Munster Express Online

Many many thanks to all who competed, helped organise, sponsored and came along as audience in the second annual ‘123 Drama Festival’, which ran Saturday and Sunday night’s last week, in the lovely Lismore Courthouse Theatre, Lismore, Co Waterford.

Near full houses both nights saw the cream of Waterford City and County acting talent step into the light and show incredible ranges of performance and ability. With drama groups from all over Waterford doing monologues, duologues or short plays with three or more actors (the 1, 2 and 3 of the 123 Festival!), there was much on offer to entertain.

Adjudicated by the very experienced Michael Twomey of Cork, the shows saw many people brave competition judging for only the first or second time in their acting careers. With just a bare stage and general lighting to work with, each performer very bravely and successfully stepped up to the challenge.

Great fun was had by all. Programmed by the Festival Director, Vanessa Hyde, each night had a glorious mix of comedy and drama – in between the tears was much silliness and farce.

The Festival took place only because of the great support of the sponsors and the cheerfully given help of the host group, Lismore Dramatic Society (many thanks to Una Walsh, Tina Flynn, Joan Bolger, Edward Lynch, Margaret Madden, Padraig Pollard, Julie Landers and John Sullivan for their very hard work).

Pieces performed included works from America, Ireland, the UK and elsewhere.

Lismore Dramatic Society cheerfully used a play by David Fleisher (‘Funeral Arrangements’), who came all the way to the first 123 Festival from Florida last year, and it won much laughter through funny performances by Elaine Bashford and Julie Landers.

Groups performing were Brideview Drama of Tallow, Aisteoirí tSean Phobail of Old Parish, Stagemad, Waterford Dramatic Society, KCK Drama, Cappoquin Drama Group, Ecdysis of Dungarvan, Ballyduff Drama Group; and there were solo performances by Konor Halpin, Dolores Ronayne and Denise Quinn.

The Festival also gave many local authors the chance to put their works on stage. Overall, eight new pieces of writing were performed, often by the writers themselves.

The prizes were awarded at a ceremony hosted by Festival sponsor, Lismore House Hotel. The main festival sponsor is WLRFM (many thanks to Des Whelan and Caroline Dwyer for showing such great support to the county and city!), with others including Waterford County Council, Waterford City Arts, Samuel French Theatre Agency, Dungarvan People Newspaper and Red Kettle Theatre.

Many thanks to Lismore Town Councillor Orla Russell for representing Waterford County Council on short notice!

Michael Twomey awarded a great stretch of prizes, indicating in his many nominations the range and depth of the quality of what the audiences saw both nights. This was the second 123 Festival and, for it to keep growing and being such an effective showcase of Waterford talent, the support of audiences and drama groups is vital. Lismore Dramatic Society has now hosted the festival for two years – in 2009, another Waterford drama group is very welcome to take on the mantle of excellence!

Lastly, Vanessa Hyde as Festival Director would like to thank all behind the scenes in each group who helped out with staging, lighting, sound, props, transport and makeup. Nothing gets performed without a huge array of talent cheerfully donating their time, braincells and hard work. Many thanks and see you next year!

Prizes and nominations were as follows:

Best Overall Performance in Festival (Sponsor: WLRFM) – won by Denise Quinn of Waterford.

Best Actor in a Duologue (Sponsor: WLRFM) – Con O’Sullivan and Henry O’Keeffe of Dungarvan (‘My Papa’), Declan Terry of Aisteoirí tSean Phobail (winner, for ‘The Man from Clare’), Aoife Tobin of Aisteoirí tSean Phobail (‘The Wedding’), Fergus Cooper in Stagemad’s ‘The Weir’.

Best Actor in a Monologue (Sponsor: Waterford County Council) – James Lenane of Lismore, Shane Collander of Dungarvan, Dolores Ronayne of Dungarvan, Jim O’Brien of KCK Drama, Denise Quinn, Irene Kelleher of Brideview Drama (winner, with ‘Mary O’Donnell’), Declan Terry, Vanessa Hyde of Brideview Drama.

Best Director (Sponsor: Waterford County Council) – Hank Regan (‘My Papa’), James Lenane (‘Kings of the Kilburn High Road’), Louise Bradley (‘We Had It All’), Denise Quinn (‘Winsome Webster’), Amelia Clancy (‘Lady of Larkspur Lotion’), George Peet (‘The Poppy and the Shamrock’), Geraldine Canning (monologue and duologue from ‘The Cripple of Inismaan’), Declan Terry (‘The Man from Clare’), James Hyde of Brideview Drama (winner), with Christopher Durang’s short play, ‘Desire, Desire, Desire’.

Best Performance in an Ensemble/Short Play (Sponsor: Red Kettle) – Sharon Hennessy of Cappoquin Drama Group (‘The Prognosis’), the cast of Waterford Dramatic Society’s ‘Lady of Larkspur Lotion’ (Denise Quinn, Hugo O’Donovan and Peggy McCarthy), the cast of ‘Desire, Desire, Desire’ (winner. Irene Kelleher, Sean Ahern, Yvonne Seymour, James Lenane, Vanessa Hyde, Assumpta Mangan, Brian Hogan).

Best Actor in a Short Play (Sponsor: Waterford City Arts) – won by Vanessa Hyde of Brideview Drama.

Special Adjudicator’s Prize (Sponsor: Waterford City Arts) – George Peet of Brideview Drama for writing, directing and acting in his play, ‘The Poppy and the Shamrock’.

Best Moment in Theatre (Sponsor: Samuel French Theatre Agency) – Denise Quinn (winner, for mixing and balancing so well humour with eroticism in her monologue ‘Winsome Webster’, about a widow’s chance sexual encounter), the near-execution scene between soldiers George Peet and Jack Aherne in Brideview Drama’s ‘The Poppy and the Shamrock’, the egg-breaking scene between Courtney Canning and Aoife Walsh in Ballyduff Drama’s duologue, ‘The Cripple of Inismaan’.

Best New Writing for Theatre (Sponsor: Dungarvan People, and presented by the Festival’s special guest, Miriam Gallagher, Waterford playwright) – Hank Regan for ‘My Papa’, George Peet for ‘The Poppy and the Shamrock’, ‘The Wedding’ by Val Rossiter of Aisteoirí tSean Phobail, ‘We Had It All’ by Dolores Ronayne of Dungarvan (winner).

Highly commended actor awards (Sponsor: Lismore House Hotel) – Peggy McCarthy as Mrs Hardwicke-Moore in the short play, ‘The Lady of Larkspur Lotion’; and Dolores Ronayne for her monologue, ‘We Had It All’.

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