RESULTS

OVERALL

(P) HANNIFIN CUP (Entertaining Play) “Be My Baby” / Holycross/Ballycahill D.G.

(A) GALLAGHER AWARD for most promising actor/actress – Elaine O’Dwyer / Holycross/Ballycahill D.G.

(P) DR.MORRIS MEMORIAL CUP [ Tipperary Group) Thurles D.G.

(A) BEST SET OVERALL[Josie Slattery Perptual Trophy] “Death & the Maiden”/Kilmeen DG

(C) 1st ADJUDICATOR AWARD Ensamble Playing in “Takin Over the Asylum”,Ballyduff D.G.

(C) 2nd ADJUDICATOR AWARD :Keane McEvoy for Lighting Design/”Poor Beast in the Rain”

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CONFINED

(A) BEST ACTOR : Timmy Connaughton/Georgie /”Poor Beast in the Rain”/Kilrush D.G.

(A) BEST ACTRESS .. Ellie Condren/Eileen /”Poor Beast in the Rain”/ Kilrush D.G.

(B) BEST SUPP.ACTOR:Maurice Ruth/Stephen /”Poor Beast in the Rain”/Kilrush D.G.

(B) BEST SUPP. ACTRESS:Jane Kinsella/Molly” /Poor Beast in the Rain” /Kilrush D.G.

3rd “MOMologues” / Take 5

2nd “Be My Baby” / Holycross/Ballycahill D.G.

(P) 1st Tipperary Star Cup “Poor Beast in the Rain” / Kilrush D.G.

(A) BEST PRODUCER : Mick Byrne “Poor Beast in the Rain”

OPEN

(A& P) BEST ACTOR (Matthew Bourke) David McElgunn,”Beyond the Brooklynn Sky” Thurles

(A) BEST ACTRESS .Sharon Mawe McCarthy in “Death & the Maiden”,Kilmeen D.G.

(B) BEST SUPP.ACTOR – Sean Aherne in “Conversations of a Homecoming” Palace T.G.

(B) BEST SUPP.ACTRESS.. Stacy Taylor in “Beyond the Brooklynn Sky” Thurles D.G.

3rd Palace T.G. “Conversations on a Homecoming”

2nd Thurles D.G. “Beyond the Brooklynn Sky”

(P) 1st TIPP FM TROPHY Ballyduff D.G. “Takin Over the Asylum”

(A) BEST PRODUCER: (Frank Gleeson Award) Ger Canning,”Takin Over the Asylum” Ballyduff D.G

Schools Drama:WINNER :Presentation Convent,Thurles : Bog Oak-Scoil Na Trioda Naofa,Doon

PLAYS FOR 2015

Friday 20^th March (Confined)  

The MOMologues By Lisa Rafferty, Stefanie Cloutier & Sheila Eppolite

Take 5 D.G. Castlelyons

Take 5 Drama Group started off in 2008 following drama workshops held in Rathcormac facilitated by Noelle Clarke.  The participants were so eager to get on stage following the workshops that they formed a drama group and entered a local festival performing a one act play.  They then went on to enter the drama league of Ireland one act festival and have taken part in this festival every year since.  In 2014 they took the plunge and entered the full length festival and were very lucky to make the all Ireland final.  They are very excited to be presenting The MOMologues this year and are looking forward to performing in Holycross as the opening play.   Take 5 wishes the festival and all it’s participants a fun packed experience.

The MOMologues
The original comedy about motherhood
Stef, Maria, Char and Ellen take the audience through all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) experiences that go hand in hand with motherhood.  From fertility treatments to hemorrhoids, from baby weight to diet restrictions, from juggling work with play dates to reading the same story over and over again while still trying to grab some Me time!  Not an easy task but still the greatest job they’ll ever love!

Saturday 21^st March   (Open)  

Takin Over the Asylum By Donna Franceschild

Ballyduff D.G.

