is heavily involved in the audition process with many drama schools, most notably Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, so it was hugely beneficial hearing about the audition process from the other side of the table.

Matthew was one of several visitors from the professional theatre world who were invited to discuss professional theatre with us. Emma McCabe, who is setting up McCabe Artist Management, discussed the process of acquiring an agent. Three actors, Chris Pat Simpson, Doireann McKenna and Cat Barter, came to discuss their various paths into working professionally and the photographer Neil Harrison was brought in to do a head shot session with each of us.

Overall, the academy has been a great insight into the workings of a professional theatre company, and for me personally allowed me to work with some brilliant actors and people, as well as forge new contacts. The showcase will knock the audience flat, so I can’t wait to get on!

Update 24 August 2011: Some of the names in the above piece were erroneous, but have been corrected, thanks to the help of Stephen Beggs, who was also on hand to discuss tax issues during the academy.

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Performing in the Ulster Hall with Accidental Theatre

20 Jul

Tonight I’ll be appearing in the Ulster Hall (Group Room) as a cast member of Robots in Disguise, the first of the Biscuit Tin Readings. Rehearsals have been ongoing since Saturday, with a great cast of Ed Boyd, Emma Little, Kim Moylan and Chris McCurry, and Emily DeDakis reading stage directions, with Gayle Dennison directing. It’s always great fun working with Accidental, as they have that unneutered enthusiasm of a young company that generates such great energy and creativity.

The play, by Mike Coleman, is about the toxic effect of top down government interference on people’s every day live. I play Howard Chubb, the slimy weasel tasked with auditing the Smith famliy.

The entry is free, and will be a great opening to the program, which will go right through summer, finishing with my own Sitting Up For Michael, in November.

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Pick N Mix, Sitting Up for Michael news, RSC Workshops, Pack Up Your Troubles

4 Jul

Once again I find myself in the fortunate position of being very busy over the last few weeks. In June, I performed in Red Lemon’s Bouffon production, The Generous Bank, as part of the MAC’s theatre festival Pick N Mix. As well as that, I was called in to deputise for John Sheyagh in Guerrilla Therapy’s performed reading of Almost Stockholm. It was unfortunate that John wasn’t able to do the show, but I hope I was able to perform to the standard that John would have.

While at the festival, I met Emily de Dakis, and Richard Lavery from Accidental Theatre who told me that they are picking up Sitting Up for Michael for their upcoming rehearsed reading programme, The Biscuit Tin Readings, to be performed in The Ulster Hall. This  is obviously huge news and really gives me confidence in my writing abilities, so I am going to press ahead in the coming weeks with my dark comedy Goolie’s Human Taxidermy. The reading is set for Wednesday 16th November. Also on the program are Jaki McCarrick and William Patterson, whose plays I acted in last year, as part of the VI program.

Meanwhile, Fringe Benefits were chosen to be part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages project, an initiative to bridge the increasing divide between amateur and professional theatre. As part of this, they held workshops in the magnificent new Lyric Theatre. All aspects of theatre were covered, from costume to performance, and it was eyeopening to see how much work goes in to theatre (both amateur and professional) from all angles.

Sticking with Fringe Benefits, I have been asked to take part in their devised piece, Pack Up Your Troubles. This has been the company’s flagship productions, and I am looking forward to taking part in it.

Also, this coming Wednesday I will be travelling to Downpatrick to film reconstructions for an upcoming TG4 documentary series. This follows on from my work in Éalú a great experience, and I can’t wait to see the results.

As I said, I have been incredibly busy, and I think I have more to come over the rest of the summer.

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Pick N Mix festival – The Generous Bank with Red Lemon

15 Jun

I am currently deep in rehearsals for this weekend’s Pick N Mix festival, part of the MACtivities aimed at raising funds for the construction of the MAC. It is a festival of theatre performances from all the major companies in Belfast all taking place in the Brian Friel Theatre. This is a great opportunity to see all the creativity going on in the city, all in one space, and the performances are only £5.

I am in Red Lemon’s newwrite production, The Generous Bank, by Patrick O”Reilly. It is a chaotic mix of Bouffon theatre, circus acrobatics, musical numbers, biting satire and gay farmers. Rehearsals have been going on for the last few weeks in the newly opened Lyric Theatre. The building in beautiful and the rehearsal space has an inspiring view over the Lagan.

The ensemble features a multitalented group chosen from a series of workshops in April. John Shayegh is hilarious as the conniving bank manager, with David Stratton, Andrew Stanford and Jolene O’Hara playing his amoral staff. Rosie McClelland is frantic as the Money Making Machine, Granny Bags. Caroline Curran and Louise Mathews play the hard up victims of social mobility and Cathal J Ferris plays the manipulative robber Mark opposite my niave Tommy.

This is shaping up to be a great show, and the whole festival is sure to be one of the highlights of Belfast’s packed summer calendar, so book your tickets and come enjoy the fun!

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