Posted on November 9, 2020 by
I used the first stage of the Belltable:Connect 10 Bursary to research into prosthetics and orthotics and how they can be used to tell the story and talk about the identity of the person who wears them. My play was going to be set in a prosthetic maker's workshop, he/she was going to be the storyteller of the play and as he/she made the prosthetics they would tell the stories of those who have worn them. However this has changed, yes there will be prosthetics makers in each story but it is the person who wears them that tell their own story and finally in the modern story, the wearer and the prosthetic maker are one and the same.
The Other Limb will be told through storytelling, animation, puppetry and object theatre. It will look at loss, the rise of disability activism, societal historic view on disability, the history of prosthetics, while talking ableist views of the body.
I have spent 9 days over the last two months researching, writing, making shadows and discussing with fellow puppeteer Nikki Charlesworth and Mentor Gavin Kostick. I have been historically charting prosthetics and disability activism in the 20th and 21st century. Through conversations with Nikki what became apparent was although we have different disabilities we have shared experiences with each other and with the past, with our disability culture.
I have a loose treatment, see below, and a lot more research to do but my play has changed and grown, it has ignited a spark and led me down the road of disability activism. Here is a screen shot of my Pinterest board which I started at Stage 1 and which has grown as my ideas have in stage 2.
Gavin Kostick was my mentor and we checked in every few weeks, he asked me the great questions, we discussed all the topics arising and Gavin gave me tasks to bring on my research as well as plays to read.
We discussed everything from Tony Iommi Black Sabbath guitarist who has a disability and the song Iron Man (see lyrics below), to language around disability and Pelops Ivory shoulder. We discussed the lay out of the play and when I was stuck as I was unsure as to whether to use puppetry or actors, Gavin got me to do a breathing exercise to empty out sounds and thoughts and then trying to visualise and think through thoughts. It really worked I opened my eyes and knew that I wanted human storytellers and not puppet ones.
'I am iron man
Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all
Or if he moves will he fall?
Is he alive or dead?
Has he thoughts within his head?
We'll just pass him there
Why should we even care.'
I sent through Gavin a loose treatment, he suggested a different structure which worked far better. His last task was to give me a flowchart to do (see below).
Meetings with Nikki
Over the month of October I met with Nikki Charlesworth twice, we talked about our experiences growing up with a disability, our work as puppeteers creating work about our identities, our shared experiences, other work that has inspired us as artists and she helped me work through my ideas. One idea that really emerged from our first meeting was the idea of the characters taking over the role as storyteller and removing or putting on prosthetics to tell a story of their character,s life. In the second meeting we discussed activism and Nikki described her father's experiences of being at a protest in the 80s, about accessibility to public transport. Hundreds of people who use wheelchairs, toppled their chairs on the road in front of a bus and sat on the road protesting the buses not being accessible. These conversations made me realise that the modern section was around three people discussing disability issues and through doing that, act out historic and current stories like mini plays within a play.
Very loose treatment : The Other Limb
Three performers arrive on stage, they are carrying protest signs but they are relaxed on their shoulder or their lap, they are also carrying prosthetics, orthotics and costumes in boxes, they are on their way to a protest. (they are similar to Shakespearean players carrying baskets of different costumes)
They are discussing what has brought them there what has inspired them to be a disability activist. There are other boxes on the stage also filled with prosthetics and orthotics and there is a projection screen behind them. They discuss putting on theatre and film, about disability representation.
They start to talk about those who have protested before them.
1st play within the play
One of the two puppeteers comes forward and picks up the second mask, they take off an orthotic and hand it to another performer who puppeteers it, she sits down in a box stage left she is now the storyteller.
The prosthetics also have the mask showing that they belong to the same character?
This section follows the start and development of the disability human rights in the mid 20th century following the ww2. This story is told from a women activists point of view.
At the end of her story, the storyteller talks about the protestors who had been injured in the war, she starts to talk about what happened to people with a disability in WW2 who were lined up to be killed, as she does she joins the other performers emptying all the boxes of prosthetics creating a pyre of prosthetics centre stage.
A pile of prosthetics are centre stage. Three prosthetics and a mask lies on the front of stage. The shadows of people in lines giving up their prosthetic's/orthotics to soldiers and them being thrown in a pile and being pushed into a box one by one.
https://www.thesun.ie/news/5016224/harrowing-auschwitz-photos-show-clothes-and-prosthetic-legs-of-holocaust-victims-seen-by-liberating-forces-75-years-ago/
2nd play within a play
This section will look at 1914 up to the 1940s life and the views around disability.
Story teller 2 walks on stage like the line and adds his prosthetic to the pile, we then see the shadows going in reverse. The person comes backwards puts on their prosthetic. The prosthetics are dispersed around the room creating a prosthetic makers workshop. The man sits stage left. He is the 2nd story teller.
We show some way they have gone back into the past and are being fitted for their prosthetic by Mr. Gillingham's in England (called the Geppetto of prostatic devices), we follow the prosthetic from prosthetic maker to pier.
https://mashable.com/2015/07/26/early-prosthesis/?europe=true
We see a soldier going off to war, losing their limb, being fitted for a prostethic,
then during the second war ending up at a concentration camp.
The third of the performers come forward, she looks at him then down at the pyre, she pulls out a beautiful modern prosthetic, she sits on the stage left box and takes her other off and puts it on, she reaches down and puts on the 3rd of 4 masks. While she is doing this the other two performers put the prosthetics back in boxes.
Third play in play: 21st century
The 3rd storyteller : This piece is more abstract
This character is made up of Nikki and my testimonies, my partner Ivan who makes prosthetics and inspired by artist with disabilities work like Lisa Buffano.
The third character is the prosthetic/orthotic maker, they create their own prosthetic's/orthotics. They use them to create art, perform, talk about their identity. Reclaim the negative word of the past. A celebration their disability to reflect on the history to see how that has effected the now. To show where they need to go.
At the end the performer puts down the mask picking up the forth mask and passing it to an audience member.
All three of them lift up their signs handing a sign to the person with the mask and other members of the audience. The shout' nothing about us without us' over and over encouraging the audience to join in as they lead them out of the theatre in a protest.
Research for 1st play within the play
https://www.leapinfo.org/advocacy/history-of-disability-rights/1940s
https://www.nps.gov/articles/disabilityhistoryrightsmovement.htm
Prosthetics/orthotics protesting.
The medical model and social model of disability.
There will be a prosthetic maker but they will not be the main character.
'Not until the early 1960s did the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council begin to promote multidisciplinary scientific research efforts into human locomotion, biomechanics, and the development of new materials and devices (7). Innovations in prosthetic and orthotic designs were influenced by the adaptation of industrial techniques for vacuum forming sheet plastics. By the 1980s the continuing introduction of new materials and methods spurred the profession of prosthetics and orthotics to rapidly evolve as a changing discipline. In an attempt to keep its professionals updated, the 1990s saw significant advancement in the development of educational programs with the establishment of national education accreditation through a subsection of the American Medical Association.'
Possible storyteller: "the grandmother of the Independent Living Movement" Gini Laurie, who devoted her life to volunteering for polio survivors from 1958 until her death"
Research 2nd play within a play
https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/world-war-one-first-disabled-disability-history-plastic-surgery/
'Around two million came home with some level of disability: over 40,000 were amputees; some had facial disfigurement or had been blinded. Others suffered from deafness, tuberculosis or lung damage caused by poison gas.'
