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Turning Attentions To Arts & Culture

July 31, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

Love Arts Culture

THE ARTS, with theatre in particular, is quite close to my heart. One of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in years finished recently when I wrapped up a six month artist residency at 76 John Street, Kilkennny with The Devious Theatre Company. The purpose of the residency was to allow the company time to develop, plan, plot, grow professionaly and stage some new work. Three new productions, two festivals and a partridge in a pear tree later, I find myself having kick-started a new blog, Love Arts Culture. This due largely in part to reading anything and everything the arts office has had to offer over the past six months and using the residency as a catalyst to get a focus for a new blog.

Love Arts Culture gives me a home for arts related musings, photographs and theatre coverage, with a spillover of content from DTC and other arts-related projects I’m involved in.

The idea of kenmc.com as a technology blog, for the past 12-18 months, has certainly faded with more of my attention heading towards the arts and groups that I’m involved with both personall and professionally, so parking it all under the one banner makes a lot more sense.

It’s in the infancy stages for the moment but I’ll be giving it some good development time over the next few weeks and we’ll see what comes of it. Whoever says blogging is dead must be having a laugh. As for the content here on kenmc.com, it has certainly changed direction over the past six years or so (or it must be close to six years anyway). This blog itself will be subject to some revision in the coming weeks but for now, you’ll find more of my ramblings over at LoveArtsCulture.com, AnyGivenFood.com and with some photos in the mix, documenting the 29th year, over at 365.kenmc.com.

Do stop by and check out the blog. You’ll also find @LoveArtsCulture on Twitter and Facebook here.

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Smitten Opens On Sunday

June 23, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

The fourth theatrical production I’ve worked on (and third that I’ve produced) for this year opens this Sunday night at the Kilkenny Arts Office, 76 John Street Kilkenny. The show opened last week at Solstice in Cork as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. Here’s the blurb…

Smitten is a play that wants to be a musical.

It marks the third part of Devious Theatre’s ‘In The Future When All’s Well’ residency in Kilkenny Arts Office following on from the success of Scratcher and Shifting. Written by John Morton, it’s a romantic comedy about rain, recession and why dance sequences are harder in real life.

Claire used to be a nurse but then she emigrated. Now she’s returned home from South America with her tail between her legs only to discover that finding her feet on home soil is proving harder than she expected. Especially when everyone else is shaking off their brollies and getting ready to head for greener pastures. As Claire tries to enthuse herself about settling in Ireland, she realises that life is not the Technicolor fantasy that she projected as a teenager and no amount of song or dance is going to help that. If the musicals have taught us one thing, it’s that there’s no place like home. But why does it have to be so black and white?

Smitten opened in Cork on June 16th at Solstice as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. It then marks the conclusion of Devious Theatre’s Kilkenny Arts Office residency when it plays No. 76 John Street from June 26th – July 2nd.

The cast includes Amy Dunne, Ken McGuire, Kevin Mooney, Lynsey Moran, John Morton, Maria Murray, Suzanne O’Brien, Jack O’Leary, Annette O’Shea and David Thompson. The play is written and directed by John Morton.

Tickets for Kilkenny are €12 can be booked at tickets.devioustheatre.com (tickets booked online carry an additional booking fee), purchased at Kilkenny Arts Office, No. 76 John Street and reserved on 056 – 7794138. For all information please check out DeviousTheatre.com. You can follow progress on the residency at http://no72.wordpress.com.

There’s plenty of teching going on today, tomorrow and Saturday before the curtain goes up on Sunday at 8. Tickets for Sunday night’s opening performance are only €8 and equally can only be called for at the office or collected in person (we’re not selling the Sunday night tickets online). If you want yours, drop down to 76 John Street, Kilkenny (the old Meubles furniture store) any day between now and July 2nd (we’re opening the box office 10am to 6pm daily for the next 10 days or so). Off the back of Scratcher (February) and Shifting (April), I wouldn’t be leaving it too long to get a ticket though, audience will be limited to 70 per night.

Filed Under: Theatre Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Rolling On To Smitten

June 3, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

Smitten

The artwork for the latest Devious Theatre production, Smitten (which I’m using both my acting and producing for) has landed in the Dropbox (a vital tool for theatre companies, has to be said) and made its way to the printer this morning.

The poster is the result of a long day of green screen photography with myself and Paddy Dunne and many hours by Paddy following to get the poster to its final draft. Over the next three weeks there’s going to be a torrent of photos, behind the scenes images, promo images, videos and more hitting the local papers, web and the blogs within our own networks.

Smitten marks the third and final performance piece of an artist residency that I’ve been involved in from the beginning of the year, run out of 76 John Street (Kilkenny Arts Office). The works developed in the residency have allowed the theatre company travel to Dublin (Scratcher, February) and Cork (June, Solstice at Cork Midsummer Festival) so I’ll be spending a few days working from Cork in the fortnight. Smitten itself will open in Kilkenny on Sunday June 26th, running for seven nights.

You can get the full lowdown on the show at DeviousTheatre.com and tickets, priced €12 are available from Kilkenny Arts Office, 76 John Street, Kilkenny or online via tickets.devioustheatre.com.

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Documenting A Year

June 2, 2011 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

Happy Birthday To Ken

Project 365. 365 Photos. 365-A-Day. Photo-A-Day.

Call it what you like, at this stage, the majority of people know what they are – a collection of photos (at least 365 of them) designed to chronicle a year in the life of something. Some people take a photo of a sunrise a day. Some people take a photo of their face for a year. Me, I’ve just decided to chronicle the gap between 2011 and 2012.

