Ballyshannon Drama Society

Ballyshannon Drama Society are delighted to return to the Abbey Arts Centre stage with our latest production, Arthur Miller’s ‘All My Sons’, from February 16th to 19th, at 8pm nightly

Rehearsals have been underway for months at this stage, in line with government health guidelines, which have thankfully been lifted just in time for opening night a few weeks from now. The easing of restrictions also means the group will be able to take the show on the road to participate in the All Ireland Drama Festival with some sense of normality.

‘All My Sons’ is one of Miller’s best known plays, set in post-WWII America, in the backyard of the Keller household. The family struggles to stay intact and fight for their future when a long-hidden secret threatens to emerge—forcing them to reckon with greed, denial, repentance, and post-war disenchantment across generations.

The director of this year’s production is Trish Keane. While this is Trish’s first time at the helm of a festival production, she has been a major contributor to the success of all our previous productions, having won countless awards for her acting roles and set design, and being involved in every other aspect of the shows at some point.

The stellar, multi-award-winning cast consists of familiar faces and a few newcomers to the society:

Joe Keller – Richard Hurst

Kate Keller – Rachel O’Connor

Chris Keller – Troy Devanny

Ann Deever – Deirdre Ferguson

George Deever – Terence Mc Eneaney

Dr. Jim Bayliss – Tony Liston

Sue Bayliss – Ailis Mc Intyre

Frank Lubey – Ronan Drummond

Lydia Lubey – Audrey Davitt

Bert – John Mc Hugh

The rest of the production team consists of:
Assistant Director – Carl Duggan

Continuity – Linda Ritchie

Lighting – Chris Dykes & Shane Patterson

Sound Design – Trish Keane

Sound – Seán O’Connor

Costumes – Rachel O’Connor & Trish Keane

Set Design & Construction – Trish Keane, Paul McGonigle, John Travers, Rachel O’Connor, Carl Duggan, Mark Kirby, Seán O’Connor, Aiden McGuinness

With such an excellent cast and crew, the show promises to be a fantastic night of drama, and is sure to impress audiences around the country once it goes out on the circuit. Make sure you don’t miss the home run of ‘All My Sons’, running on February 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th at 8pm nightly in the Abbey Arts Centre.

Tickets are available from the Abbey Arts Centre box office: Tel. (071) 9851375 or visit abbeycentre.ie.

…and we’re back! Ballyshannon Drama Society will return to the actual, real, physical stage in the Abbey Arts Centre on the 7th and 8th of October, 2020, with our previously scheduled productions of ‘Faint Voices’ and ‘A Bit of Land’, and the best news is, we can have a real, live audience (socially distant and number determined by Covid-19 regulations)!! Booking will be essential on both nights.

To begin, we have the one-act comedy ‘A Bit of Land’ by Agnes Adam, directed by Rachel O’Connor. Most recently seen on stage asking questions about handbags, Rachel since directed the hit production of ‘West Side Story’ in the AVS. Rachel also directed the hilarious ‘Play On’ in the Abbey Centre, and we look forward to plenty of laughs with this show! The cast includes Callum Gallagher, John Travers, Sean McLoone, Andrea Whelan, Margaret Timoney and Frankie O’Donnell.

To balance the comedy, we have ‘Faint Voices’ by John Mc Kenna, directed by Ann Mc Hugh. Ann’s last one-act production, ‘Five Kinds of Silence’ won many awards on the festival circuit, and took home Second Place in the All Ireland Finals in Letterkenny in 2017. Several of Ann’s full-length productions made it to the All Ireland Finals as well, such as ‘God of Carnage’ and ‘The Gingerbread Lady’, with ‘Steel Magnolias’ coming first in the Confined Finals. The cast includes Audrey Davitt, Terence McEneaney, Sean Donegan and Rachel O’Connor.

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Admission €15 — Box office: 071 9851375 —

Tune in from 9pm on Thursday July 16th for the first Virtual Allingham Concert, featuring the Ballyshannon Drama Summer Shakespeare Project performing scenes from Much Ado About Nothing. Hey nonny nonny, hi!

Ballyshannon Drama’s Summer Shakespeare Project will feature in the Allingham Arts Festival Virtual Concert which will begin streaming at 9pm on Thursday July 16th on YouTube, the Allingham Festival Facebook Page and also on the Abbey Arts Centre page. The group of well-known Ballyshannon thespians will perform scenes from Much Ado About Nothing, shot on location in a garden in Garrison, filmed & edited by Sean O’Connor.