Note: Keiser Willem had a brachial plexus like mine, he was treated with electric shock and other treatments, his arm was hidden in photos and his mom didn't want anything to do with him, they thought he was deformed and so treated him badly, this led to him growing up being angry and resentful. (they talk about his disability leading to him being this way but it was the way he was treated)
More links to help with my research
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/obituaries/cheryl-marie-wade-overlooked.html
http://whitneylewjames.com/disability-activism/
https://museumofhealthcare.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/getting-a-leg-up-a-brief-history-of-prosthetics-through-the-lens-of-our-collection/
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-evolution-of-prosthetic-technology-2014-8?r=US&IR=T#these-artificial-arms-developed-in-the-early-1960s-were-powered-by-carbon-dioxide-gas-canisters-attached-to-valves-in-the-upper-body-portion-the-device-was-specifically-created-for-babies-born-with-under-developed-or-missing-limbs-in-the-late-1950s-the-result-of-a-drug-taken-during-pregnancy-to-ease-morning-sickness-that-was-taken-off-the-market-in-1962-although-an-ingenious-invention-the-arms-were-ultimately-a-failure-as-few-children-chose-to-keep-using-the-arms-in-the-longer-term-the-science-museum-said-17
Posted in Belltable:Connect 10Tagged Belltable, belltable:connect, emma fisher, gavin kostick, irish theatre, Limerick, limerick arts, Mentoring, new writing, playwright, research, the other limb, Theatre
Belltable:Connect Commission for PADDY MCGRATH'S DAUGHTER – Veronica Dyas
Receiving the Belltable:Connect Commission to begin to write my new play "Paddy McGrath's Daughter" was extremely important to me as an independent artist and one of the highlights of my working year.
This commission created the space for me to be able to write, both physically and financially, enabling me to spend an extended amount of time in Limerick City for research and development towards completing the 1st and 2nd Drafts of this new playtext.
My relationship with Belltable as an Independent Artist working freelance was cultivated through the Gap Day Initiative created by Lian Bell & Mermaid Arts Centre. Having spent two days working in the Artist's Hub Space at Belltable, Limerick early in 2019, I was able to develop a relationship with the Artistic Director, Marketa Dowling and spend time talking though my work, interests and plans and became more familiar with the team and the physical infrastructure of the theatre. It also served to refamiliarise myself with the city of my maternal Grandfather in the context of my arts practice. This time spent on Gap Day contributed to my artistic impetus to write "Paddy McGrath's Daughter".
Spending an extended amount of time writing in Limerick was crucial to the development of this new play. The Belltable:Connect Commission enabled me to be here, tune into and walk the landscape in my Grandfather's footsteps and talk to members of our family about him.
This time in the city facilitated the beginning of new relationships with key people and organisations in further developing this work, such as The Hunt Museum and Limerick City Council. Crucial to making work about and in Limerick, was the new connections I made with the amazingly amazing Artists from the city. I can't imagine another mechanism that would have created those relationships with artists, actors, directors, technicians as cohesively as the presentation evening of these four new plays with and about the Limerick community in November. The evening served to test the work in front of a very warm and generous audience, and provided the lead in time and space to work with two amazing actors, Ann Blake & Pat McGrath who brought this new text to life. Their expertise, as well as that of the rest of the amazing team created a safety and rigour in staging this early draft of a new work.
As an independent artist, working freelance and without regular funding, being commissioned by Belltable:Connect has had a significant impact on my practice, broadening the scope of my relationships, work and enabling me to write a new play for theatre with the physical, financial and artistic resources required to do so. I feel both privileged and grateful to have been supported in this comprehensive way. I look forward to further cultivating all the new relationships generated through this process, and continuing to work to complete "Paddy McGrath's Daughter"
LOVE & Gratitude
Veronica Dyas
Posted in UncategorizedTagged Belltable, belltable connect, belltable hub, belltable:connect, irish theatre, Limerick, new writing, playwright, Theatre, veronica dyas
Belltable:Connect Commission for SHAM – Paul Meade
Belltable:Connect has been a fantastic experience for me. Firstly, the commission gave me permission to write the play that I wanted to write. It was important to be trusted as a playwright in this way. Secondly, the play was a departure from my previous work and I got the chance to experiment with a more poetic mode. I feel my writing has really improved through this experiment and Belltable:Connect gave me the time and space to be able to do that. Thirdly, Belltable:Connect gave me the resources to work with actors on the text for a couple of days. This resource was invaluable and I learnt a lot about the play from that experience and from the audience that came to see the works in progress. I would highly recommend this programme with its simple, trusting and well resourced schedule.