I turned 28 on Tuesday, had a cracking meal with some cracking people and arrived home with a load of photos from the night. But I’m shooting things every day, whether for work, theatre, food or something else. The phone goes with me everywhere and the pocket camera goes with me everywhere (and certainly has the scratches to prove it).

So, inspired by a friend that’s doing something similar since she lost her job earlier in the year, I’ve decided to run a 365 photo blog what happens between birthday 28 and birthday 29. Some days there’ll be one photo, some days a dozen. I know there will be food, technology, festivals, singing, dancing, wedding planning, the US, Canada, sun, snow and more involved. Keeping to it is one thing, but having set the site up as a Tumblog (Tumblr-type blog) with a mobile interface, it shouldn’t be all that hard.

It started on May 31st and there’s two days there already.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , ,

Photosharing Service For Twitter

June 1, 2011 By Ken McGuire 2 Comments

Twitter introduce their new photo sharing service, bringing it all back home. There has been some recent controversy and backlash around Twitpic’s changes in terms of service allowing the sale of images uploaded via their sharing service so it will be interesting to see if this direct contribution to Twitter sparks another revenue stream for the company.

If anything, it’s going to make searching for images and videos a real treat when it comes to event coverage (says he with one eye on Kilkenny Arts Festival this coming August).

The Blurb

Twitter brings the most meaningful information in the world right to your pocket. And, it’s never been easier to get a sense of what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world, or to share what’s happening in your world. Twitter search now delivers more relevant search results, alongside related photos and videos. And, you will soon be able to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet directly from http://twitter.com.

Video by: @briggles, @jennadawn & @jbuckhouse
Special thanks: @wikiweeks, @mail, @whatsonjatweets, @TorinSimpson & Ben Moon

Music: “Sydney (I’ll Come Running)” by @brettdennen courtesy of @DualtoneRecords.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Looking Back At Scratcher, Shifting

May 25, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

THE DEVIOUS Theatre Company (of which I’m a founder) performed Scratcher by John Morton at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and 76 John Street, Kilkenny, earlier this year as part of the In The Future When All’s Well residency in partnership with Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny County Council.

Arriving at 76 John Street in February, you would be forgiven for thinking you were walking into a social welfare office, such was the setting for the play. Take seven bodies who are sick with the system and the uncertainty of the future, add some guns, explosions, threats, demands and more and you’ve got a fine recipe for social warfare.

The residency work continues at 76 John Street with the staging of Smitten from June 26th – July 2nd. Corkonians are in for a Devious treat as Smitten arrives to the Cork Midsummer Festival as part of Solstice in the old Fás building on Sullivan’s Quay for a one night only performance on June 16th.

For more on the residency, Scratcher, Shifting (the second piece of the residency) and Smitten, check out DeviousTheatre.com.

Filed Under: Online Video, Theatre Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Caffeine Winner: Run On

March 31, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

For the past few years, the crew at Young Irish Film Makers have been running Caffeine, a 24-hour international film festival and competition where you get 24 hours to develop, storyboard, cast, shoot, edit and release a short film. The catch being that on the day of the competition, each team is given three items, props or elements that must be included in their short.

The winning short was Run On, above, which was put together by Lukas Hartmann, Joey Harris, Steve O’Connor, Connie Walsh, Roman Hartmann, Liam Dinkelmann, Jamie Stedmond and Eanna Brennan. You can find out more on the festival itself over on Facebook or YIFM.com.

Filed Under: Online Video Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Vote In 5 Easy Steps

February 24, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

In the last promotional piece for Scratcher, currently ongoing at No. 76 John Street in Kilkenny, here’s the cast of the show using their acting to tell you how to vote.

Scratcher commenced it’s theatrical run in Dublin last week at Project Arts Centre as part of The Theatre Machine Turns You On: Vol II and continues this week, until Saturday, at the Kilkenny Arts Office on John Street (old Meubles furniture store). Tickets for the show are €12 and are limited to 70 per night. For more on the background of the show, visit DeviousTheatre.com.

Scratcher is part of the theatrical residency In The Future When All’s Well, running at Kilkenny Arts Office until the end of June this year.

Filed Under: Online Video Tagged With: , ,

This Is Social Warfare

February 22, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

Just sayin…

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Scratcher Invades Dublin

February 8, 2011 By Ken McGuire Leave a Comment

This year is one that will see The Devious Theatre Company grow a lot, all under the watchful eye of Kilkenny County Council and the Kilkenny Arts Office, thanks in large part to the theatrical residency that is In The Future When All’s Well.

The first show to be produced in the residency gets an airing in Dublin next Thursday night, for one night only, at the Project Arts Centre. The show appears as part of The Theatre Machine Turns You On: Vol II, a festival of new works curated by THEATREclub and backed by the fine folks at Absolut Vodka, The Arts Council, Dublin City Council, Project Arts Centre and The Workman’s Club. Tickets are available to buy here.

As a theatre company, we’ve been pushing to do more video online this year. Of course, we’ve been doing it for a few years already with behind the scenes clips, cast and crew diaries, rehearsal and performance clips all getting released online in and around particular shows. So, the trip to Dublin should be no different. If you’ve got 59 seconds to spare, take a peek at the above video and see you in Dublin next Thursday night.

For more videos, seek out Devious Theatre on YouTube. You can also follow the company’s activites on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Online Video Tagged With: , , , , ,
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