gobscure: I wish I’d known…

I wish I’d known… Our series of interviews with theatre makers sharing their experiences of working in the industry

MGCfutures speaks to Writer, Theatre Maker and 2021 Bursary recipient, gobscure

When did you decide on your current career path?

now receiving age discrimination and almost bus-pass age and we only just discovered that folx think in terms of ‘career’ – were a slow learner (folx need to slow down more, tho perhaps no that much?).

What prompted your decision?

what prompted us to give voice tho? life, being silenced, more life – and sometimes seeing/reading/discovering uncovering those who were doing this – witnessing love&rage in gigs, street theatre, new circus, claire dowies adult child/dead child, brechts poetry and mother courage, theatre of the oppressed via adrian jacksons cardboard citz.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in the beginning?

lack of health, homelessnesses, getting locked up (psch icu).

What has been one of the greatest rewards?

many many rewards, so many – performing on the polish side of the polish/(former) east german border in a cafe decorated by kids and being emptied out (beautyfully) and sitting on the riverbanks after and some club doors on other side of water (former east germany) opening and ‘we will we will rock yu’ bursting out before silence returning; performing on a wee island where everyone turned out (even a crawling babby) – taking a friend to callanish on the way and them flying a kite; feasting on brie n baguette n grapes in rainstorm outside of derry and then collecting seashells after performing with friends; life-long friendships; red kites feeding (us warming up for ‘yu have already survived’); folx not wanting to leave performance space after … them saying ‘that was for us wasnt it’.

What advice would you give the younger you just starting out?

find yr allies, dont compromise by believing if yu give the gatekeepers what they say want they will let yu thru (they wont), stay true but listen widely, understand things as processes, say sorry, listen even more widely, slow down, above all love&rage.