Monica McCarthy is PhD student at ATU Sligo and an assistant lecturer in Fiction Film Practice at ATU Galway. As a stage actress Monica has performed on Broadway, and in Edinburgh, and Japan, Her extensive TV/film credits include Wednesday, Faithless, FBI, The Blacklist, and the forthcoming Finnegan’s Foursome opposite Edward Burns. As a writer, Monica was selected for the Screen Ireland Fellowship (Connemara Writing Retreat), Stowe Story Lab (Galway), Week At The Well Residency (Sligo), Château Orquevaux Residency (France), Athena Film Writers Lab (NYC), and the Inge Festival New Plays Lab (KS). Her debut short film (writer/director) Survival Job won numerous awards on the festival circuit. Monica is also the creator and host of the philosophy podcast The Happier Hour, and has facilitated 1000+ workshops for global organizations on the topics of Creativity and Emotional Intelligence. She holds a MA in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University and a BA Theatre from Pepperdine University, Malibu.

With the increasing destruction of Earth’s natural resources, mankind has set its colonial sights on the heavens. But have we lost sight of an invaluable resource for reclaiming our role as stewards of the land, rather than as masters of a domain? In Celtic mythology, female goddesses (the likes of The Cailleach and Brigid) were revered through ceremony and ritualist theatre, serving as prophetic reminders to live in harmony with the natural world. In the Celtic Revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Lady Wilde and Lady Gregory thrust Irish folklore and mythology back into the spotlight, shifting the gaze from imperialism back to Irish nationalism and pride, with the birth of the Irish National Theatre as its beacon and in plays like Gregory’s Grania, placing the Irish mythology (in this case Diarmuid and Gráinne) center stage. Now, yet again, there is a sense of dissociation with the land as capitalism’s tentacles have outpaced natural resources. Simultaneously, there is an increased interest to return to mythology, mysticism, and ritual as a way to reclaim connection with nature. On stage this is evident in retellings of mythology in the likes of Marina Carr’s plays focused on Medea, Hecuba, and Clytemnestra. On the personal sphere, home altars, once reserved for community rituals, are gaining popularity along with cacao ceremonies, and archetypal tools like the tarot. In this way the personal altar has become an intimate stage wherein individuals can enter into a dialogue with their own sense of self and a sense of connection with the natural world. Where reason and logic fail to persuade the governmental powers that be, perhaps it is not out of the question to return to the archetypal mythology, ceremonial theatre, and ritual-as-theatre practices that set our sights back to Earth.