Hello there, a chairde.

It’s been a while. Pandemic, innit?

Like many of you, I’ve been somewhat grounded recently, though you’d never know from this website. Having travelled to Paris in August 2020, I promptly stopped updating my ‘Current Status’ page, giving the impression I’ve been swanning around the 5th Arrondissement ever since.

Really, I’ve been in Dublin, working away, watching Star Trek, and brushing up on my Irish. And pressing forward into new and exciting areas, despite no digital signs of life (pandemic, innit?)

The news on the street is – and I deeply hate this word, but needs must – I’ve pivoted. Quite a large pivot, actually. Since March 2020, I’ve gone from working as primarily a playwright, to working primarily a screenwriter. And things have taken off, in no small part because of the wonderful Jean Kitson at Kitson Press Associates who I signed with last June. She scooped me up after my first TV writing credit with Ink and Light and the rest, as they say, is puns and high-brow poo jokes*.

This change of focus has been very practical, given how animation is thriving and theatre is, well, rather strangled and spooky at the moment thanks to Covid. But it was also a very personal decision. We won’t go into it over-much, but I will say this – I now get to write full time, and I get to write comedy, and I get paid a decent wage, and I feel five years younger, and the future is bright. This is a standard of living that Irish theatre simply *cannot offer* anyone but Marina Carr (minus the comedy bit – she’s a very serious, very beautiful, real-life witch from Offaly). Also, animation writers, it seems, are made less miserable by there profession than theatre-makers. Go figure.

And there are more changes on the way, too! Within Super Paua (and we’ll be announcing a changing of the guard very soon!) but also in regards to where I call home for the foreseeable. I’ve decided to head to France for a bit, and see how much of the next two to three years I’d like to spend there. Sadly, it looks like I’m not getting out to New Zealand any time soon, and have a dúil to wander a bit on the European mainland. Because… why wouldn’t I?

Keep an eye on the blog for news from the road!

It’s good to be back.

S x

*The poo jokes are also low brow