2004 Festival

2004  Tipperary Drama Festival

CONFINED

1st – Muinter na Tire Cup : “Bent” Silken Thomas Players

2nd : “The Apple Doesn’t Fall” Holycross / Ballycahill D.G.

3rd : “The Stolen Child” Skibbereen T.S.

BEST ACTOR : Kevin McCormick as Max in “Bent” Silken Thomas Players

BEST ACTRESS : Carmel O’Driscoll as Peggy in “Stolen Child” Skibbereen T.S.

BEST SUPP. ACTOR : Crispin Welby in “The Apple Doesn’t Fall” Holycross / Ballycahilll

BEST SUPP. ACTRESS : Gearldine Henchion as Lorna in “The Apple Doesn’t Fall” Holycross / Ballycahilll

BEST PRODUCER : Sean Judge, Silken Thomas Players

 

OPEN

1st – TIPP FM Trophy: “On Raftery’s Hill” Ballyduff D.G.

2nd : “The Belfry” Thurles D.G.

3rd : “The Chastitute” Palace Theatre Group, Fermoy

BEST ACTOR : Sean Aherne as Joe Bosco in “The Chastitute” Palace Theatre Group

BEST ACTRESS : Kate Caning as Sorrel “On Raftery’s Hill” Ballyduff D.G.

BEST SUPP. ACTOR : Padrig Corbett as Dominic in “The Belfry” Thurles D.G.

BEST SUPP. ACTRESS : Mary Flavin Corbett as Aunt Jane in “The Chastitute” Palace TG.

BEST PRODUCER : Brendan Dunlea, Ballyduff D.G.

OVERALL

HANNIFIN CUP : Palace Theatre Group, Fermoy “The Chastitute

GALLAGHER AWARD : for most promising actor/actress –  Conor O’Connell as Horst in “Bent” Silken Thomas Players

SCHOLARSHIP : Derek Keating as Mozart in “Amadeus” Carlow Little T.G.

Dr. MORRIS MEMORIAL CUP : [Tipperary Group]  Thurles D.G.

BEST SET OVERALL : [Josie Slattery Perpetual Trophy] “The Belfry” Thurles D.G.

1st ADJUDICATOR AWARD :Deirdre Fleming as Constanze “Amadeus” Carlow L.T.G.

2nd ADJUDICATOR AWARD : Cathy Galvin , Jackie Murphy “Amadeus” Carlow L.T.G

CERTIFICATES OF MERIT :

John Murphy (Sound) , “The Chastiture” Palace T.G.

Con Downing (Set Construction) “Stolen Child” Skibbereen D.G.

Kieran Walsh (Sound) “Bent” Skilken Thomas Players

Michael Redmond as Petkoff “Arms & The Man” Gorey Little Theatre Group

SCHOOLS WINNER

1st : Scoil Airegail, Ballyhale

 

Synopsis of the plays and history of the groups

 

Friday 19th March (Confined) The Apple Doesn’t Fall by Trish Vanderburg, Holycross/Ballycahill Drama Group

Sponsored by Michael Lowry T.D.

The Play: The Play: This is a story of a family struggling to come to terms with the harsh reality Alzheimer’s besets upon their lives. When Kate discovers her mother, Selma, has Alzheimer’s it sets in motion a chain of events that will change their lives forever. Her story is disturbing, funny and sad but ultimately uplifting in a way that will affect all in their own personal way.

The Group: The Group: In existence for well over thirty years, the group has competed and won many festivals all over Ireland. We have reached the All Ireland Confined Finals on many occasions, picking up several directing, acting and setting awards along the way. We have performed and staged critically acclaimed productions from Sive by John B. Keane, Run For Your Wife by Ray Cooney to Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot.

 

Saturday 20th March (Confined) Stolen Child by Yvonne Quinn & Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, Skibbereen Drama Group

Sponsored by John Bourke Engineering

The Play: The Play: Humorous, yet moving, Stolen Child tells the story of a woman adopted at birth who enlists thehelpof a colourful private detective to search for her mother and uncover the secrets of her family history. Stolen Child confronts the reality of this country’s abandonment of its most vulnerable children. It is being produced at a time of heightened interest in this critical issue.

The Group: The Group: Skibbereen Theatre Society has been in existence in various incarnations since the 1950s. Since the mid 1990s it has been going through something of a purple patch, as the group has reached the All-Ireland Confined Drama Finals on three occasions in the last decade. The group is making a determined bid again this year with this new and very topical play.

 

Sunday 21st March (Open) Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, Gorey Little Theathre Group

Sponsored by Tipperary Institute

The Play: The Play: Arms and the Man was written by one of Ireland’s best loved playwrights who won the Nobel Prize for literature in1925. Inthe play, which is one of his wittiest, Shaw casts a baleful eye on both love and war with considerable effect!

The Group: The Group: Gorey Little Theatre Group was founded in 1951. Since then it has appeared in festivals almost every year including the All-Ireland Finals in Athlone. The Group won the All-Ireland One Act competition with The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan and the premier award at the Ulster Finals in Belfast with Hugh Leonard’s A Life.

