Emer halpenny

The first full sunrise I ever watched was in February 1988, while I was in labour with my son. I was an immature twenty year old and the pregnancy was most definitely unplanned. I gave that baby boy up for adoption and I write about my life before, during and after that painful episode in my blog BEARTH MOTHER, which you can read here. But it was in the months afterwards that I was drawn gently towards the stage; the theatre saved me. It gave me my career and my true love and my family. Three months after giving birth I was working backstage on the musical Grease and flirting with the guy who played Doody, thinking it was a shame that I now hated all men, because he seemed quite nice. In 1990 I directed my first show, cast Doody as Captain Von Trapp and opened a drama school. In 1995 I married him. I touch on my happy ever after in my TED X talk “The Power of Decision” which you can watch here. Meanwhile, my drama school grew and developed its place as a creative facility more than either a performing arts house or a school of speech and drama; my joy was sparked by any student finding their creative way via the drama classes and although we always worked towards performance, the journey and the process far outweighed the importance of the end production. Eventually, I got frustrated with the lack of material available to perform with my students. Since I adapted and rewrote so much of whatever I could find, I decided I may as well write from scratch and then the fun really began. With the creative input of my students, we improvised the craziest of notions which not only gave me an insight into what kind of characters each individual would like to play, but which stretched me enormously as a writer and a creative facilitator. I discovered a propensity for humour and dialogue. The plays weren’t just fun for me to write and direct, they were a truly joyful affair from the inception of a bizarre idea to the laughter of the audience. Once again, I was lucky enough to have found a shoe that fit.
 
You can follow my blog Emer Halpenny Creative here and make sure you dip in and browse some of the plays I’ve written here.


---