Dec 09

The Bradans celibrate their recent all Ireland win and Christmas at the Bradaun restaurant, Leixlip House Hotel – see photos HERE.

Dec 09

Thanks to Declan Donohue from Backstage Theatre, Longford, we have a video clip of our All Ireland winning play “The Quality of Boiled Water” for you to view.  Click HERE for more.

Dec 09

After a fantastic weekend of theatre in Longford, we won the covetted first place in the open section with “The Quality of Boiled Water”.  We’d like to congratulate all the participating groups on the standard achieved this year.  Special praise must go to Backstage Theatre in Longford for organising such a magnificent festival.  Click HERE for some photos taken during the tech set-up in Longford (thanks to Declan Donohue for supplying the camera!).

Nov 09

After a nail biting wait, our place has been confirmed at the All Ireland.  The standard this year was very high and the finals are shaping up to be the toughest and most competitive for many years.  The league table is listed below for the open section and its a testament to the quality of amateur theatre in Kildare that 4 of the 8 groups are from the county (shown in bold).  Congrats also to our former Leixlip friends, Connie and Mairead Broderick from the Rath Players who will be flying the “Lilywhites” flag in the confined section – 5 kildare groups out of 13!  Not bad!

Group	Play	Author
Bray Arts Group	The Librarian	James Prideaux
Silken Thomas Players	A Dog Called Redemption	Matthew Landers
36 Players	27 Wagons Full of Cotton	Tennessee Williams
Cornmill Theatre Group	Wagging Finger	Seamus O’Rourke
Dalkey Players, Dublin	Specter	Don Nigro
Prosperous Dramatic Society	The Zoo Story	Edward Albee
Dark Horse Drama Group	Virtual Reality	Alan Arkin
Bradán Players, Leixlip	The Quality of Boiled Water	Jason Milligan

Oct / Nov 09 – Progress at One-act festivals

Festival	Placed Position	Awards
Birr	First	Best Director – Tom Byrne
Dundrum	Third
Balbriggan	First	Best Director – Tom Byrne Best Supporting Actor – George Hogan Best stagecraft – John Duggan
Skerries	Second	Best Supporting Actor – George Hogan Best Supporting Actress – Maeve Kerrigan Best presentation
Carrigallen	Not placed

Oct 09

We’re off on the one-act circuit again with Jason Milligans “Quality of boiled water”.  Festival dates are as follows:-

Date	Venue
Sun 25th Oct	Birr
Sat 31st Oct	Dundrum Mill Theatre
Sat 7th Nov	Balbriggan
Fri 13th Nov	Skerries
Sat 14th Nov	Carrigallen

Sep 09

Tom Byrne and Joe Bergin have been busy this September.  Following on from their successful performance of “Whats the Pint?” at the pub crawl, they were invited to perform the piece, which is a celebration of Guinness based on the writings of Tom Corkery, John D. Sheridan and Flann O’ Brien, at the Guinness staff party in the Guinness storehouse to celebrate the 250th  birthday celebrations on the 12th of Sept.  The party had almost 2,000 people in attendance and the pair took to the stage in support of none other than the popular Dublin band Aslan.  Click HERE for some photos.  For Arthurs day itself on the 24th Sept, Joe and Tom were invited to perform the piece twice in Leixlip; firstly for a private performance for an invited audience in Leixlip Castle and subsequently in Murphys pub for a public showing before toasting Arthur at 17.59 in the Courtyard.  For Arthurs day., Tom and Joe were joined by fellow Bradan players, George Hogan and Ken Byrne who portrayed Archbishop Price and young Arthur Guinness for a re-enactment of the lease signing for Arthurs first brewery in Leixlip.  Click HERE for photos

June 09

We’ve just completed another successful “pub crawl” – although it has become more of a “pub stall”!  So successful has this event become, that we felt it was time to abandon the crawl aspect and for the sake of the performers and the audience, we performed all 3 plays in a single venue – the re-furbished “Zinc” nightclub.  Again, we thank Thomas Hannigan for his support.  Click HERE for photos and HERE for a video clip.

May 09

After a sucessful festival run culminating in a great final performance in Athlone, we did not achieve any awards at the all Ireland.  Our congratulations to Estuary for scooping the premier award for the second year running.  Our own Jenny Ni Lucais received a nomination for best actress.  Now, we are in preparation for the Leixlip festival on the June weekend.

April 09

The draw for the Athlone finals has taken place and the running order is shown below.  Don’t forget that we will be staging “Faith Healer” on the 26th April at the Draiocht in Blanchardstown.

DATE Fri 1st May Sat 2nd May Sun 3rd May Mon 4th May Tues 5th May Wed 6th May Thurs 7th May Fri 8th May Sat 9th May

GROUP Kilmeen Drama Group Estuary Players, Dublin Bradán Players Bangor Drama Club Silken Thomas Players Balally Players Bunclody/Kilmyshall Drama Group Shoestring Theatre Company Theatre 3, Newtownabbey

PLAY ‘The Kings of the Kilburn High Road’ ‘The Last Days of Judas Iscariot’ ‘Faith Healer’ ‘True West’ ‘Equus’ ‘The Great Hunger’ ‘The Wake’ ‘A Night in November’ ‘Plaza Suite’

AUTHOR Jimmy Murphy Stephen Adly Guirgis Brian Friel Sam Shepard Peter Shaffer Tom MacIntryre Tom Murphy Marie Jones Neil Simon

April 09

We’re off to Athlone!  After performing at 7 out of 37 festivals, we have again qualified for the All Ireland in  Athlone.  33 drama groups set out on a journey nearly 2 months ago.  The top 9 are through to the final.  In preparation for the final, we will be staging one performance of “Faith Healer” on the 26th April.  See “Current Production” for more details.   Heres to the first week in May!!

 

Mar 09

We kicked off our festival tour with great success winning 2 of our first 3 festivals and winning many individual awards.  It was great to win the Enniskillen festival for the second year running.  Check back for regular updates.  We’ll record our progress in the the table below.

Festival	Placed Position	Awards
Derry	Not placed
Enniskillen	First	Best Actor – Colin Walsh Best Actress – Jenny Ni Lucais Best Director – Tom Byrne Overall best production
Tubbercurry	First	Best Actor – George Hogan Best Actress – Jenny Ni Lucais Best Supporting Actor – Colin Walsh Best Director – Tom Byrne Overall best production
Rossmore	Not placed
Cavan	First	Best Actor – Colin Walsh Best Actress – Jenny Ni Lucais Best Director – Tom Byrne Overall best production
Rathangan	Third	Best Actor – Colin Walsh
Scariff	Second	Best Actor – George Hogan Audience award for stage management

Feb 09

We’re currently rehersing for our 2009  Spring Production and full length festival entry.  This year, we’re presenting Brian Friels classic “The Faith Healer”.  See Current Productions for details of our performances in Leixlip,  We will be touring the country, competing at  6 drama festivals in total.  For anyone interested in a night away, the dates are:-

Date	Venue
Wed 11th March	Derry
Thurs 12th March	Enniskillen
Sat 14th March	Tubbercurry
Sat 21st March	Rossmore
Wed 25th March	Cavan
Sun 29th March	Rathangan
Tue 31st March	Scariff