Posted in UncategorizedTagged Belltable, belltable connect, belltable hub, belltable:connect, hamlet, irish theatre, Limerick, limerick arts, paul meade, playwright
'A surreal moment' – Belltable Artist in Residence on the First Rehearsed Reading of Displace
Posted on June 27, 2018 June 27, 2018 by
Following the first work-in-progress rehearsed reading of Displace at Belltable a week ago, Artist in Residence Katie O'Kelly shares her thoughts on seeing the play come to life on stage for the first time.
Sitting in the front row of the Belltable last Wednesday watching actors read my work in progress script of Displace was a surreal moment. I usually perform in my plays, but for the purpose of the reading I had my writer hat on so was watching it with the audience. I've never actually heard any of my plays performed before, so it was a terrifying and thrilling experience. The actors were amazing and breathed life into the characters which have, until that night, existed only in my head.
We started off the reading with a brief talk with Limerick-based actor Frances Healy, who performed in The Magdalene Sisters, and Donnah Vuma, a founding member of MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) and Every Child is Your Child, and campaigner to end direct provision. It gave a context to the work, and an insight into the systems of marginalization, isolation and oppression which the play depicts. It was an honour to share the stage with such brilliant, strong and courageous women, and I'd like to thank them both for taking part and sharing their experiences with us.
A trio of very talented actors then took to the stage to read the work in progress script. Georgina Miller, Sahar Ali and Niamh McGrath were exceptional at weaving the story together and presenting us with the many characters depicted in both the worlds of the Magdalene Laundry and the Direct Provision centre. At the end of the reading the audience was given the opportunity to give feedback on the script, and I had the chance to ask questions about what worked within the story and what needed further developing. It was so great to get feedback from people in the audience who are directly affected by the direct provision system in Ireland at the moment, and to see what else I can bring to the worlds to make them clearer and richer for those watching it.
The reading was sensitively staged by director Sarah Baxter and the feedback session was articulately presented by dramaturg Pamela McQueen. The brilliant Mags O'Donoghue steered us through the technical side of things, with producer Clara Purcell working miracles throughout the day to ensure the smooth running of the whole event. For a play which is so much centred on the female experience in these systems, it was crucial to have such a competent, committed and talented team supporting the work. A huge thanks to all who came along and to those involved in bringing it to the stage. I am feeling fired up and excited about getting started on the next draft, and can't wait to get a full production up on its feet!
Post-reading feedback session with the creative team of Displace and the audience.
The next performance in the development of Displace will take place in Belltable in December 2018. We will continue to keep you updated on the piece's progress through Belltable:Connect blogs.
Posted in UncategorizedTagged artist in residence, Belltable, belltable connect, belltable hub, belltable:connect, displace, irish theatre, katie o'kelly, Limerick, playwright, Theatre
'This Play is a Gift' – Georgina Miller, Displace Rehearsed Reading Actor
Ahead of the work-in-progress rehearsed reading of Displace at Belltable on Wednesday, June 23rd, at 8pm one of the actors who will help bring the piece to life Georgina Miller wrote about the piece.
Hi, I'm Georgina Miller, and I am one of the actors taking part in the public reading of Displace in Belltable on 20th June. I was thrilled to be asked, as it's a powerful piece with a story that is so relevant and touching. Good writing is not easy to come by and, as an actor, this play is a gift.
The two story-lines, each with their own inherent drama, compliment each other really well. Set in two different times in the same building in Limerick – a Magdalene Laundry in the 1950s, which has been converted in the present day to a Direct Provision Centre. The struggles within masked by its walls are as heartbreaking today as they were in the laundry days.
To my shame, I knew very little about the process and conditions for asylum seekers here in Ireland. I think Katie O'Kelly has done a wonderful job of presenting the reality of their day-to-day existence. She's also breathed real life into the whispered stories and headlines of existence for women in the Laundries.
I know sometimes it can turn people off when you say that a piece of theatre is important, but this one truly is. We can't shy away from the horror of our past, nor be ignorant to the failings of our system in the present. That said, the play is also warm and light-hearted in places, and the authentic female relationships and companionships are brilliantly represented.
I'm a mum of two small kids and, for me, it'll be interesting to see how that experience informs my connection with this work. Both women in the play are dealing with their difficult circumstances whilst having the responsibility of another small human to consider. The role of a mother is a complex and challenging one at the best of times, and these women are forced to carry that out under extraordinary conditions.
Katie has written a remarkably accomplished and engaging piece—it had me in tears on my first reading, and I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing the audience's reaction to it on the night.
Georgina has been working as an actress for fifteen years across theatre, TV, film and radio. She is also an experienced and busy voice-over artist.
Displace is being developed as part of Katie O'Kelly's artist in residency at Belltable, supported by Limerick Arts Office. This reading marks World Refugee Day. To book tickets for the work in progress reading of Displace at Belltable on Wednesday, June 20th, at 8pm phone box office on 061 953400, ext 1 or visit our website.
Posted in UncategorizedTagged artist in residence, Belltable, belltable connect, belltable hub, belltable:connect, displace, georgina miller, irish theatre, katie o'kelly, Limerick, playwright, Theatre
Limerick research trip for Displace – Katie O'Kelly
Posted on May 18, 2018 May 18, 2018 by
There's nothing quite like the bright lights of Obamaplaza on the road to Limerick from Dublin. It's shiny, warm glow and astonishingly wide range of Obama souvenirs and trinkets always heralds that the journey is nearly over. On the way home from gigs in the Belltable in the past it has frequently been the provider of supermacs and road trip snacks for hungry actors. Last Thursday was no different, as we pulled in to its majestic car park on our research trip to Limerick City.
The trip was to show the team that I am working on my new play 'Displace' with some of the places that inspired the story. So at 9am I picked up dramaturg Pamela McQueen, director Sarah Baxter, movement director Bryan Burroughs and producer Clara Purcell in Dublin and we set off.
As a relatively new driver, most of my attention went on making sure I didn't go up any one-way streets the wrong way while in the city, but once we were out on the road it was great to get to chat about theatre, the Belltable residency and some of the people I have met as part of my research.
The play is about a fictional Magdalene laundry building in Limerick that has been turned in to a modern day Direct Provision centre for asylum seekers while they wait for their application to be processed. This process can take years, and asylum seekers are left in a system where they are not allowed to work, not allowed to cook their own food, and given €21.60 a week. The price of two supermac meals in Obamaplaza, or a couple of keyrings with I heart Ireland on them.
When we reached Limerick, our first port of call was the Limerick School of Art and Design, what used to be the old Good Shepherd Laundry. It was amazing to see the building that I had read so much about transformed into a completely different setting, but with so much of the old laundry aesthetic still evident.
You can tell what parts of the building were the nuns' quarters and what were the parts for the women incarcerated
there by the difference in design – some corridors have parquet wood on the floors and walls, while other areas are covered in old 1950s lino.
The team couldn't believe how much of it was still there. The windows high up in the walls in some of the old laundry rooms meant that if you were one of the women working there you weren't even allowed to look out. Given no indication of how long you would be there, cut off from the world, much like the people left in the modern day direct provision system.
We went in to the exhibition gallery, which used to be the old chapel in the grounds of the laundry. Here, the women would be brought in for Mass and seated on one side of the building while the children from the orphanage would sit in another part. There are accounts of the women craning to catch a glimpse of their child that had been taken from them and put in the orphanage, while the mothers worked only a short distance away in the steaming heat of the laundry. It was very affecting to be in the silence of that room, with its ornate marble and gold mosaic on the walls, and think of the suffering that those women were put through. It's haunting.
Next we visited Marketa in Belltable before a very delicious lunch in Hook and Ladder – Bryan said he became a regular there when he was in Angela's Ashes the Musical, and we can see why! Lovely food and a very nice atmosphere, we'll definitely be heading back there for sure :-).
