Past Work: The Conversation [2011]

I just unearthed this from the archives over on Vimeo: The Conversation. It was made for the competition Dare 2B Drink Aware, an initiative by drinkaware.ie, which I made with students from the Institute of Technology Tallaght (not Tallaght Institute of Technology, which would be TIT, since as we all know, that stands for Trotter's Independent Trading).

The Odd Couple (2012): One of 20th Century Theatre's enduring crowd-pleasers.

𝕺ne of the more successful productions I was involved in, as far as consistently high bums to seats ratio was The Odd Couple in 2012. It was directed by Mary Lindsay, who I had worked with previously during the rehearsed reading for Sitting Up for Michael. She was so perfect in the role of Doris, it tore me up that she was about twenty years too young for the part when it came to staging. 

Past Work: Age by Dominic Curran (2016)

Past Work is a series where I look at some of the jobs I have done that I haven't blogged about for a variety of reasons

In November 2016, I was involved in the Black Box's Lunchbox Theatre program, a new writing scheme run by the venue for lunchtime performances. It's a very positive scheme that gives new writers in particular an outlet to have their work performed.

Past Work: Tea [2004]

Past Work is a series where I look back at some of the jobs I've done that didn't get posted up here for a variety of reasons.

Going through some of my old hard drives and laptops has lead to me finding some gems (or not!), and I've decided to put some of them up here for your amusement!

Tea was a short film I made in school while at the CBS Omagh. I had just worked with Chris Baugh on his film Crashing the Wake and it gave me the buzz to want to get into this industry, so I gathered a few of the other runners I was working with - Bryce Dunne and Declan Taggart (who was also one of my best mates, which was handy) - to get them to work with me on the script.

New short film: Chairs [2017]

Just before Christmas I was busy with a number of student projects ahead of updating my showreel. I need new filmed footage, and there's three major film courses being run in Belfast, by Queen's University, Belfast Metropolitan College, and Ulster University, so there is usually a lot of eager young film makers looking for actors.

The first to be completed is a lovely little silent (well, no dialogue) film called Chairs about a hapless janitor's struggles with an unruly group of apparently sentient chairs!

Roles without dialogue present a unique challenge to actors - all communication must come from the face and the physical form. Looking at this now, I feel I made a couple of missteps, but I have identified them and will know what to be aware of in future.

It was a delight to work with the student's of Queens for this one, (directed by Ciara McLarnon; DOP Ben Ross; production Jenna Mealiff) and the writer/sound man Jack Tollerton has put the finished project up on his Youtube channel.

New footage found of C.L.G. (Cúmann Luthchleas Gael) from 2014!

It's great finding footage of your old work that you didn't know existed, an unexpected blast from the past! An audience member from the White Bear sent me this a few weeks ago - the full play of C.L.G. from the 2014 run.
I remember Paul Rogers taking one look at the script and just getting it immediately - completely putting to bed any anxiety I had about the fact that the character is written for a much older actor. Paul was great to work with and is now training to be a wrestler - I can't wait to see him in action! He's just decided on a finishing move, so I'll keep you posted when he's laying the smackdown in a ring near you!

I've decided to follow this up with footage of some of my other old work - no matter how good or bad it is! So if you have any footage or photographs of work I've been in, please do get in touch!