Deirdre Murphy
is creating music, performing art, and yoga videos
I am in the heady buzz of the creative practice right now and sharing that feels like the most gorgeous thing to do. Today I sat with my dear friends and talked about different female archetypes and different ways of invoking them, and how each one can inspire us along the road of this dance theatre/experimental opera thing we're making (coming soon to a theatre near you; the festival lineup is not public yet!). Afterward we got up and started jamming with the electric guitar, body surfing the keyboard, playing with sounds and phrases, making the guitar resonate with the hair dryer, etc. We had this lovely silly glorious dance in the living room, all ate bananas, and went our separate ways. That, my dearlings, is a best example of the kind of rehearsal day that Patreon gives me. We are on the brink of an undiscovered universe: this universe of the show we're devising. It is an exciting and invigorating place to be! And you, my patrons, are helping to make this particular small universe happen.
If you are not familiar with my work, I would like to give you very general overview:
Capitalism: The Musical was the first music and the first play I ever wrote, and sharing it was a gratifying, trusting, and at times terrifying process. For me, the most successful element of the show is the community which formed around it. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of creating a beloved community, and that was the strength of the show -- we were a beloved community both in the cast and crew (22-25 folks including full band), and in the audience. The last time it went up was in May 2017, and since then multiple people -- multiple people!! -- have told me they saw it seven times. Seven times!!!! That right there is a community of an audience. The show is on hiatus right now; I worked on it for six years and needed a big break -- but even writing this just now I have the stirrings of wanting to get back and record the music. Here's one of the songs we did record, I hope you enjoy it! https://soundcloud.com/deirdremurphy/lets-make-a-m...
Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij-Tkz5Ufq8
I also made or co-made the shows Drinking From the Well (2011); Healthy Lovely Ladies Exercise Studio for Maximum Sex Attraction, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p3cKB8TMVc, (2012); the solos Wax Hands; In Whose Hands; and A Leg to Stand On, (2012-15), and Thoughts and Prayers in The Autonomy Project, 2018. I have enjoyed collaborating and performing with many people.
In addition to the new experimental opera, I'm also doing other work in music. I am a couple weeks away from launching a small crowd funding campaign, to make music videos for three of my songs. I sing back up for Leonard's Corner, a Leonard Cohen tribute band -- our next gig is Valentine's Day. I am doing movement direction for a new play by Paula Longeran. I'm also teaching yoga, acro, handstands and ballet. And parenting my beautiful children.
2018 was a big learning curve for me in too many ways to enumerate -- a year of extreme highs (learning new amazing stuff!) and lows (eviction!). I learned so much that it is remarkable it all got crammed in to 2018. The Christmas holidays gave me a welcome chance to decompress and
re-establish a comfort zone, after some edgy months. I am coming in to the new year with an open heart, and open mind, and a full creative schedule.
I'd like to offer the same level of reward for all options. If you can comfortably support me at 2 dollars a month, my gratitude knows no bounds and I don't like the reward structure that says those who can pay more deserve more. Maybe this will bite me in the ass in the long run, but for now it's the option I'm most comfortable with.
And so, for your 2, 5, 10, 15, 40, 50, 100 or a million bucks a month I will:
Write songs, and sing them. I'm thrilled that music has become my first voice, artistically. I love the challenge of searching out a rhyme, of creating the most suitable sequence of notes for an idea, and then being brave enough to expose those things to the world! In addition to original music, I'll post up the cover songs I've been working on. I also regularly sing traditional songs with a couple of friends, and will be posting those up here as well.
Offer occasional videos in Yoga instruction. I have taught Vinyasa Flow, Hatha (more gentle) flow, Ashtanga, prenatal, mum and baby, Yoga Nidra, and Acroyoga, and have been teaching yoga for 14 years. My videos will be versatile and there will be something for everyone.
I'd like to offer video of myself doing something physical that I find interesting -- could be handbalancing, movement/dance, trapeze, acro, improvisational song/dance. Bit of a wild card, this!
My bio is here....
Deirdre Murphy (writer, composer) is the primary creator of Capitalism: The Musical. She is interested in making life more accommodating, grounding, and stimulating. She does this by performing, writing music, making theatre, dancing, teaching yoga, dance, and acroyoga, training circus, throwing parties, raising children, knitting, cooking, and standing on her hands. Deirdre co-founded and directed Fumbally Court Studio from 2011-2017. She is interested in provoking political and cultural analysis through her work. She has been the recipient of several Art Council of Ireland grants, and has shown her work in Ireland, the USA (with the support of Culture Ireland) and Canada.