The Summer Shakespeare Project was conceived in response to the coronavirus crisis. With the theatres closed, the group of Ballyshannon actors came together (exercising social distancing and generally rehearsing outdoors) to learn new skills and to continue to build their artistic relationships. They worked on vocal techniques and on scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, under the guidance of director, Sean Donegan. Sean has extensive experience of working with Shakespeare’s texts, having appeared in many Shakespeare productions and having trained for several years in London with Patsy Rodenberg, one of the world’s foremost authorities on voice coaching and acting classical texts.

Sean is delighted to be joined by some of the best acting talent in Ballyshannon, between them having dozens of acting credits in your favourite shows from over the years.

This production would not have been possible without the generous support and assistance of: The Abbey Arts Centre, Pam and Peter Ferguson and Paul Dunleavy.

Cast:

Sean Donegan – Benedick, a gentleman from Padua

Sean is a Ballyshannon-based actor and theatre director, originally from Inishowen. He has over twenty years’ experience in amateur and professional theatre throughout Ireland, the UK and Germany. Recent favourite productions include: The Importance of Being Earnest, Treasure Island (Abbey Arts Centre), The Winter’s Tale, Lungs (An Grianan, Letterkenny,) Three Days of Rain (Balor Theatre, Ballybofey) and Electra (TheatreForum Kreuzberg, Berlin). Sean appeared at last year’s Allingham Festival in a scene from True West by Sam Shepherd, which was played in McIntyre’s bar.

Sarah Ferguson – Balthasar, a minstrel

Sarah graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2014. Since then she has starred in many productions in Ballyshannon and has also performed in the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton. Recent favourite productions include Sister Act,  All Shook Up (Ballyshannon Musical Society), Play On (Ballyshannon Drama Society), Factory Girls and Eclipsed (Splodar Theatre Company, Manorhamilton).

John Larkin – Count Claudio, a lord from Florence

John is a Ballyshannon-based actor and singer with over twenty years’ experience in musical theatre in the north-west. Previous credits include the lead roles in Ballyshannon Musical Society’s productions of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Wedding Singer and The Addams Family, as well as Sligo Musical Society’s production of Beauty and the Beast.  This is John’s first project with Ballyshannon Drama Society.

Louise Larkin – Beatrice, Leonato’s Niece

Louise has starred in many productions with Ballyshannon Drama Society. Favourite roles include: Gwendolyn Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest, Emily Webb in Our Town, Debbie in The Real Thing and Violet/Diana in Play On. She has really enjoyed this Shakespeare project and is particularly fond of rehearsing outdoors!.

Terence McEneaney – Don Pedro, Prince of Aaragon

Terence is a drama practitioner based in the northwest of Ireland. He has been a member of Ballyshannon Drama Society for the past 17 years. In that time, he has featured in many productions, most notably the multi award-winning plays “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Five Kinds of Silence”, which reached the All-Ireland Finals. Terence is no stranger to Allingham audiences, having acted in previous festival plays: “Behind Every Man”, “Farewell to Every White Cascade” and “Breadman”. He also starred in the short film “A Walk with Allingham”. 

Rachel O’Connor – Leonato, Governor of Messina

Rachel has been involved with the Ballyshannon Drama Society for many years now, as actor, director, stylist and many, many other roles besides. She recently appeared as Lady Bracknell in the circuit production of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, work for which began hot on the heels of the Abbey Vocational School hit ‘West Side Story’, which Rachel directed. She is revelling in her new role as Leonato with the Summer Shakespeare Project.

Ballyshannon Drama Society are delighted to host a drama workshop with award winning actor and director Aaron Monaghan as part of the DLI Summer School Outreach programme. Strict Covid-19 guidelines will be in place for all participants to ensure the health and safety of the participants and organisers.
The programme is funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The DLI would particularly like to acknowledge the support for amateur drama given by Minister Joseph Madigan.
The Workshop will take place from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm on Sunday 5th July. Tutor Aaron Monaghan recently played the lead in Druid Shakespeare’s acclaimed production of Richard III and has just finished filming the lead role in ‘Redemption of a Rogue’. He directed ‘Trad’ by Mark Doherty, which toured nationwide and is Artistic Director of Living Dred Theatre Company.
The Workshop is tailored to suit the group of 20 of varied degrees of experience in drama, musicals and pantomime and will cover:
– Physical and Vocal Warm Up
– Character development
– Stagecraft
– Scriptwork
– Questions and Answers

#DramaLeagueofIreland
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There is light at the end of the tunnel as Sean Donegan brings drama into the garden with ‘Summer Shakespeare’. A group of local actors have been exploring scenes by the bard in a socially distant environment, with a view to performing for a small audience in a suitable outdoor space later this summer. Their first performance will be online as part of the Allingham Festival Virtual Concert on July 19th. The group will perform a short scene from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. The cast consists of Sean Donegan, Terence McEneaney, Louise Larkin, Sarah Ferguson, John Larkin and Rachel O’Connor.