This week, myself and a troupe of performers became wild and wonderful inventors, joining the Macnas family for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
A performance based on mischief and madness, greatness and genius, insanity, ecstasy, joy and dreams, our Macnas experience was bound to be full of play, magic and experimentation.
Under the direction of Bryan Burroughs, the group attended a series of workshops in the Lir,where we played, moved, invented and created.
Our source of inspiration came from this contraption, known as the Melodican.
Together as an ensemble, we built this magical device, our greatest creation yet! Our invention makes the sun shine, shoots thousands of butterflies all over Dublin, farts freckles, makes music, turns your hair red and flies. Obviously.
It was a privilege to work and perform with Bryan Burroughs, who stepped into the role of chief inventor, guiding us on our inventor ways. There was a real sense of ensemble throughout the entire rehearsal process, with a great emphasis on the body and imagination. We created a performance with the help of secret codes that are so secret I couldn't possibly reveal what they mean, such as:
Melodican Invention
Inspiration
Combustion Respiration
Noeline Kavanagh, director of Macnas, attended two of our rehearsals, polishing our performance and offering us advice about the wondrous spontaneity and excitement of Street Theatre.
I'm going to take this moment to say that she is quite possible the coolest person ever.
Her energy and passion was inspiring and mind-boggling. Watching her at work is like watching a steam train racing over the moon at full pace, again and again. With such devotion to what she does, Noeline's presence made a big impact on the group. Above anything else, there seemed to be an acknowledgement that we were involved with something very special.
Performing in the parade was one of the more surreal moments of my life. It was the sort of experience that no matter how much time I spent slaving over the keyboard, I would never capture the essence of magic that I experienced yesterday.
Performing to a quarter of a million people in the open air of Dublin, in a costume that could only be described as exquisite, with a group of extremely talented performers, was something quite unforgettable.
While I had been initially worried about the distance we would be performing, we had reached the finishing line before we knew it.
The entire performance was like one big blur of laughter, excitement, vigour,creativeness, smoke, colour, energy, spontaneity, inspiration, interaction, whackyness, inventions, frenzy, hysteria, passion and a wee bit of vanity for good measure.
Macnas create magic, and I am extremely grateful to have been a part of that magic.
Fin x
No comments:
Post a Comment