Grassroots Superstar
Thank you!!!! You might find that your karma starts to improve. People's hugs start to feel 8-10% more heartfelt. The knee or lower back pain that has been plaguing you starts to abate. You call in to the radio and win two free tickets! Every time I release something to the Patrons Only setting, you'll be notified.
If you can offer a 5er of support per month, you're a right proper sweetheart, and your karma will start to gleam just a little bit more. The gardai will always be looking the other way when you jaywheel through a red light, kicking your heels up into the air. Every time you step outside, you'll notice that there's some lovely scent on the breeze -- your neighbours must have planted flowers? You'll get to the sea more often.
If you can support me at a tenner a month, which is a lot for many people, thank you!! Your karma will definitely perk. When you are cycling through Dublin, carefully going the wrong way on a one way street, perhaps thinking self-righteously about how they really need a contra-flow bike lane right there (bottom of Parnell Square) and your shopping bag explodes, the woman cycling the wrong way right behind you will stop to help you collect everything, and load it awkwardly into the basket of her bicycle because there's nowhere else to put it. A second woman will dart her way through traffic (on foot) and give you two cloth bags, thereby saving the day! (P.S. this actually happened to me.)
Thank you! If you can support me at 15/month, you will experience the same karmic perking as in the tenner level, but with the added bonus that when your 13 month old child throws up sweet potatoes on the bus in San Francisco, all over some nice lady's cream coloured shawl, and then you flee the bus from mortification, into the heavy rain with no umbrella, some sweet little Mexican lady who barely speaks English will give you her umbrella! She will be full of apologies because the umbrella is kind of broken -- the stem doesn't extend -- and bustle away -- and then two minutes later she will show up again in a car and give you and your sick baby a new fully functional umbrella!! (P.S. This is also based on a true story that actually happened to me.)
If you are comfortably able to support me at 25 buckaroos a month, you are amazing. Thank you. You'll have all of the above named rewards, including karmic grocery bags and umbrellas. In addition, you'll find yourself passing more street bands than normal. Then one day, perhaps when you're living on Lucky Street in San Francisco, a four piece Mariachi band will stumble through your door into your living room, set up shop and start playing. The only song they'll know will be Candela, as done by the Buena Vista Social Club. They'll go on for hours, but then that's not all -- they'll show up a month later, and 6 weeks after that! For a total of four or five appearances during your two years in San Fran. Your Bolivian roommate Cecilia vaguely knows one of them. (This is also a true story, however unlikely it is. The song they play never changes.)
Well goodness gracious this is about the nicest thing I've ever heard of. All the goodies and none of the detritus. You will no longer get splashed by passing cars and puddles. All the days will be sunny, unless you're in a bad mood and then the weather will be appropriately dark and pissy. Perhaps, when living in Montana, you'll go to a tantric Tibetan Buddhist meditation ceremony, and you'll see that they are using a human femur as a trumpet! Much to your relief, there will be no discussion of your own femurs becoming trumpets for the next stage of the ceremony. That will be because of your good karma. You never go back. (Again, a true story.)
This is pretty incredible. Thank you. If you are able to support me at this level, kittens will never grow up to be cats. They will stay kittens forever, all cuteness and ears. You'd get all the real world and karmic perks as above. And. One time, when my son Breic was 8 or so, he tried to put something in a public bin. A gust of wind blew up and threw the item out the other side of the bin and on to the street. He went and got it, and put it in the next bin. The same thing happened. He tried a third time and the same thing happened, this time carrying the piece of paper far, far away. He watched it go, then turned to me and said, "Well, mother. It looks like fortune doesn't always favour the virtuous!" Now I must say, that's exactly the kind of thing that won't happen to you, as a 50 dollar per month patron. No indeed, instead, galloping horses and valiant knights (Brienne) will present themselves to your disposal! You'll be able to think of all manners of great deeds and creative developments to set them too, and news of your creativity, steadfast care, and general wonderfulness will spread throughout the known world. You will be appreciated.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Due to your karmic upswell, global warming will end. The best massage therapist you've ever met will offer you a job as a massage recipient -- they need someone to practise on. And I'll send you a postcard EVERY MONTH, potentially with clever musings inscribed on the back!
Recent posts by Deirdre Murphy