Tag Archives: theatre

CLARE Drama Festival stalwart Tom Hanley is among 15 actors and organisers chosen by RTÉ to feature in a special short film to celebrate Ireland’s vibrant amateur drama circuit. While May is, ordinarily, the month when the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival takes place in Athlone, the Dean Crowe Theatre will lie empty for a second year in a row due to pandemic restrictions. In existence since the early 1950s, the festival has been deferred to 2022. However, actors from a range of the regional festival locations, including Clare, have come together to mark what should have been the 69th RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival. Mr Hanley is among those to lend their voices and faces to a 2-minute film entitled ‘Interval’, a piece written by Joseph Hoban. Produced by RTÉ’s Tracey Diamond, the film focuses on the enforced ‘interval’ the pandemic created in the lives of people nationally and globally. It is a reflection on lockdown and the restrictions that have …

A HOSPITAL medic has appealed for people to follow all public health guidelines to curb the increasing spread of Covid-19 as the UL Hospitals’ Group prepares for a surge in admissions of very sick patients with the virus. Visiting bans which were imposed across acute public hospital sites in the Mid-West at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020 remain in force. Prof Brian Lenehan, Chief Clinical Director, UL Hospitals’ Group said the group regretted it is again curtailing scheduled care in their hospitals. He pledged the group will prioritise their most urgent patients for planned procedures and appointments and look forward to increasing this activity as soon as possible. “We have commenced vaccinating hospital staff against Covid-19 as part of the biggest such mass vaccination campaign ever seen in Ireland. It gives our staff such a sense of optimism that we are at the beginning of the end of this pandemic. “They know what they are potentially facing …

SCARIFF Bay Community Radio will broadcast a co-production with the award-winning Sliabh Aughty Drama Group at 2pm on Sunday, with a repeat broadcast at 7pm. Entitled Mr McGuffin’s Plot Device and Writer Unblocking Emporium, the play is directed by Ruth O’Hagan, written by Tara Sparling and produced, engineered and edited by Eoin O’Hagan. The play is described as “innovative and hilarious play”. It is hoped that, with the cancellation of the annual drama circuit events, this could inspire other amateur groups to write and perform plays for radio. Ahead of the broadcast Ruth O’Hagan and Tara Sparling will be interviewed on Saturday Chronicle at 11.30am. The station, which covers East Clare is available on 88.3FM and 97.2FM; online at scariffbayradio.com; and on the TuneIn app.

The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys has joined with Pat Dowling, CEO, of Clare County Council to encourage everyone in Clare to take part in the first Cruinniú na Cásca, a new national day of culture and creativity. It will take place on Easter Monday as part of the Creative Ireland programme. Cruinniú na Cásca is a day-long national celebration of culture and creativity, which will take place in Dublin city centre and around the country. From live music and dance, to coding, theatre, art and music workshops, talks and tastings, readings and screenings, for the first time this year, special Cruinniú na Cásca events will take place in each of the 31 local authorities across the country. Admission is free (although tickets are required for some events with limited capacity) and there is a special focus on events for families and children.

Clare Youth Theatre (CYT), an initiative of the Arts Office of Clare County Council, returns to glór this year for a series of weekly workshops. Open to all young people who are in secondary school, CYT meet every Saturday afternoon and delivers a programme that includes acting, devising, writing and technical skills for theatre. With over 25 members currently from all over Clare, CYT offers teenagers a chance to meet and create with like-minded young people. “Over the years we have seen firm friendships forged at the youth theatre,” according to Siobhán Mulcahy, Clare County Council Arts Officer. She continued, “The development of theatre skills is primarily what we do but the holistic benefits of team building, self confidence and addressing issues relevant to young people in a safe environment is what differentiates the youth theatre from other drama groups.” Led by Eleanor Feely and Clare Townsend, the group engages in community events, pop up performances and productions throughout the …

Ennis actress Denise Gough has been named Best Actress in this year’s Olivier Awards for her critically acclaimed role in the play People, Places and Things. The actress from College Green was the bookies favourite to take the award where she was up against actresses including Nicole Kidman, Gemma Arterton, Janet McTeer and Lia Williams. Denise used her acceptance speech in London’s Royal Opera House to voice concern about the lack of diversity. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, has described Denise as “an ever rising star of stage and screen” as she congratulated both the Clare actress and other Irish winners. The Minister added, “When we see Irish successes on this scale at ceremonies such as the Olivier Awards, it underlines the importance, and indeed the benefits, of providing funding to Culture Ireland, which helps Irish artists to bring their work overseas and helps to showcase Irish talent internationally.” Critics have been raving about …

WHEN Noelle Brown decided to look for her birth parents, she was met with consistent opposition and stone walling, tough experiences she has turned into something positive through her play, Postscript. Born into a mother and baby home in Cork in the 1960s, she was adopted at eight weeks of age. She grew up knowing about the adoption but had very little curiosity around it. “I knew it from a very young age, which was great because I grew up at a time when people weren’t told. I knew people who were told when they were 21, which obviously didn’t go down very well but I suppose those parents thought they were doing the right thing as well. For me, there was no shock element to it.” She grew up quite happily in a loving home and now she says her contentment with her lot may be why she didn’t spend much time thinking about her birth parents. “It [her …

PEMBERLEY Productions and the Lime Tree Theatre are bringing the one man off-Broadway production of In Acting Shakespeare on an Irish tour this month, with dates in Clare, Limerick and Galway. The tour gives Irish audiences a rare chance to see an off-Broadway production on their doorsteps and it comes off the back of a two-month, sold-out run in New York City. In Acting Shakespeare is a funny, touching and uplifting story of one man’s discovery of Shakespeare, acting and language. Freely adapted, with permission, from Sir Ian McKellen’s Acting Shakespeare, James De Vita tells his own story of a young fisherman searching for a new career. This fun, fervent tribute to one man’s personal journey, deftly weaves some of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues with James’ days as a Long Island fisherman and his nights as a classical actor. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Tim Smith, who is producing the play, which is written by and stars Wisconsin native De Vita, …