A brand new element in this year’s Allingham Festival is AllingDram, an innovative joint project between the festival and Ballyshannon Drama Society. Although it’s the first year in this form it can be said to have grown from a previous collaboration between the groups. In 2019, playwright Frank McGuiness offered a new version of his play, The Breadman to the groups and invited them to stage a production. All reports suggested that he was very pleased with what he saw when he attended as a special guest that year.
This year, we’re trying something a little different. Instead of an established playwright, we are working with three emerging writers with strong Donegal connections. They have each supplied us with an excerpt, approximately 20 minutes long, from a work they have in progress. The Drama Society will give these excerpts a ‘Workshop Production’ in the Abbey Arts Centre on Sunday November 10th, as introduction to a work in progress. This will be more than a reading but short of a full production. Lines will be learned, rehearsals completed and some basic props and costumes used. Performances will be followed by a short roundtable discussion involving the writers, directors and audience.
It’s particularly nice to note that, of the cast of 13 in The Breadman (2019), six are involved in these productions. Details of the individual excerpts will follow shortly but here’s a brief introduction to whet your appetite.
- Homegirls is a historical piece by Shaun Byrne set in St Joseph’s, Stranorlar in 1932. It will be directed by Sean McLoone and features Louise Larkin, Ann-Marie Garvey Roisin Lee, Diarmuid McInerney and Sean McLoone
- The Evicted by Kieran Kelly also has a historical Donegal setting, this time taking the Derryveagh Evictions as the background. The director is Terence McEneaney and the cast for this segment will be Ronan Drummond, Callum Gallagher and Joanne Cassidy.
- Finally, The Priests by Gerry Moriarty has a contemporary setting. Father John Donovan, an Irish priest has retired from a career in the missions to a parish in the English midlands. Mary O’Connor, his widowed housekeeper was also a friend in his teenage years at home in Ireland. They will be played by Mark Kirby and Mary Hoey with Kevin Lily’s direction.
Overall coordination for Ballyshannon Drama Society is by John Travers.
