Drama, mural painting, stained-glass work, theatre in education, are only some of the activities of the Balor Development Community Arts Group in Ballybofey-Stranorlar, Co Donegal. The group grew out of the Butt Drama Circle with the support of FAS and various funders including the EU Peace and Reconciliation Fund.
The Balor in Theatre and Education (BiTE) group is also part of the arts group and specifically uses drama to deal with difficult and sensitive issues among schoolchildren, victims of domestic violence and the homeless, among others.
Their headquarters in the old cinema in Ballybofey is a hive of activity as dozens of young people take part in many projects over the summer. Clare Campbell's eyes shone with enthusiasm as she described the play she and other members of local youth groups in Ballybofey-Stranorlar had put on with the community arts group.
"It was brilliant," she told The Irish Times. "Our play was called Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll. It was about a teenage pregnancy, and a boyfriend on drugs." Clare played the girl, and her friend, Eileen McGovern, played her mother. "I was very angry," she said, referring to the daughter's pregnancy.
"There was a disco and someone spiked her drink and she collapsed, and she lost the baby," Clare explained. The young people had written the play themselves.
The performance was watched by a group, mainly boys, from Ballymacarret in east Belfast. The youngsters had worked together on a huge mural that adorns the wall of the old cinema in Ballybofey, the home of the Butt Drama Circle.
The work of BiTE is carried out by tutors who, having been previously unemployed, completed the FAS Community Employment training scheme run by the Butt Drama Circle at the Balor centre. Mark McCollum, group co-ordinator, is an example of what such programmes can achieve. Formerly unemployed, he attended one of the initial FAS courses.
He had no previous theatrical experience, but he became so involved he went back to college where he completed a degree in occupational psychology, and then returned to work with the Balor Development Community Arts Group.
The method used by Butt Drama Circle and BiTE is to work with groups in developing and writing, as well as performing, the dramas. Professional writers are involved, but they work with those who have experience of the social themes being explored, and incorporate this experience into the work.
Therefore, health workers see performances based on the experiences of women who have been abused; bullying in schools is explored with delegates to the British Psychological Society conference invited on stage to participate; and young people explore difficult subjects such as teenage pregnancy in the safety of imagery.
Butt Drama Circle also works with women's and youth groups on murals and stained glass. Its most recent collaboration was with the Ballymacarret Arts and Cultural Society, most of whose members had never been across the border before.
East Belfast artists Ken Black and Glenn Mays supervised the project, which depicted the myth of local Donegal potentate, Balor of the Evil Eye.
The most important impact of the project may be, however, the camaraderie built between the boys from east Belfast and the girls from Ballybofey and nearby Crossroads during the project. From August 15th the groups will paint another mural, this time on the front of the building.