Festival » Mountmellick Drama Festival

Mountmellick

drama group

Mountmellick Drama Festival returned in 2007 after an absence of 27 years. The original Festival ran in the Royal Cinema from 1960 until 1980.

When the cinema was sold no suitable venue was available. It is now an important part of the cultural and social calendar of Mountmellick.

The Festival runs in the newly refurbished Mountmellick Community Arts Centre. The Arts Centre boasts a four-hundred and fifty seat Auditorium with a Michael Scott designed proscenium style stage ensuring perfect sight lines with a full view from every seat in the house. Seating is Pullman styled ensuring a comfortable evening for all patrons.

Mountmellick Drama Festival is renowned nationally as the friendliest theatre event on the circuit. The hosting committee will greet you each evening and are available to attend to your every need. You will have the opportunity to chat about the show over light refreshments and the interval and post show banter that takes place each night is theatre in itself. It is not unusual to see the audience, performers, adjudicator and festival staff submerged in discourse long after the final curtain.

MOUNTMELLICK

DRAMA GROUP

Mountmellick Drama Group started life as Mountmellick Pioneers way back in 1979. Founded on the instigation of the then spiritual director of the P.T.A.A. Fr Flemming, it was even then unique in that it was formed to bring drama enthusiasts both from within the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association into collaboration with non-pioneers to develop and nurture socializing through the medium of amateur theatre.

It proved a hugely successful venture with the first production, The Rain at the End of the Summer, by J.B. Keane taking to the boards in the concert hall in St Mary’s College in the spring of 1980. The group presented full length plays right throughout the eighties and nineties presenting a huge variety of Irish and internationally authored productions. Our ambition knew no bounds with everything from Irish stalwarts by Friel, Leonard and Louis D’Alton, to English farce by Ayckbourn to US classics like Miller’s All My sons. The involvement with the then fledgling Laois Drama Association helped to build a solid following and a knowledgeable audience in Mountmellick for all things dramatic.

Over the years the Drama Group has had in excess of 150 members who have worked both on and off stage in productions and festivals. We have had productions from ten different directors and continue to provide an outlet for anyone in the community with a bent for performance or stage craft.