Blog II: Fighting Words at the Gate

Fighting Words helps students of all ages to develop their writing skills and to explore their love of writing. Throughout the month of July, Fighting Words facilitated workshops for adults from the DCU University of Sanctuary programme in the Gate Studio.

In her second blog post, Fighting Words Volunteer, Nicola Kenny, writes about the workshop process and the showcase performance:

A Story Comes Together 

We gather in the studio space one last time to perform and to reflect on the highlights of the last few weeks here in the Gate. 

We’ve worked hard, and it’s exciting to see how our ideas have come together. Our play centres around a collection of stories and narratives which have come about as a result of discussions, improvisation, storytelling, writing exercises, movement and music creation. Themes such as migration and community are some of the issues which we have explored. These ideas have been woven together, and we perform for our gathering audience. 

The play is set on a sunny evening in a bar in Valencia, the perfect place for people from different areas and backgrounds to gather and meet each other. Over the course of the evening new friendships are made, conflict bubbles, woes shared, and laughter, music and drink are enjoyed by one and all. Meetings take place around the bar space and scenes are connected through music, movement and monologue. 

We meet the woman who has found out that her husband has cheated on her after being away for some time, as well as the alcoholic in search of love. Meanwhile, in other parts, there are those seeking friendships and others who miss families who have been lost or left behind.  There is the bartender who is trying to sooth the pain and angst of those who visit her bar. These people come together to find connections and share their experiences with one another.

As we sing a final song together, there is a great sense of achievement amongst us. Working together has been an extremely enjoyable experience, and we’ve learnt so much along the way. We acknowledge that the last few weeks have not just about theatre-making. We’ve discovered a lot in a short space of time – about ourselves and each other and we see how working together as a group through a creative process can be a highly rewarding experience.

To mark and celebrate this work there is a short presentation followed by a party with cake. We’ve had a great time here in this space. 

We want to thank the Gate Theatre for all their help over the course of the programme. 

– Fighting Words Volunteer, Nicola Kenny

For more information on Fighting Words, please see here

– 26 July 2018