This Halloween I'm going back to the 80s

"Ladies and Gentlemen, my graduating class from William Ocean High School. And that little dude... well that's me - Corey Palmer."

So begins my first major role on stage since the John Player Tops of the Town 1985 is the local village hall.

Yes indeedy, yours truly is joining the cast of Back to the 80s, a musical production happening in Kilkenny's Watergate Theatre on October 29, 30 and 31.



Darragh Doyle Corey Palmer is a thirty something American looking back at his time in High School during the 80s, a time

... when Michael Jackson and Rick Astley were the Kings of Pop, when bubble skirts and blue eye shadow were cool and when the Atari was cutting edge technology ...

Sounds like fun, eh? My role as narrator is quite simple, telling the story of how "the 17 year old Corey is madly in love with his next-door neighbour, Tiffany Houston, one of the coolest girls in the school. However, she barely notices this, as she is too busy mooning over Michael Feldman, the hottest guy around."

Throw in some energetic 1980s classics including Kids in America, Girls just want to have fun, Footloose, Mickey, Video killed the Radio Star, Man in the Mirror, Material Girl and 500 Miles, the talent of local children from the Starlight Stage School and me having to sing - yes, Darren, sing - a couple of verses from the Glory of Love, Total Eclipse of the Heart and You Give Love a Bad Name and you'll get some idea of what will be going on.

Those who know me know I'm rarely one to pass an opportunity to try something new go by. I can't act, I can't sing and my American accent leaves a lot to be desired, but it will be fun, I'll enjoy giving it a go and it's something I've wanted to try for a while. Even better, all profits are going to the charity Self Help Africa, so it's for a good cause too.

If you happen to be in the area on those dates, please don't drop in. It'll be difficult enough with me mammy in the audience wondering why I'm wearing make-up, without having bloggers throwing the rotten tomatoes that Niamh, budding entrepreneur that she is, has offered to stock up on to make some money.

Of course if your ideal night out is seeing people having fun, a Star Wars dream sequence, high-energy dance routines, the obligatory 80's party scene, copious amounts of blue eye-shadow, twenty cans of hairspray, as well as some of the most popular songs ever written and finding out if Corey ever gets the girl of his dreams or if one character's crazy idea that CDs will one day replace tapes will come true, then tickets are €12 and available on the door. You'll find more information on the show itself here.

Right now, I better go learn some lines.

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame
Darling you give love a bad name...

Here's a scene from one of the productions:



And to think, I could be dressing up in fishnets and seeing Rocky Horror in the Sugar Club instead... Ken McGuire has a lot to answer for!

An artist studio in a shopping centre

One of the most interesting projects I've been invited to help with this year is the Scotch Hall Art project. An empty space in the Scotch Hall Centre, Drogheda is to be transformed for the next two weeks into a temporary Art Studio and workshop space for the public to try their hands at painting and drawing.



Sean O'Dwyer is going to host a series of live demonstrations, art events, workshops and mini-shows that the pubic can get involved with where people can get a chance to paint and draw with him. I'll be there from this evening helping to get things set up for a private viewing of the Open Studio space. I hope to be able to try and blog a bit of it too.

Sean has been painting, sculpting and teaching for longer than I've known him. His teaching technique, called the Perfect Painting method, has helped people who have never painted before achieve remarkable results in a one day workshop.

Using primitive cameras, as Da Vinci, Vermeer, and Ingres did, Sean has a unique gift in making even the least confident person feel comfortable with a brush and produce something they can be proud of. The results of his workshops tend to speak for themselves.



Among the things happening in the open studio for the next two weeks are:

• A day by day viewing of the preparation and making of unique large scale oil painting for Scotch Hall to be displayed in the centre.
  
• An exhibition of works in progress entitled "Aspects of Her" by Sean
  
• Perfect printmaking: a mini-show of prints designed by the artist and created by participants from Perfect Vision painting workshops
  
• Invited guests and workshops on themes related to the paintings.

The Scotch Hall Art Project runs from the 7th to the 19th of October during shopping centre hours. Project events such as art exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops are available to the public, but will need to be booked in advance.



Sean tells me there'll be more information on his website. He's also on Wikipedia and blogs when he can too. Here's a nice video of the artwork he used to create the painting above.

Dublin: The movie - a film shot in 24 hours

I'm very excited to be involved in this:



As part of the Darklight Film Festival, 30 film makers are taking part in a shoot of 24 hours tomorrow around Dublin.

The idea is to create a mini-movie of 3 to 5 minutes which will then become part of an overall feature film, to be shown at the end of the Festival.

Let's take that again:

• 30 film makers
• 24 hours (tomorrow)
• 3 to 5 minutes of film each
  
  will hopefully equal
  
  
• 1 feature film
• in 4 days.

Welcome to the 4 Day Movie project.

I'm honoured to have been invited to blog, twitter, twitterfone, interview, shoot and otherwise cover this event. My friends Niamh and Emily are helping out over what will be a very manic weekend.

I've set up a blog on 4daymovie.wordpress.com and a Twitter account on 4daymovie.

I've already been talking to some of the filmmakers and they're getting back to me. They sound very excited!

Also a big thanks to Pat Phelan of Twitterfone and to Alan, resident Twitterfone genius for their help :)

Some links for you to have a look at:

• The 4daymovie blog
  
  
• The official Twitter page
  
  
• The official MySpace page
  
  
• Rick O' Shea is watching you
  
  
• Una Mullally writes in the Sunday Tribune
  
  
• About the film on the Darklight website
  
  
• Louise Hogan covers it in the Indo

Wish me luck!