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The final line-up for the 2019 Claremorris Fringe Festival of Drama has been announced!
For full details on this year’s competition, please see the new Fringe Festival website
John Corless is a surrealist comedy writer from Claremorris, Co. Mayo. He co-wrote (with Liam Horan) and performed in “The Pull” which toured Ireland for four years from 2012. He wrote “A Great Consolation” for the centenary of the 1916 rising, and has written numerous short plays for the stage and radio.
Group: HalfSolid ProductionsMichael Goulding was born Manchester and moved to Mayo in 2000. He has been involved in numerous musical productions over the years with both Claremorris and Castlebar Musical Societys. As well as acting Michael has turned his hand to writing and has written numerous plays for radio and stage. He works for Western Care Association and also presents a programme on Midwest Radio on Monday's at 10pm.
Group: Grand ProductionsAmist the chaos of the modern world, Nicola Kean finds playwriting to be a form of therapy and a means to dissect the myriad of colourful characters that she encounter in her day-to-day life. In 2016, she won the Claremorris Fringe Festival and earlier this year, she was short-listed for the Eamon Keane full-length play award. She is currently working on her third full-length script.
Group: Fringe BenefitsFiona Kelly is an award-winning radio producer and broadcaster, best known as a presenter of "It says in the papers" on RTE 's "Morning Ireland". Since 2017, she has also been writing storylines for "Fair City". She lives in Dublin with her husband, two children and a dog called Magic.
Group: The Clockwork Theatre CompanyJohn Paul Murphy is an actor and playwright from Co Galway. As an actor, John Paul has appeared in Jack Taylor, Fair City and Wrecking the Rising (TG4). With all his plays, John Paul laces his writing with lots of humour. His most recent play 'Turn around bright eyes' won the award for best new writing at the Galway Fringe 2018.
Group: Clurichaun TheatreGalway native Sarah Fahy writes poetry, prose and scripts. She is also an actress and director with local groups in Loughrea. As a playwright she has had two plays stage performed. Her play ‘Significant Loss’ was recently adapted into a short film and won The Offline Film Festival in Birr, Co Offaly. Sarah's passion truly is the arts.
Group: The Drama HeadsPaul Maher is a Tipperary native and his plays have been short-listed for the PJ O’Connor Awards, Listowel Writer’s Week, Kenneth Branagh Award & London Festival of Pub Theatre. His work has been performed at local Arts Festivals in Cashel & Clonmel.
Group: Wilde River Drama GroupPeter Gould is a writer and theatre director based in London. After a career in journalism, mainly with the BBC, he now works as a volunteer with The Questors Theatre in Ealing, where he helps to develop new work for the stage. Peter was a qualifier in last year’s Fringe and we are delighted to welcome him back again to Claremorris this year.
Group: Charlestown Drama GroupJoe Bergin lives in Leixlip, Co. Kildare and has been involved in amateur theatre for over forty years as both actor and director. His play “Merry-go-round” was placed second in the Claremorris Fringe in 2017 and he went on to win first place in 2018 with another piece “Interplay”. He has just completed a course in “Directing for the Theatre” at Maynooth University.
Group: Tumble Down ProductionsMoira Mahony is an actor and director from Athenry, Co. Galway. She has worked with numerous groups including Seumas O'Kelly Players, Athenry Drama Group, BlenDiva Productions, Unspoken Word and the Dramaheads. Moira has been involved in Claremorris Fringe for the past 5 years, acting and directing. This her first attempt at play writing.
Group: BlenDiva ProductionsThe list of qualifiers for the Fringe Festival 2019 are below:
‘Old Broad’ by John Paul Murphy, Galway
‘Some Other Doorway’ by Fiona Kelly, Dublin
‘Undocumented’ by Sarah Fahy, Loughrea
‘I Am Marriage Counsellor of Poland’ by Paul Maher, Tipperary
‘He, She and It’ by Moira Mahony, Athenry
‘Mammy and Me (And Fifi Makes Three)’ by Nicola Kean, Claremorris
‘Down and Out’ by Peter Gould, London
‘Andrew’s Hollow’ by John Corless, Claremorris
‘Trapped’ by Joe Bergin, Kildare
‘The White Feather’ by Michael Goulding, Ballyhaunis
1st – Interplay by Joe Bergin, Kildare
2nd – I Bet You Say That To All The Boys by Ken Armstrong, Castlebar.
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
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
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