Cheever's Journey, or, An Idiot Abroad (a poem by Bradley Foster Smith): In Atlanta was I stranded / Soaked to the bone in Galway / In Kilkenny locked out of the pub / Vomited at Wallslough Village / Cracked my laughing head against the living room table and / Gouged my fingers on the bathroom lock at Isaac's Hotel in Cork City ...

Thirty days ago, we began our journey. For several of us it was familiar territory. Returning to a favorite pub or café, recalling an old memory from Tours past. For the remaining ten of us, a whole new adventure awaited. New territories, new cultures and new memories are to be made. For me, the Ireland [...]

We are in our final location at the Everyman Theater in Cork.  This stage is a perfect relic of the music hall era.  All ornate gold and red velvet.  Charlie Chaplin once played here.    It is the smallest stage on our trip and a few more blocking adjustments were needed as we moved in.    We [...]

As of this writing, two shows into our Cork stay, just four performances remain of the Keegan, 2011 Ireland Tour. Our new Cork cast members, April, Kelly, Jessica and Shannon proved happily up to the task of filling the roles of Mercy, Susanna, Elizabeth and Betty. Adding new folks to our cast in every town [...]

Tonight is our final performance in beautiful Kilkenny and we are once again having to say ‘good bye’ to four lovely and talented young actresses whom we’ve become quite fond of: Iseult, Annette, Connie and Alex. We arrived a week ago to a town decked out in black and amber checkered banners and flags in [...]

So I was supposed to write a blog entry a several days ago covering opening night. But I missed that (see Susan’s previous blog entry), so I’ll cover our departure from Galway instead! It’s pretty early in the morning (for us), and we’re all on a bus heading to Kilkenny. Brad’s playing folk on his [...]

What a journey it has been.   THE CRUCIBLE has been playing to delighted audiences here in Galway since Monday and I return to the States in two days.  It feels that time has flown by — and yet, also, as though we’ve been here in Ireland for months.  In many ways, Ireland feels like a [...]

We’re nearing the end of the Galway leg of our tour and I’ll surely be sad to leave this town.  The town is filled with fine musicians which you find in the pubs of course, but just as often on the streets playing for a few coin – sometimes in the pouring rain at ten [...]