Now in its 60th year, the RTE All Ireland Drama Final, continues to weave a magic spell throughout Athlone. The continued sponsorship from RTE has helped greatly to promote the festival, with daily radio reports and a special Nationwide TV programme dedicated entirely to the finals. That the Abbey Theatre has backed the All Ireland through the establishment of the inaugural Abbey Award, is a testament to all of the cultural significance of this event. The Association of Drama Adjudicators extends its congratulations to Festival Director Billy Nott and his team, all the participating groups and adjudicator, Mr Brian Marjoribanks from our colleague organisation, SASDA, for a job very well done!

RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival Perpetual Trophy
Kilmeen Drama Group – The Weir

2nd Place: Silken Thomas Players – Jerusalem

3rd Place: Corofin Drama Group – The Subject was Roses

Miniature Festival Trophy For Best Director
Tim Coffey – The Weir – Kilmeen Drama Group
Best Actor (Miniature Festival Trophy)
Liam Quinlivan as Rooster – Jerusalem - Silken Thomas Players
Best Actress (Miniature Festival Trophy)
Maura Clancy as Nettie – The Subject was Roses – Corofin Dramatic Society
Best Supporting Actor (Aileen Coughlan Memorial Award)
Colin Malone as Ginger – Jerusalem – Silken Thomas Players
Best Supporting Actress (Joan Walsh Memorial Award)
Martha Dunlea as Mary Warren – The Crucible – Ballyduff Drama Group
Best Stage Setting (Colm Kelly Memorial Award)
Prosperous Dramatic Society – Deadline
Best Lighting (ESB Award)
Corofin Dramatic Society – The Subject was Roses
Best Stage Management (Brendan O’Brien Memorial Award)
Bunclody/Kilmyshall Drama Group – By the Bog of Cats
Special Adjudicator’s Award
Roisin Barry – By the Bog of Cats – Bunclody/Kilmyshall Drama Group
John Butler Scholarship to D.L.I. Summer School
Cynthia Sibya – The Crucible – Ballyduff Drama Group
Drama League Of Ireland Summer School Scholarship
Sally O’Leary – The Crucible – Ballyduff Drama Group
Gormanstown Summer School Scholarship
Cathy Noone – Jersualem – Silken Thomas Players
The Abbey Theatre Award
Jerusalem presented by Silken Thomas Players

The curtain has come down on the 60th All Ireland Confined finals, this year hosted by Shercock Drama Festival. Ann O’ Reilly and her team can be justifiably proud of the festival’s success. Please take a bow!
Letterkenny Music and Drama Group converted their 7 out of 7 wins to take the premiere award as well as Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Stage Management. The full list of awards can be found below. Heartiest congratulations to all the award winners and indeed all the finalists, who made the magic happen.The good people of Shercock can now take a well earned breather and proudly reflect on the week that was.

Premier Award & Replica Letterkenny Music & Drama Group
2nd Place -Doonbeg Drama Group with THE WEIR
3rd Place -Droichead Nua Players with THE GOODFATHER
Best Producer (Broderick Perpetual Cup) Pluincead O’Fearraigh – Letterkenny Music & Drama Group
Best Presentation (Ray Leonard Memorial Trophy) Kilmuckridge Drama Group
Best Lighting (Playlight Perpetual Cup) Paul Winters – Droichead Nua Players
Best Stage Management (Carrickmore Perpetual Cup) Fiona McDaid – Letterkenny Music & Drama Group
Best Actor Alan Clarke – Droichead Nua Players
Best Actress Elaine Gillespie – Letterkenny Music & Drama Group
Best Supporting Actor John Ruddy & Eoghan Mac Ghiolla Bhrighde – Letterkenny Music & Drama Group
Best Supporting Actress Ellie Condren – Kilrush Drama Group
Scholarship to Stageworks Summer School, Gormanstown Fergus Dermody – Sliabh Aughty Drama Group
Scholarship to Drama League of Ireland Summer School, University of Limerick Sarah Murphy – Skibbereen Theatre Society

I had the opportunity to go to Shercock on Saturday night, where the Confined All Ireland Finals are being held. Led by Festival Director, Ann O’ Reilly, the committee have really surpassed themselves in the organisation of this prestigious event. The hall looks great and the addition of raked seating adds to the overall enjoyment. Bookings have been really strong with many nights sold out. For a warm welcome, great hospitality and just six more nights left, try and grab a ticket while you can.