History of Group:

Ballyduff Drama Group has been performing on the Three-Act Drama Festival Circuit for over thirty years. In that time, they have won Best Play, Best Producer, Best Presentation and Best Stage Management as well as all the main acting awards at the All Ireland Finals in Athlone. Their repertoire is extensive and has included works across the whole spectrum of dramatic endeavour. Productions like the second-placed Of Mice and Men (2010) and Caught in the Net (2008) and the All-Ireland winning On Raftery’s Hill (2004) represent just some in its array of achievements. Ballyduff Drama Group has toured extensively over the last decade – with performances in Wales and Scotland as well as The Playboy of the Western World and The Cripple of Inishmaan in Singapore, and a visit to Berlin with Under Bare Ben Bulben: with a group young people promoted the ethos that is Ballyduff Drama Group – one of inclusion, determination, cooperation and pride.

Synopsis of Play
When Ready Eddie McKenna, Soul Survivor and replacement window salesman, arrives to re-launch a defunct hospital radio station in a psychiatric unit, he turns more than the ramshackle station upside-down. The whiskey-drinking would-be DJ meets the irrepressible Campbell whose dreams seem untouched by reality, the hyper-organised Rosaline who is fighting a one-woman war against germs, the electronic genius Fergus whose voices tell him he is a stupid bastard, and the brittle and self-destructive Francine.
As the patients battle with perception and prejudice as much as illness, Eddie, armed only with his soul music record collection, transforms their lives as well as his own in the hilarious and profoundly moving play.

Sunday 22^nd March (Open)

Death & the Maiden By Ariel Dorfman

Kilmeen D.G. Rossmore

Kilmeen Drama Group:

Kilmeen Drama Group, based in Rossmore, West Cork, are one of the longest established drama groups in the country, regularly competing on the 3 Act and 1 Act circuits. In 2013, Kilmeen were crowned All Ireland champions at the RTE 3 Act Open Drama Finals in Athlone, for the third consecutive year, with the Playboy of the Western World. They have recently returned from a successful tour to New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania with the Playboy.

The Play:

Ariel Dorfman’s explosively provocative, moral thriller is set in a country that has only recently returned to democracy. Gerardo Escobar has just been chosen to head the commission that will investigate the crimes of the old regime when his car breaks down and he is picked up by the humane doctor Roberto Miranda. But in the voice of this Good Samaritan, Gerardo’s wife, Paulina Salas, thinks she recognizes another man – the one who raped and tortured her as she lay blindfolded in a military detention centre years before.

Could she be right?……

Monday 23^rd March   (Confined)

Be My Baby By Amanda Whittington

Holycross/Ballycahill D.G.

History of the Group

Holycross-Ballycahill Drama Group are in existence for over fifty years. We are based in the picturesque village of Holycross, alongside the famous Holycross Abbey.

The group have reached the All Ireland Confined Finals on many occasions, most recently in 2013 in Rossmore Co. Cork with “The God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza. We have won numerous acting, directing and set awards, not only on the country’s festival circuit, but also in All Ireland competitions.

“Sive” by J.B. Keane, “Run For Your Wife” by Ray Cooney, “Woman and Scarecrow” by Marina Carr and T.S. Elliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” are among  the critically acclaimed productions that the group have performed around the country. We have even brought “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” by Martin Mc Donagh to Germany following a special request by the American forces based there to perform at their base in Heidelberg.

Brief Synopsis of Play

The play, set in 1964, centres around 19 year old Mary who is seven months pregnant and packing her bags in readiness for her mother to whisk her off to a church run residential home for pregnant, unmarried women.
We follow Mary on her poignant journey as she learns to cope with her situation and fights a losing battle to retain her teenage illusions about marrying and keeping the baby.
Despite being cut off from their families and having daily battles with a no-nonsense matron, Mary and her new found friends, Dolores, Queenie and Norma shine with youthful effervescence, that keeps them going and therefore avoiding the inevitable to come.

As the girls sing along to the romantic fantasies of 60’s hits by artists such as the Ronettes, Dusty Springfield and the Shangri-Las, they transport the audience back to a time when a Dansette record player had the power to inspire aspirations of a future, filled with endless opportunity and promise.

Set against a backdrop of the social attitudes of the 1960s, this beautifully touching and funny piece, defined by the music of the day, movingly transports us back to the dawn of the sexual revolution.

Tuesday 24^th March (Open)

Portia Coghlan By Marina Carr

Brideview D.G.

