Author Archives: Enda McCallig

2019 Season Tickets

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Season Tickets are now available from the Town Hall Box Office – 09493 10999

Season Ticket: €90 for 10 nights
New 5 Night Ticket: €50
Nightly Tickets €15









Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell to open 2019 Festival

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We’re delighted to announce that Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell will open the 49th Claremorris Drama and Fringe festival on March 14th 2019.

Marie-Louise O’Donnell studied English and Education at Nottingham University, Masters in Education at NUI Maynooth, M.A. in Modern Drama at UCD and Theatre and Voice at The Guild Hall School of Music and Drama in London. She became head of Drama at Carysfort Teacher Training College, a Theatre Director and a professional actress. She trained in Radio Production Presentation and Direction with the BBC in London and made and presented programmes for BBC Radio 4 for several years. As a member of staff in DCU for 23 years, she lectured in The School of Communications.

In the early 90s she initiated and developed The Arts and Culture on the young DCU University campus, culminating in the imaging, building and launch of The Helix in 2002. She was appointed to the Board of the National Concert Hall for 2 terms. Marie Louise has lectured extensively in Ireland, Europe and the USA in Education, Irish Drama, Irish Culture and Language. She is a noted after dinner speaker and has acted as invited master of ceremonies for many National and International events.

She has presented programmes on Television and Radio and is a regular reviewer and media contributor. She works weekly as a colour radio writer and reporter on the national broadcaster’s Sean O’Rourke show. Marie-Louise is a published writer. In May 2011 she was appointed to the Senate by The Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

She had recently published a Government report commissioned by the Taoiseach entitled ‘Finite Lives’ Dying Death and Bereavement. An examination of State Service in Ireland.She was re-appointed to the Senate by The Taoiseach in 2016.





Fringe Results 2018

Best Script

1st – Interplay by Joe Bergin, Kildare
2nd – I Bet You Say That To All The Boys by Ken Armstrong, Castlebar.

Acting Awards

Best Actor Female, Lorraine Lynch as The Autistic in Non-Verbal
Best Actor Male, Ronan Egan as Vincent in Nobody’s Child
Best Director, Moira Mahony for Non-Verbal

Adjudicator Awards

For her transformation from boring housewife to dominatrix, Joan King in A Swinging Christmas
Excellent performance by an actor, not in his native tongue, John Pinel as the Rabbi in The Bris
For a very convincing dying scene, Karen Smyth in Grotty Grogan
For lip-syncing, and indeed body-syncing, Eamon Smith & Tara Niland in I Bet You Say That To All The Boys
For a lively, buzzing representation of Blair, Katie Padden in Garage Invasion
Best interpretation of script, Brendan O’Sullivan & Vincent Casey in Interplay
Best Presentation Overall, to John Corless for Since Death Began





2018 Season Tickets

A6 SEASON TICKET 2018

Season Tickets are now available from the Town Hall Box Office – 09493 10999

Season Ticket: €90 for 10 nights
New 5 Night Ticket: €50
Nightly Tickets €15





Fringe Qualifiers for 2018

The list of qualifiers for the Fringe Festival 2018 are below:

A Swinging Christmas, by Joe Starzyk, USA
Garage Invasion, by Rex McGregor, Auckland, NZ
Grotty Grogan, by Eamonn Dolan, Waterford
Hard Feelings, by Peter Gould, Ealing, London
I Bet You Say That To All The Boys, by Ken Armstrong, Castlebar
Interplay, by Joe Bergin, Leixlip, Kildare
Nobody’s Child, by Michael Goulding, Ballyhaunis
Non-Verbal, by Lorraine Lynch, Loughrea
Since Death Began, by John Corless, Claremorris
The Bris, by Darren Ó Riagáin, Australia