 

Monday 22nd March (Confined) The Salvage Shop by Jim Nolan, Ampitheathre Company, Kilkee

Sponsored by Shannon Development

The Play: The Play: The play is about personal failure and the possibility of redemption. Sylvie Tansey is the elderly bandmaster of the Garristown Brass Band painfully trying to come to terms with his own impending death and the broken relationship with his son Eddie whom he had been grooming to take over the conductors baton but who walked out on the band years earlier. A section of the band wants to replace Sylvie with a new bandmaster. Sylvie refuses to lay down his baton, while Eddie hatches a plan to bring Luciano Pavarotti to Garristown to sing as a tribute to Sylvie and as a final pay-off of what he owes him for walking out years earlier.

The Group: The Group: Ballyduff Drama Group have been performing on the Three-Act Drama Festival circuit for over twenty years. In that time they have won Best Production, Best Stage Management and Best Actor Awards at All Ireland Finals in Athlone. Last year the group were placed third in Athlone.

 

Tuesday 23rd March – School’s Drama Sponsored by Rockwell College

 

Wednesday 24th March (Open) The Belfry by Billy Roche, Thurles Drama Group

Sponsored by Tipperary Lighting

The Play: The Play: Artie’s life is utterly transformed when Angela enters his world. His lonely existence as Church Sacristan is illuminated by the love Angela shares. In this play all five characters face up to the meaning and purpose of their lives and in doing this many of them question their own authenticity and ultimately how they must accept or change their reality.

The Group: The Group: Thurles Drama Group first entered the Festival Circuit in 1986. After winning the All Ireland Confined they went from strength to strength gaining experience in the Open Section. In 1996 their production of Dancing at Lughnasa made it to Athlone followed by Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me in 1997. Faith Healer made it three in a row to get to Athlone in 1998. Last year the group returned to festivals after a break, and again tread the boards of the Dean Crowe Hall with The Enemy Within. The group has a membership of 50 and produce two full length plays each year, plus an evening of theatre where new and seasoned members get the opportunity to act in or produce short pieces from various plays. The Group: Founded in the Autumn of 1989, the Palace Players have become regular contenders in festivals up and down the country. They were All-Ireland winners in the confined section in 1995 with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Their festival production two years ago was Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West and last year they staged Patrick Galvins The Last Burning.

Thursday 25th March (Confined) Bent by Martin Sherman, Silken Thomas Players

Sponsored by Dundrum House Hotel

The Play: The Play: The play is set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s as Max, and homosexual lover and flatmate Rudy, begin a nightmare odyssey across Germany. Max refuses to abandon Rudy and soon they are caught. En route to Dachau Rudy is killed and Horst, another homosexual prisoner, warns Max to deny Rudy – which he does. Max opts for the label Jew rather than Queer but through Horst he is forced to reveal the truth.

The Group: The Group: Silken Thomas Players have performed with great success on the Three Act Festival circuit since 1990. They were placed first in the All-Ireland Finals in 1991, second in 1993, 1998 and 2003 and third in 1993 1998 and 2002.

Friday 26th March (Open) On Raftery’s Hill by Marina Carr, Ballyduff Drama Group

Sponsored by Ulster Bank

The Play: The Play: In this latest instalment of the monstrous hatreds of people who had no summer in their lives=, people cursed in a world of distrust and lies, Marina Carrs unique gift betrays the weakness of their needs and aspirations in the face of fate. Though she punctuates the play with moments of hilarious invention, the tragedy of this tale is classical in scale. As another generation struggles to escape the cycle of depravity visited on one family and the rancid atmosphere of Raftery’s Hill, Marina Carrs unflinching vision unmasks a world so horrible it has to be true.

The Group: Ballyduff Drama Group have been performing on the Three-Act Drama Festival circuit for over twenty years. In that time they have won Best Production, Best Stage Management and Best Actor Awards at All Ireland Finals in Athlone. Last year the group were placed third in Athlone. —

Saturday 27th March (Open) The Chastiture by John B Keane, Palace Theatre Group, Fermoy

Sponsored by Newcastle Construction

The Play: The Play: The play is based on John Bosco McLaines unsuccessful attempts to get himself a woman. A self-confessed virgin – a chastitute (as he explains himself the phrase was coined by Fr. Kimmerley), he takes us through his life and his brief liaisons with members of the opposite sex. While the play is full of comic moments, it also depicts a man wounded by loneliness, rejection and isolation.

The Group: The Group: Founded in the Autumn of 1989, the Palace Players have become regular contenders in festivals up and down the country. They were All-Ireland winners in the confined section in 1995 with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Their festival production two years ago was Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West and last year they staged Patrick Galvins The Last Burning.

Sunday 28th March (Open) Amadeus by Peter Sheaffer, Carlow Little Theatre Group

Sponsored by Thurles Credit Union

The Play:The Play: In old age Antonio Salieri recalls his successful career as Court Composer, his hatred of Mozart, and how he conceived the brilliant young composer’s death. With an obnoxious personality totally incongruous with his musical genius, Mozart died neglected and impoverished while the mediocre Salieri lived in a blaze of fame and praise. Now, approaching his own death, Salieri has nothing but the awareness of his own hollow achievements, and a terrible intention to achieve another kind of immortality.

The Group:The Group: Carlow Little Theatre Society is one of the oldest drama societies in the country. Founded in 1945, members have presented full-length productions every year since the group’s inception. Indeed the LTS has often staged two or three full length plays in the same year and has also been known to present up to six one act productions in a season. Carlow Little Theatre Society has three All Ireland One-Act titles to it’s credit and has on two occasions represented Ireland in International Festivals – the most recent of these was the 1997 World Theatre Festival in Monaco.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *