Martin Sharry.
In 2008 Martin completed a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies in NUI Galway. Since then he has been involved with creating live events, setting people opposite people in real time. He is interested in questions of presence. There is the sense in which presence allows psychological ‘integration’. Contrasting liveness with mediation creates distance,to play, to reflect. And there is the foregrounding of disregarded subjects.
The latter has included disconnected family members that share the same name in I Am Martin Sharry. The play dealt with the downside of the Aran Islands’ idealised authenticity. His aesthetic is informed by the conditions of the theatre and the event. He is interested in the form’s shared finitude and the physical capacity to hold space-time in this mass mediated world.
He writes, he directs and he performs. In 2012 he was diagnosed as having Parkinson’s Disease. He is getting slower and the work is less frequent. He wrote and recorded a story, read by Shane Connolly, titled Head Home. He is currently working on an essay for the Covid Award.
Update 03/10.2022
The disease progresses and I find myself overtaken by the symptoms and side effects of the various medications. I can no longer consider myself as a self producing theatre artist. Parkinson's incapacitates 'executive functioning' thereby making organising, managing and multitasking impossible. Applications for funding and meeting deadlines is always a struggle but now it's impossible. I hope writing might be possible.
Watch this space...