23/10/2019

Dermot Daly – Associate Director’s Blog – Part One

Hi, I’m Dermot and I am the Associate Director on Freedom Studios’ BDStories. In this blog I’m going to muse on the two plays and the role of Associate Director. My association with Freedom Studios goes back more years than I care to remember when I did some work as an actor – yes I am one of those as well – on one of the first ‘Street Voices’ courses.

Fast forward to now – whilst I’m still acting, I’ve been doing more directing for theatre and film and was immensely pleased to be asked to be the associate on this show as Freedom Studios has a massive and well deserved reputation for working with ‘new’ talent (not sure that I can be called ‘young’ anymore) over many years. The premise of BDStories is to talk about Bradford to Bradford. Working with two exciting new voices in Asma and Aina we are able to tell stories that are specific to Bradford, and in the case of Pashto Thriller, the 1980’s.

What does an Associate Director do? I hear you ask – metaphorically of course, I can’t actually see you dear reader(!) – well, in my case working with Alex Chisholm and Kash Arshad in the creation of the pieces, being used as a sounding board and being able to watch two masterful directors in their natural habitat at close quarters. My experience in theatre has allowed me to add some detail and thoughts where appropriate but most of all, I’ve massively enjoyed watching these two pieces come to life. I have run a few rehearsals around textual analysis and will be keeping a directorial eye on the pieces as they tour community venues around Bradford and in the run at Kala Sangam. You might even see me introduce the pieces at a performance near you!

Tour Dates>>