Red carpets and green rooms for Blue Diamond actors and scriptwriters
Some of the Blue Diamond actors in profile. L-R: Michael Lafferty, Kim Williams, David Johnstone and Ciara O'Dwyer.
On the morning that I meet actors, David Johnstone and Ciara O’Dwyer, they admit to being a little more tired than normal. Less than 12 hours earlier, they were standing on stage accepting raucous, standing ovations from audiences who had come to see them perform at their annual showcase in Dundrum, County Dublin.
One of the highlights of the evening was the short play, , which was conceived, written, and performed by Ciara.
“It’s about a woman named Rosie Jones who turns 40,” says the 40-year-old. “She wants to get out of Dublin but she doesn’t know what to do. She wants to book a one-way ticket out of here but she hasn't been further than her local shops and she hasn't even got a passport.”
What unfolds is a drama that addresses questions around a classic mid-life crisis. Questions around dyeing hair, buying flashy cars, and ultimately toying with the idea of going full-on Shirley Valentine and flying away from it all for a new life in greener pastures.
Ciara started with the Blue Diamond Drama Academy in 2018. The company has a three-year Drama Training Programme in which students with intellectual disabilities study the likes of Shakespeare, Improvisation, Voice, Physical Theatre, Acting for Camera, and other modules. Many of them end up staying with the company on graduation. Ciara is one of those.
“It has built up my confidence,” says the Dubliner, “and my speech is much clearer so in that way it is really good. My speaking has improved so much. But my dad still keeps saying ‘What?’.”
“I enjoy coming in and meeting people here. On Monday I do Advanced Drama with David. That’s like doing plays like Shakespeare. On Wednesday it’s more relaxed and we make up our own plays. It’s like a drama club. We do our own type of writing.”
“Blue Diamond was formed to find a way to give third-level education to people with intellectual disabilities,” says CEO, Kate Sheridan. “There’s a lack of opportunity at third-level. A lot of people with an intellectual disability don’t do a Leaving Cert and therefore their options are very limited. They end up going into a day service, which is fine, but it’s not always what they want. So Drama and Performing Arts is a great pathway for them. It gives you confidence, public speaking, movement, and developing your voice and it complements skill sets that they might already have. There’s a really big interest in it.”
Having started in 2016 with 10 “hugely talented” students, demand has grown. The group has gone from strength to strength and now boasts 17 members. Some have worked in films, in theatres and soaps such as .
David Johnstone, 40, has been with the company since the early days. He has a long history with drama and long before his stint with the theatre company he starred in the 2004 Irish movie .
“I was mugged in it,” he says, recalling his role in the movie.
“I wore makeup. It was quite traumatising actually. But it was a very good scene and I really enjoyed it.” David attends Blue Diamond twice a week.
“Doing this course has helped me,” he says. “It’s helped with my reading. I can’t read big words but now I narrow it down by syllables. So when I come across a long word, I break it up. So it helps me to learn my lines and with reading in general.”
“For me, I speak too quickly sometimes,” he continues. “So I have to slow it down a little. I had a speech therapist before and this helps to complement that. We do exercises to help with my diction, slowing it down and pronouncing my t’s and d’s properly.”
Both David and Ciara are keen to emphasise the role that staff and volunteers play in their everyday lives. Megan Berber has been both a volunteer and staff member with Blue Diamond for four years and though she is only 28 there is a sense that she is something of a mother figure for the students.
Megan studied drama at the Dublin Institute of Technology which was based just down the road in Rathmines. After three years on the course, she discovered she was more attuned to working behind the camera than in front of it.
“When I got into the third year, we started to do facilitation,” she recalls. “We started going out to day services and ding drama workshops for young adults with intellectual disabilities. I ended up doing my thesis on how drama can help people with intellectual disabilities so I had a huge interest.”
After a two and half year break in Canada, Megan returned home and took up a voluntary position with Blue Diamond. That later turned into a paid role around facilitation, marketing, social media, script writing, teaching, character work, web design, and whatever else needs to be done.
“The best thing for me is that I’m always excited to come in,” says Megan. “We have great friendships and I have great craic. It’s important to me that what I’m doing is making a bit of a difference. I’m not driven by money. It makes me feel good and I know the guys here are happy.”
Happy, and productive it would seem. While Blue Diamond does focus on classic and indeed classical theatre, there is a strong emphasis on student focussed production such as Ciara’s aforementioned .
“The training students get here is the same as any other third-level degree in Drama,” says Kate. “In addition, the course seeks to encourage students' own creative talents by consulting with them on extra training and themes for plays. We want as much of the work that Blue Diamond does as possible to come from the students' own experiences. So devising is a big part of it.”
Another aspect of Blue Diamond’s work is about getting people from outside the community to see the ability and not the disability. When you spend an hour in the company of Blue Diamond’s students, this happens rather quickly.
In fact, what you end up seeing is a bunch of polite, punctual, professional, and straight-talking people with a passion for acting and often wicked sense of humour. Getting people to stop, look and listen is the challenge.
“Anyone that we have ever worked with has always given positive feedback,” says Kate. “It can be difficult to get in the door sometimes but when we do we always hear good things about our actors being the best people to work with.”
“They are so organised and so prepared. I think sometimes they have to over prepare but I’d also credit a lot of that feedback to the training. By nature, drama training is very tough and it’s very disciplined and the discipline of the craft has been very much instilled in them. And it works.”
With any luck, it will keep on working and we soon might see some of the members of Blue Diamond join recent Oscar winner, James Martin, on the red carpet in Los Angeles.
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