Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

Dancing at Lughnasa is a beautiful memory play that follows 5 sisters caring for their sick brother in the summer of 1936. I had the wonderful opportunity of bringing the character Margaret Mundy to life. Often described as the “joker of the family,” Maggie acted as the silly mediator between the siblings. However, Maggie’s character is more than a jokester. Reading for her, I felt a complexity in her personality that stemmed from keeping those around her happy in extremely trying times. The best challenge for me was portraying Maggie with a light exterior and a brooding interior. To me, it felt as if she carried the stress for everyone and released it into the air with singing, dancing, and jokes. Naturally, the second best challenge was doing an Irish accent for the entirety of the play.