Blue Teapot find a new creativity in adversity

The artistic director of Blue Teapot Theatre Company, Petal Pilley, isn’t given to self-pity. It’s just as well, because she and the company, made up of adult actors with a range of intellectual disabilities, have had plenty cause for such emotions since 2020. Last May, Blue Teapot were due to host Crossing the Line, a unique pan-European theatre festival planned for Galway 2020, involving companies with intellectual disabilities (ID theatre groups) from across the EU. It was the first European festival of its type.

Years in the making, the event was just weeks away when the pandemic hit Ireland and everything was cancelled.

Petal laughs as she recalls they’d even had a special ‘Hugging Hub’ planned for the festival headquarters in the City’s Fr Burke Park. The very idea of hugging these days!

The Blue Teapots’ own play for Crossing the Line, Charlene Kelly’s Into the Dark Woods, also had to be postponed and it too was a history-maker because this was the first time the Teapots were presenting a play written by one of their own members.

Previously, they’d broken new ground with work from writers including Shakespeare and local playwright Christian O’Reilly, winning awards and accolades along the way. But for Crossing the Line, they looked closer to home.

Preparations began in 2017 when Petal instigated a project ‘the Blank Page’, with local playwright and performer Eileen Gibbons, who served as a dramaturg or advisor on the process.

Charlene Kelly was already a successful actor with Blue Teapot, and by the end of the pilot project it became apparent she also had a real storytelling talent.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.