Monthly Archives: August 2017

Babbel is amazing if you want to learn a language. And it does not judge. Thanks Babbel.

I have been trying to Master Spanish recently. Reading Spanish is fine, but trying to pronounce anything is a different story altogether. My boyfriend is from Mexico so he is obviously a fluent speaker in Spanish. All of his family and friends speak Spanish, and it would be really nice to be able to uphold a conversation besides using the word ‘bueno’.

I ignorantly assumed, ‘this will be easy, it is probably is similar to French’. Which is true, but does not help to roll my r’s. Anyway, I have given myself an amount of time to be somewhat fluent in Spanish, three months. To achieve this, I dramaturg-ed myself!

Pronunciation is my biggest weakness when it comes to Spanish. So I have thrown myself into every telenovela I can find on the internet. Which I have discovered are both captivating and gripping! Along with this, I learn five verbs a day, and those verbs in four different tenses. Some vocabulary, and finally teaching myself to listen! It may sound strange to some, but whenever someone starts speaking in Spanish directly to my face, I can feel my brain screaming which slowly forces me to answer them with Perdon? Then I discovered, I actually do know a lot more Spanish than I anticipated, as long as the person is not speaking directly to me. Or more specifically, when I listen and stop panicking I understand what they are saying.

Now with that new revelation, it still has not reduced the amount of awkward and confusing conversations and encounters I have experienced. Here are just a few encounters I have experienced in Mexico…

1. When a lady in the Oxxo (petrol station) asked me where did I get my necklace, I told her I lived down the road.
2. When I was discussing the weather with someone, I was saying ‘dog’ instead of ‘but. ‘Perro’ is dog and ‘pero’ is but, they are very similar to a beginner.
3. When someone asked me did I want a drink with my meal, I said no. It was 30 degrees outside, it was the only reason I was in the restaurant.
4. When I was out shopping, I thought the shopkeeper said 400 pesos, but he actually said 700 pesos. And we both just stared at each other for what felt like a lifetime.
5. When someone asked me where was I from, my weird Spanish accent made it sound like I was from London. This was not that awkward of an encounter, but it did hurt my Irish soul.
6. When someone asked me what was my job, I told them I listen. I mixed up escuchar with escribir.
7. The time when one of my boyfriends friends asked me a question, I panicked and said ‘toilette’ and ran away. That isn’t even the word for toilet in Spanish.

And there will be plenty more encounters to experience in the future. Well hopefully not too many, but it would be very naive of me to think there will be none. The difference is to have no fear when talking to people, and expect to look like a bit of a tit for a while. Thankfully I am passed the stage of caring what people think, and when I receive a less confused reaction to what I am saying, I can see I am progressing. Or else they are very good at hiding their feelings, and are smiling at me because they feel sorry for me. I’ll pretend it is the former.

Fingers crossed after the three months, I will be able to dramatically speak my boyfriend in a telenovela-esque manner. While wearing some elaborate silk dressing gown, that glides down the stairs after me.

Like many theatremakers out there, there comes a point in your career where you think, ‘AH MY BANK ACCOUNT IS EMPTY, AHHH I HAVEN’T WRITTEN IN DAYS, AHHHH THIS ISN’T MY HOUSE’.

You know just your ordinary theatremaker thoughts. I have been speaking to a lot of other theatremakers lately who have recently been asking me about the videos I make on Youtube. And I have been getting some really great responses. I think this is because I have finally gained an understanding about this whole social media shin dig. But it only started rolling some momentum recently due to one sentence I always keep telling myself ‘create the art, the money will follow’.

I recently went to Mexico because I am obsessed with Gorditas. They are so bloody delicious. I’m joking, (kind of) my boyfriend lives in Mexico, so I decided to go over to him for a bit. And had the realisation ‘oh my jesus I am going to have so much time to get some writing and work done, I MUST BRING ALL OF MY NOTEBOOKS’. Which I did, but like a lot of playwrights out there, the unavoidable and inevitable happened…the minute my brain had some time to write, I didn’t write anything, for a long time. But instead of freaking out and doing my usual routine of thought, which usually goes as follows.

 You have free time, you are going to get so much work done. 

Why aren’t you writing? Stop staring out the window! 

Dear God woman, why aren’t you writing, we will never get this amount of time to write again.

That is a pretty bird, isn’t it?

NO, STOP BEING DISTRACTED, GET BACK TO WRITING! 

Instead, I allowed myself to get a bit distracted. Whenever I am doing work as a playwright or dramaturg, I usually go into this panicked form of thought. For the obvious reasons, I am usually stuck for time and I am trying to finish about three jobs at the same time. So for the first two weeks, I did not write anything, but reminded myself that it was a process and not to start going into melt down mode. And the unexpected happened, I started writing, and was enjoying myself.

I bought a kimono and decided I needed to take several pictures of myself in the kimono with some funky filters. 

The time I allowed myself to just relax, it really refined my artistic decisiveness. My thoughts were more focused and a lot more artistically rich with material. And I was keeping up to date with plans and deadlines I have been creating for myself. Success!

Now saying that, my bank account does not look great. In fact, I was only looking at my account on my phone with one eye closed. It is fine because if I create the Art I love, the money will follow.

We went to a music festival. Which had amazing music and some unreal beers. 

If any other playwrights or dramaturgs are in similar position, just remember the theatre industry is a mad industry to work within. Make sure you step back from the madness, and don’t let the madness destroy your work. Or do involve some of the madness and write a badass play.

This was a random blog entry by the Madwoman in the Theatre.

This is a beach in Sayulita. It was stunning and absolutely breathtaking. And the sea was warm! You don’t get that back in Ireland. 

In this video, I discuss the seven stages of playwriting. I left out a few stages like self-loathing, existential terror and financial terror (when you see your bank account and realise you have a lot less money in your account than you thought!)

Along with some funny skits to highlight the joys of playwriting…or at least distract you away from your work for ten minutes. Don’t worry, we will pretend you were doing research, wink wink.