The Full Length Festival circuit is now in full swing and already the league tables are telling their own stories. There appears to be a wide variety of plays out there, with Conor Mc Pherson, Marina Carr and Martin Mc Donagh again proving popular. In what must be a first on the circuit, there is not one John B Keane play in either the Open or Confined Section. Although sometimes dismissed as old school, his work is extraordinary in its richness and vision. Druid Theatre Company have shown in recent years how incredibly theatrical and potent it can be in production.
Why do groups choose particular plays for the circuit? Is this decision governed by the need for ‘bums on seats”?; are groups constrained by small casts?;do groups look for work that pushes them artistically?; Why don’t we rarely, if ever, see the work of Shakespeare on the circuit? After all he wasn’t a bad writer! Are we engaging enough with ‘post- dramatic’ writing? Is the hard hitting work from writers such as Mark Ravenhill or Sarah Kane a no-go area?
Thoughts on this and more all welcome!
Geoff O’ Keeffe,
P.R.O.
ADA

It’s Your line is a recent welcome addition to the Irish Theatre scene. The brain child of Ronan Ward from Cornmill Theatre Group, the blog allows all those involved in amateur drama to contribute ideas, comments and get involved in discussing all things theatrical. Take a look and join in with the discussion. www.itsyourline.com

Heartiest congratulations to all the winners in this year’s MACE All Ireland One Act Finals held in Glor,Ennis.

Open Section
1st Kilmeen Drama Group with Disco Pigs
2nd Prosperous Drama Group with The Man who climbed Pecan Trees
3rd Athlone Little Theatre Group with Two

Confined Section
1st Corofin Drama Group with Whats for Pudding?
2nd Compantas Lir with The Donoghue Sisters
3rd Breffni Players with Brenton v Brenton

MACE Best Actor Award: Irene Kelleher from Kilmeen Drama Group
Overall Performance: Irene Kelleher from Kilmeen

Adjudicator’s awards go to: actor Robert Massey from Prosperous Drama Society and Director TJ Duggan from Prosperous Drama Society

DLI Scholarship goes to: John Dennehy from Bradan Og, Leixlip

Congratulations to those groups who have secured a place at the forthcoming MACE All Ireland One Act Festival. With a diverse programme and a wonderful venue in Glor, the finals promise to be a wonderful weekend. ADA would like to wish all the very best to the finalists, the hosts, Ennis Players and of course our colleague, Anna Walker, adjudicator for the Finals. Let the games begin!
Full details to be found on www.oneactfinals.com

As the one Act Festivals commence, and good luck to all our members who are officiating; good to see that ADA is once again supplying more adjudicators than our colleague organisations in the UK and Ireland; I pose the following two questions:
Which is the most common practice: To adjudicate each play immediately after its performance, or, adjudicate all three, consecutively, at the end of the evening?
And … which is preferable?

Michael Poynor

In the recent deaths of Tomás Mac Anna, Phyliss Ryan and T.P. McKenna,
Irish theatre lost some of the outstanding talent of the older generation. Phyliss
was an exceptional actress over a career of more than sixty years–as recently
as Fair City and the Fiona Shaw Medea -a knowledgeable and sympathetic
director and, though not a member of ADA, a very perceptive adjudicator. She
was deserving of far greater honour than Ireland ever gave her.

The fact that T.P. Mc Kenna is most associated during his early years in Ireland
with the legendary Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directed by Frank Dermody in
1962, during the Abbey Theatre’s ‘exile’ at the Queens, links him conveniently to
Tomás Mac Anna, whose production of Brecht’s The Life of Galileo at the same
venue in 1965, was the other highlight of a rather barren period. Tomás who was
Patron of ADA, was the complete theatre man – actor, director, writer in Irish
and English, and an exemplary adjudicator. As many a scholar and researcher
will know, his was the most erudite voice on the history of the Abbey Theatre and
indeed many other theatres as well: if one needed information on a playwright,
an actor, or the date of a first production, Tomás was the man to go to. If he
didn’t always suffer fools gladly, many struggling and inexperienced groups will
have memories of his advice and support at drama festivals.

To his wife Caroline and his family ADA sends its sympathetic regard.

Pat Burke,
Vice President, ADA.

Welcome to the new site of the Association of Drama Adjudicators. We hope that you enjoy browsing the site, where you will find details of our members. We hope to use this blog to stimulate discussion on all aspects of theatre practice and welcome articles for consideration.

We wish the very best to the competing groups, festival committees and our members in the forthcoming ADCI / DLI One Act Festival Circuit.