Performative Art
NEW WORK postponed until further notice due to Covid pandemic
I CANT GET OUT OF BED
*short-listed for the Abbey Theatre’s New Playwright Programme, 2019*
Solo performance for stage and community venues. Prototype model for free use by others in schools, hospitals, mental health units and day centres, public spaces et al. Someone in a bed talking and not talking about personal experience with depression. Props, projected images, videos, information table, voice-over, music and any other additions are optional; as would be interaction with spectators or audience. The core is testimony. You are not the only one.



November 2018 – ongoing
THE DANTE PROJECT:
To Hell and Back Again on Twitter
Autodidactic, word-parsing translation of Dante’s Inferno from Italian to English with devil-may-care commentary posted erratically on Twitter. See pinned Tweet.
“Is this the longest thread on Twitter?” (Tweeter)
THE TRANCE MISSION DIARIES
2018

Live performance reading of cosmic tale with vocals & electronic sound.
A ruined lightship, a lost crew, a forgotten mission.
Reader/Dreamer O. R. Melling, electronic sound artist Cha Krka, vocalist Sylvia Teva.
Venues: Klinkerdin Experimental Arts Salon (Bray, Co. Wicklow), Free Fringe Festival (Co. Leitrim), Heritage Week at Luisne Well-Being Centre (Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow), Culture Night at Signal Arts (Bray, Co. Wicklow), Octocon National Irish Science Fiction Convention 2018 (Dublin)
“I felt I was in a trance,” (audience member, Free Fringe Festival)
“It was an adventure,” (audience member, Klinkerdin Arts Salon)


Live performance reading of cosmic tale with vocals & electronic sound.
A ruined lightship, a lost crew, a forgotten mission.
Reader/Dreamer O. R. Melling, electronic sound artist Cha Krka, vocalist Sylvia Teva.
Venues: Klinkerdin Experimental Arts Salon (Bray, Co. Wicklow), Free Fringe Festival (Co. Leitrim), Heritage Week at Luisne Well-Being Centre (Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow), Culture Night at Signal Arts (Bray, Co. Wicklow), Octocon National Irish Science Fiction Convention 2018 (Dublin)
“I felt I was in a trance,” (audience member, Free Fringe Festival)
“It was an adventure,” (audience member, Klinkerdin Arts Salon)


2008
IN DAILY ACCORD
Performance for Three Voices
Accompanied by onscreen images & music
Poetry & artwork by Frank Golden
Music: Andrew Collins
Speakers: Frank Golden, O.R. Melling & John Doorty
Burren College of Art, County Clare

September 23, 2007
Participant, GIANT HUMAN HARP
Created by aerial artist John Quigley (John Q)
In protest vs M3 Motorway

Hosted by Save Tara Campaign and Spectral Q http://www.spectralq.com/Home.html
Collaborative Art for the Common Good (Aerial art in Arctic, Antarctica, Amazon rainforest, Geneva, Toronto, New Orleans, London, New York, Copenhagen et al)
Hosted by Save Tara Campaign and Spectral Q http://www.spectralq.com/Home.html
Collaborative Art for the Common Good (Aerial art in Arctic, Antarctica, Amazon rainforest, Geneva, Toronto, New Orleans, London, New York, Copenhagen et al)

Aerial Artist, John Q

Participant: O.R. Melling

Aerial Artist, John Q

Participant: O.R. Melling
June 2006
THE LIFE OF MERLIN
Adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s
Vita Merlini by John & Caitlin Matthews
Main Stage: Mythic Journeys Conference
Atlanta, USA
(photo credits: Beth Gwinn, 2006)

Adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s
Vita Merlini by John & Caitlin Matthews
Main Stage: Mythic Journeys Conference
Atlanta, USA
(photo credits: Beth Gwinn, 2006)





With William Todd Jones as Merlin


With William Todd Jones as Merlin
July 1991
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN: IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH BEUYS

Untitled Photograph by Joseph Beuys, 1970, via Fine Art Multiple
Multimedia Performance created by Michael Casey
Ballyvaughan Poetry Festival
Performers:
Michael Casey, centre stage, improv acting with props, assisted by Alicia Smyth
O.R. Melling, side stage at stationary microphone, improv reader of texts heaped on table
Frank Golden, wandering through audience with portable mic, improv repetition of limited set of lines
… all occurring simultaneously …
“It was like when life keeps comin’ at ye from all sides and you don’t what the f**k is going on!” (festival audience member)

Untitled Photograph by Joseph Beuys, 1970, via Fine Art Multiple
Multimedia Performance created by Michael Casey
Ballyvaughan Poetry Festival
Performers:
Michael Casey, centre stage, improv acting with props, assisted by Alicia Smyth
O.R. Melling, side stage at stationary microphone, improv reader of texts heaped on table
Frank Golden, wandering through audience with portable mic, improv repetition of limited set of lines
… all occurring simultaneously …
“It was like when life keeps comin’ at ye from all sides and you don’t what the f**k is going on!” (festival audience member)