Brief History of the Group

Brideview Drama began competing in the both the One-Act and Three-Act All Ireland Festival Circuit in the early 90’s beginning with ‘The Year of the Hiker’ by J.B.Keane. They went from strength to strength, winning the Confined Three-Act All-Ireland in 2005 with ‘Moonshine’ by Jim Nolan. Competing in the Open Section since 2006 they have won a number of festivals and awards, coming close to qualifying for the All-Ireland Final with ‘Pied a Tierre’ in 2010 and with ‘Same Old Moon’ in 2012.

Synopsis of Portia Coughlan

Haunted by the death of her twin brother, Portia Coughlan has become nothing more than a ghostly figure herself. She lives with her husband, whom she can’t love, and her three children, whom she can`t trust herself to care for. This tragic play takes place over the course of two days – the day of Portia’s 30^th birthday and the following day. It is set in the midlands of Ireland in the 1990’s.

Wednesday 25^th March (Open)

Beyond the Brooklyn Sky By Michael Hillard Mulcahy

Thurles D.G.

A Brief History of the Group

Thurles Drama Group was founded in 1967, and normally produces two full plays each year, and a soiree comprised of a selection of scenes from various plays enabling many new members to experience what it is like to perform in front of an audience. The Group has been to the All Ireland in both Confined and Open on many occasions.

Synopsis of play.

It is the story of five forty-something friends who left the small fishing village of Brandon in Co Kerry in the 1980’s in pursuit of their dreams in the States. It is now 2013, twenty yrs. later and they are reunited in what was their local village dancehall to celebrate Jack’s single-handed journey in a small plane across the Atlantic. Their past and present lives converge in this dance hall where they had their first kiss. Like many Irish people, of that time they have discovered that dreams don’t always come true.

Thursday 26^th March (Open)

Conversations of a Homecoming By Tom Murphy

Palace T.G. , Fermoy

A Brief History of the Group

The Palace Players formed in the early 1990s, took to the festival circuit with Bernard Farrell’s ’I Do Not Like Thee Dr Fell’, winning all three festivals entered in Ballyduff, Charleville and Castleisland. They have contested the festival circuit every year since, moving up to the Open section after winning the confined All-Ireland in Enniscorthy in 1994 with ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’. They have contested the All-Ireland finals in Athlone on a number of occasions, the last time being 2011 with John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Doubt’. Last year’s festival production was ‘Einstein’s Gift’ by Vern Thiessen.

Synopsis of the Play

Over a long drinking session in ‘The White House’ – a West of Ireland pub, a group of friends gather together after an absence of ten years. It is the 1970s. Faced with the changes the years have wrought, they begin a long process of self-discovery.

 Friday 27^th March (Confined)

The Desert Lullaby By Jennifer Johnston

Amphitheatre ,Kilkee

Brief History of the Group : Amphitheatre Company are based in Kilkee, Co. Clare and take their name from a natural rock formation near the town.  They compete annually on the 1 Act and Full length circuits.

Synopsis of the Play  Moving between the present day and the Ireland of “The Emergency” it tells the story of two elderly women who separately and together conjure up memories of their past lives to illustrate events that have bound them together and brought them to their present circumstances.

Saturday 28^th March (Confined)

Poor Beast in the Rain By Billy Roche

Kilrush D.G. , Co.Wexford

Brief History of the Group: Kilrush Drama Group celebrated their 50^th Anniversary in 2014 and launched a book of photos, facts and stories from down through the years entitled ‘Drama at Kilrush’. Current director Mick Byrne was the founding member and is still at the helm of the group. During the 50 years of Kilrush DG, the have produced 71 plays and have appeared in the 3 Act All Ireland Finals on 16 occasions.

Synopsis of the Play:

Eileen works in her father’s betting shop. Molly, Steven and Joe manage to keep their regrets about the past safely locked away and young Georgie is ready to turn his back on the outside world and follow their example, until the return of the legendary Danger Doyle. Having turned his back on the cycle of missed opportunities and thwarted desires to run away to London with Eileen’s mother, Danger Doyle now offers Eileen the possibility of escape.