HERE & NOW is about homelessness, the practicalities of living without a home, without regular shelter, a basic human need like food and water.
Everyday I Walk into the Unknown Towards The Universe is my artistic and philosophical starting point, what do I have, always, no matter how the external factors of my life change? I hope to explore artistically, this pertinent issue:
There are people living in Ireland without a home, at a fundamental level, we're failing.
Everyday I Walk into the Unknown Towards The Universe is my artistic and philosophical starting point, what do I have, always, no matter how the external factors of my life change? I hope to explore artistically, this pertinent issue:
There are people living in Ireland without a home, at a fundamental level, we're failing.
Phase 1: ‘MAKE –ing’
Post MAKE 2012 I realize that I am now in Phase 1.
I'll need to be mentally robust for this. And physically.
It has to start now and build from here to be even possible.
The questions asked by my MAKE mentor Richard Gregory pushed my project on and helped me to start answering the questions that were inhibiting me. I went back to my original idea of sleeping out for a durational period and got a clearer idea of what that would be and how I need to be to make that happen. I have also begun the process of becoming a volunteer with Focus Ireland and had my interview on 2nd February, all references are submitted and I await Garda Clearance to begin work with their Extended Day Service where I will run weekly drop-in drama workshops for the service users, not to steal their stories but to build relationships with people who are living without a home.
I'll need to be mentally robust for this. And physically.
It has to start now and build from here to be even possible.
The questions asked by my MAKE mentor Richard Gregory pushed my project on and helped me to start answering the questions that were inhibiting me. I went back to my original idea of sleeping out for a durational period and got a clearer idea of what that would be and how I need to be to make that happen. I have also begun the process of becoming a volunteer with Focus Ireland and had my interview on 2nd February, all references are submitted and I await Garda Clearance to begin work with their Extended Day Service where I will run weekly drop-in drama workshops for the service users, not to steal their stories but to build relationships with people who are living without a home.
This is also the time to build relationships with a diverse range of service providers and have conversations with those sleeping rough and those that provide alternatives such as the Sundial Project which is known as a ‘wet shelter’ where people are allowed bring and consume alcohol in the hostel.
I am in the process of answering some philosophical, ethical, artistic and practical questions for myself about this work and my motivation to do it. (See WHY? Working Doc page).
Phase 2: "Will you sleep rough with me?"
This phase will begin in mid-April and run into May 2012. I will invite a different family member or friend to sleep out with me for one night. The criteria for selecting friends/family to invite is those I have shared a house or bed with. This phase will enable me to experience in a very small way what it is like to have no bed, no home to go to. When I was 17 I was homeless for a very brief period, but that experience and the solution I chose at that time had a profound and lasting effect on the course of my life, which is the impetus for this show. This is a starting point for the total work and will enable me to assess the needs a person has sleeping out, and will generate some sort of understanding on a visceral level. It’s a piece in itself and I will endeavor to document this process as it unfolds.
Phase 3: ‘I’m Making Myself Homeless’
16 day durational performance including a series of Performative Exchanges: a deliberate artistic decision to make myself homeless which interrogates both this pertinant societal inequality and what theatre is, for myself as a theatre practitioner & for the audience. This is a new artistic form for me in which to experiment. My engagement with the audience throughout this durational performance is crucially important and requires an innovative approach to the creation of the work. The structure of this performance will be created to enable an ongoing live daily input of new material as generated throughout the durational period. The artistic, ethical, physical, dramaturgical & practical considerations will be rigorous, infusing the relationship between spectator & performer with an authentic, live theatrical connection in a setting beyond the confines of the traditional theatrical model.
This project was partly developed at MAKE, an artist residency run by Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre and Theatre Forum.
