Hey hows it going?

Alright.

Victor here from her sick bed.

Extract from Interview for Queer Notions Festival

Below is an interview Una McKevitt (Director) and Vickey Curtis gave to www.gaelick.com about "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" in June.

“You know those friends you grew up with? Went to school with? Laughed, cried, partied and pulled with? D’you ever wonder sometimes, will they ever just F*ck Off?”

We’re just friends because we ARE friends, do you know what I mean?

So says Vickey Curtis (AKA Victor) of her best friend since childhoood Aine McKevitt
(AKA Gord) And yes, I DO know what she means! In case you think this was some
confidential information imparted by Vickey, this is in fact the subject matter
of her performance (play? documentary?) Victor and Gord/Ali and Michael
which opens later this week as part of Queer Notions at Project Arts Centre.
So how did the friendship end up on stage?

It was Una’s (sister of Aine/Gord) idea. The three of us have been friends for like…ever. Una gave us the nicknames and had the idea to make a performance of our friendship. To put ‘real lives’ on stage, so we devised the piece around…us, the way we are around each other! It’s full of all things the things we remember from growing up together.

So the rehearsals are about digging into your friendship…?

Yeah completely headwrecking! Sometimes it’s like therapy!

The other ‘characters’ in the play are real-life brother and sister Ali
and Michael Barron. So how did they come on board?

Una found found them on Facebook! She saw a photo of them and thought they looked great! They’re brother and sister and also best friends, they’re hilarious together… and they’ve never acted before!

Director/Actor Una Mckevitt has lots of shows under her belt, mostly as an actor including a 2004 version of Genet’s The Maids: Spurt!Sister!Spurt!(directed by Vickey) which featured our beloved Panti as Madame, naturally!(Panti’s new show A Woman in Progress is also been performed as part of Queer Notions)
So a question for Una, acting or directing?

I’ve always liked performing and when I was at college I usually performed in a show during the summer, such as the one you mention Spurt!Sister!Spurt! in Fringe 2004. At college I studied Devising and Playwriting and the work I make now is really a mix between these two practices. Collaborating with performers and shaping the work we make together for the stage is what makes me excited at the moment.
I love plays, I love going to plays but I’m not a text based performer or director and I can’t think of one play I’d like to perform in or direct! I can think of lots of plays I’d like to make though.

Introducing Fergus Kealy

Hey Everyone,

Wednesday at the Fringe Launch the full cast of "Victor and Gord CUBED" were all together for the first time. The launch was good fun and we looked like a tribe in our matching Victor and Gord CUBED T-Shirts! Many thanks to Michael and Pete Reddy for sorting those out for us.

I first met Fergus in 2006 when my friend Veronica Dyas and I cast him in a show i'd written in college "The Backwoods Boys". It was the summer before our final year and we showed the play upstairs in The International Bar in Dublin. Fergus played the youngest brother of 3, Mani, and he had to lie on the not so clean floor as the audience came in, walked over and around him, and tried to squeeze into their seats in the tiny space.

We've met a few times since and chatted about some day working together again so I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks of rehearsals working with himself and Jay. Last night the three of us read through their individual interviews together. It can be difficult reading your own words back to yourself and to other people.I asked them to take their time and direct themselves through it, so to read something from their own interview and then stop and listen to the other read. Jason called it "Pass the paragraph"!! They both finished their interviews at the same time which really interested me because they are quite different lengths. In terms of working co-operatively with each other i think this bodes very well.

Going from directing 2 people in January in Victor and Gord (Vickey and Aine)to 4 people in June for "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" and now to 6 for this show in September feels like a unique experience and can be also a little overwhelming at times. Six big personalities, organising rehearsal schedules that suit everyone, producing and directing...but its exciting too because as with the past two shows the result of our rehearsals is impossible to predict. Whether or not introducing two new cast into it will change the form and structure of the existing piece completely or leave it intact is impossible to predict right now. I reckon it will. And then I reckon it won't. Fergus asked me how rehearsals would proceed going forward and I said we'd be making it up as we go along...that's the fun bit!

Best,
Una

Introducing Jay Breen

Hey Everyone,

I'd like to introduce you to Jay Breen, our latest recruit!

Jay will be joining Fergus Kealy, another new recruit, in the show. Their only relationship to each other is that they haven't yet met...we hope to "exploit" this new relaionship in Victor and Gord CUBED where they will join Victor and Gord, friends since birth and Ali and Michael, a brother and sister.

I interviewed Jay at the weekend and include a quote from his interview here. Jay is discussing his response to "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" which he saw at the Queer Notions Festival, where it appeared June 24th and 25th. Jason saw the performance on the 25th.

IN the interview I asked Jason what he made of the show he saw:

"I was surprised at how emotional it was, raw emotion. If someone got upset it was real. That was something I could relate to straight away. I could really relate to that, the sad bits. It was funny. It was really like what life is. Funny, tragic and it could change just like that. And it did. And life is like that. I found it very realistic."

I asked Jason why he was interested in joining the show:

"I enjoyed what i saw for starters and I related to it and it seems like an interesting thing to do. Maybe people will enjoy what I have to say and it'll have an effect on somebody the way it did on me."

Welcome to Victor and Gord CUBED Jay!!

Una McKevitt

Twister!!!!!!!!!!

We had a brilliant evening, great fun and atmosphere. Thank you to everyone who supported us! And to everyone who sponsored our amazing prizes.

In this clip Una McKevitt (Director) and her sister Aine McKevitt (Gord) attempt to play Twister. The loud voice with the cool haircut spinning the board is Vickey Curtis, (Victor)

GAME ON!

A NIGHT OF FUN AND GAMES WITH VICTOR AND GORD

PANTIBAR, CAPEL STREET

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5TH FROM 7PM

GIANT JENGA, CONNECT 4, TWISTER, PARTY GAMES

AND MUCH MORE!!

PRIZES INCLUDE 2 WALK ON PARTS IN FAIR CITY!!

ADMISSION FREE

BRING YOUR GAME!

28-07-2009 Una McKevitt

This week I'm on a countdown to find the pair who will join Vickey, Aine, Michael and Ali in Victor and Gord CUBED. I need to confirm who this pair are before August 1st and begin work on their interviews and start rehearsals with them. Being part of a big festival like Dublin Fringe is great but it does mean some of the people I would like to be involved are committed to other projects in Fringe. But, the nearer it gets to the line, the more exciting it becomes cause the challenge increases and this project always responds well to challenges. Also Ali and Michael had over three months between being approached by me to participate and actually performing and this was a cause of some stress for them; the anticipation of what would happen grew larger and larger; whereas I think Aine and Vickey benefitted from only having a month to get their heads around the whole thing.

So whoever you are, you NEW TWO, hurry up and let me find you and let's make some theatre together!