After lunch we visited a friend of mine in one of the direct provision centres in Limerick. I won't say which one as I want to be sure nothing happens because of it – this is all part of the system, of keeping people separated and afraid of what can happen if you cause 'trouble'. It's shocking to visit these centres though, many of them are old religious buildings that have repurposed to house asylum seekers, out in the middle of nowhere and with extremely limited transport in to the city. If you get the bus in to town, it leaves at 9:30am and you won't be able to go back until the return bus at 5:30pm. That's a fecking long wait.
Some of the centres have an air of Stepford about them, with everything looking nice but something not quite right at the same time. The ones with children have playrooms for example, but the toys aren't used and frequently the door in to the room is locked. There are no children to be seen, a strange feeling in a centre that supposedly houses 70 little ones.
In another centre that I went to, I was the first person to sign the visitors book in 2018. Two people had signed in last year, and five in 2016. How are people supposed to integrate in to the community, one of the things they look for when assessing applications, if you are purposely cut off from that community – placed in a big vacant building miles away from the nearest town?
We saw the canteen in this DP centre, the noticeboards of signs saying the rules, and the laundry where half the machines don't work; the depressed atmosphere of waiting is palpable. The car ride home was very different from the journey down. Everyone was very moved and affected by what we had seen. There was far less chat, it seemed trivial after it somehow. We are determined to try to bring some of what we saw to the stage, to share it with a wider community.
I've finished my second draft of the script of 'Displace', and am all fired up to start work on the next draft for the reading in the Belltable on 20th June, which marks World Refugee Day. I've never done a reading of a work in progress before, so it will be interesting to see what new ideas are sparked by it, as well as being just a wee bit terrifying! But it's good to push your comfort zone sometimes, and the warm glow of Obamaplaza will always be there for the supermacs afterwards :-).
Katie O'Kelly, Belltable Artist in Residence 2018
Posted in UncategorizedTagged art, artist in residence, Belltable, displace, katie o'kelly, Limerick, playwright, Theatre
Brendan Griffin – Writers' Mentoring Programme
Posted on April 20, 2017 April 19, 2017 by
Belltable:Connect Fishamble Mentoring Programme, photo by Ken Coleman
"Not so easy being a fly on the wall"
Fly 1 They don't mind getting up on a Saturday morning, I'll say that for them.
Fly 2 They are only here one Saturday in a month? They could well be sleeping the hell out of all the other Saturdays.
Fly 1 True. True enough.
Fly 2 We've ruled out Zumba, yoga, choir. Not a step, stretch or a note between them.
Fly 1 Not a one. And we've also knocked in the head a water protest group.
Fly 2 I think so. They have the enthusiasm alright, plenty fire in the belly, but they are way way too happy to be as a water protest group.
Fly 1 I was sure they were a prayer group at the beginning. The way they all sat in a circle. And they have a shared reverence to something.
Fly2 If only they occasionally closed their eyes or looked upward I would have given you the prayer group.
Fly 1 And you are sure, not a political party? There is a leader, they share literature, there's loads of discussion?
Fly2 Has anyone walked out in a huff, banged a door? Has anyone been stabbed in the back?
Fly1 Not that I noticed.
Fly 2 We can definitely rule out a political party.
Fly 1 And you have also given up on the community group idea?
Fly2 For a time I was fooled by the obvious common purpose of the group. But has anyone said, "through the chair", "point of order"?
Fly1 Nope.
Fly2 And a community group would certainly have talked at this stage about holding a raffle or a cake sale.
Fly1 True.
Fly2 They are a tough group to crack for sure.
Fly1 Not to mind mentioning the parallel world…
Fly2 Stop. Stop right there. Haven't we enough mystery on our plate besides bringing up the group next door?
Fly1 We have. We have for sure.
Fly2 I need a break. Want to head down to that sugar bowl?
Posted in UncategorizedTagged Belltable, belltable connect, brendan griffin, Fishamble, irish theatre, Limerick, Mentoring, playwright, Theatre