Acclaimed artist Ted Turton will be at Kennys Bookshop on September 5th, joining special guest Ollie Jennings in conversation to celebrate the launch of his memoir, My Travels with Footsbarn Theatre.

Tickets for this event are free but are limited.

Ted Turton is a Galway based artist and co-founder of the Galway International Arts Festival. He designed twelve of its celebrated posters between 1978 and 1999. Ted has been involved with the arts in Ireland since he arrived from England in 1973 and has been at the forefront of many ventures, including In Dublin Magazine (co founder & designer); the early years of Druid Theatre (designer and graphic artist); programming arts festivals in both Galway and Cork (artistic director: Galway International Arts Festival 1996 – 99, and Cork Midsummer Festival 2000 – 02). He now works from his studio at home in the Cleggan, in West Connemara.

Ted will be joined in conversation by special guest Ollie Jennings. Along with Ted, Ollie was one of the co-founders of the Galway International Arts Festival. He has been manager of Galway band The Saw Doctors for the last forty years.

About My Travels with Footsbarn Theatre:
In this delightful memoir, Ted Turton describes his escapades as an artist, designer, photographer, printer, truck driver, publicist, front-of-house salesperson, document forger and occasional street actor for the acclaimed Footsbarn Theatre.

With its free-spirited nature and boisterous energy, Footsbarn attracted many talented people who wanted to be part of a travelling theatre. The romantic idea of taking theatre to the people, be it in the city, the suburbs or rural communities, was attractive but the reality was tough. Life on the road with a barnstorming company of extraordinarily talented actors, clowns, musicians and artists – plus all their children – was a challenge. This was showbiz, circus-style, with their own tent, trucks, buses and caravans.

My Travels with Footsbarn Theatre comprises Ted Turton’s reminiscences about travelling the world with an infuriating, endearing and totally inspirational family of performers. With amusing stories about various scrapes and mishaps, descriptions of the amazing places they visited in Europe, the USA and Australia, and entertaining tales about life in the freewheeling 1980s, this is a heart-warming coming-of-age story. It is also stunningly illustrated with Ted Turton’s work as an artist with the company, plus dozens of photographs he took with his trusty Leica rangefinder camera.

Pre-order My Travels with Footsbarn Theatre:
My Travels with Footsbarn Theatre is available for pre-order here. Copies will also be available to buy at the event.

If you have any questions on this event or would like to be notified of other events at Kennys Bookshop, please email martha@kennys.ie.