East Glendalough School

Junior Drama

This year in drama was a disaster. We decided to write and produce our own play. We decided on an idea of the Chronicles of the Ginger Goatee, a sort of parody of Harry Potter. As Mr. Cox was spending his time on the 4th year play, he left us to our own devices.

Never leave 2nd years on their own…

We elected Martha Breen as a director and she got the right to shout at us when we were messing or not paying attention. It was a tough job for her. We began rehearsals which was made up of Martha telling us what was going on in the current scene and the cast improvising their lines and actions. It was slow and very hard to concentrate but we did manage to put together five hilarious scenes to make up the play. On the day before the One Act Drama Festival, we were scheduled to do a complete dress rehearsal of the play. It didn't go well and we were all seriously considering dropping out of the festival. But on the night of the show, we practiced in the couple of hours beforehand and for the first time we got the entire play done without anyone interrupting or shouting. For the first time, we felt confident. We got dressed in 'wizard cloaks' and pocketed the brilliant wands made by Jacob and waited until we were scheduled to go on - dead last. The nerves built up slowly during the night as we watched the other plays. Secretly getting more confident when we thought ours was better than the ones on stage, or insecurities growing when another school's play was brilliant. Finally it was time to put on the show, save the best for last. We got a load of laughs and we all had fun acting in the play, especially in the fight scene at the end.

It was a stressful but very fun year for our 2nd year drama group.

Sarah Flynn and Ailbhe O'Callaghan


Form 1 Drama

1 Year Drama Club: Sorry Wrong Number

'Sorry wrong number' is a thrilling play that a group of first year girls and I performed at the School’s annual One Act Drama Festival. It tells the story of an elderly lady (played by Kim Shepherd) who gets worried when she can't contact her husband, so she rings directory enquiries and gets put through to four different operators (Tara Collins, Leah Fisher, Emily-Jane Jackson and Rachel Griffin-Doyle) who put her through to a lazy police officer (Lauren Clarke). It was a difficult play to put on, with long lines to learn and unusual props to find, but we were very pleased and proud of the final production. Everyone was very supportive but the main person behind this performance was Mr Cox. We were so grateful for his time and effort that was put into the play and so I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for everything he did for us throughout the year in our weekly drama classes and extra rehearsals. We could not have pulled this play out of the bag without his help.

Tara Collins


1 Year Drama Club: Still Alarm

The play was called The Still Alarm. The boys play was about two posh men who were staying in an apartment on floor eleven. The building catches fire and the bellboy is sent up to tell them.

They have no intention of leaving as they sit back and relax as two firemen search the room for a place to fight the fire from. There is no way out so while the second fireman holds the rope the rest of the men including the bellboy climb down. The curtains close leaving the second fireman in the apartment awaiting
his death.

The play was a comedy. The junior boys were assisted to create this play by two Transition Years, Josh Meakin and Aaron Murphy. They were a great help and made the play a success.

Ben West

1 Year Drama Club: Clara’s on the Curtains

Clara’s on the Curtains is a comedy about ten middle-aged women attempting to put on an amateur dramatic show. The drama of opening night is all behind the curtains. Panic rises from the dressing room to the stage, as crisis follows crisis and there's a catastrophe at every turn.

The ten characters are: Clara, the bubbly and optimistic girl just waiting to be given a job (Janet Yennusick), Mabel, the loud and bossy director/actress (Hannah-Rose Buckley), Iris the ex-WestEnd actress who thinks it's all a big joke (Sophie O'Neill), Sonia, the drama-queen of the group (Ronja Steinbach), Amanda, the star who lost her voice (Rachel Richards), Celia, the quintissential Girl Guide (Katie Power), Jean and Mavis whoAmanda through herButler and Emily Thompson), the overworked cockney cook (Kaleigh Sullivan) and her moaning daughter Shirley (Naomi O'Neill).

This is a play about a play which these first years carried off brilliantly despite a few well-hidden slip-ups and a lot of nerves. From Annie and Shirley's excellent cockney accents to Sonia's dramatic outfit, from Mabel's grey bouffon to Iris's smart remarks, and from Clara's exuberant energy to Celia's jolly rendering of the Shooting of Dan McGrew, and from Amanda's silent sobs to Jean and Mavis's support system, the whole play depended on all the characters pulling together.The entire cast put a lot of effort into making this comedy. I'd like to thank Ms. Molloy for all her support and for staying back with us to rehearse week after week, to make this wonderful play happen.

Sophie O’Neill, 2S

5th Year One Act Drama: The Audience

For the 5th year play this year we performed "The Audience". A play about, surprisingly, an audience. We played the part of a group of people watching a play all for various reasons, including birthdays or just as a meeting place for two people having an affair. I played the part of the writer of the play who had shown up to see how an understudy performed. Of all the characters I had the most lines but personally, I thought the best parts belonged to either Eli or Fionnbarr. Eli played an ageing American tourist who was looked after by his slightly less aged wife. But Fionnbarr had the funniest character by far, playing a very camp drama teacher who had brought his favourite student to the theatre alone. Everyone played their parts brilliantly but special mention should go to Deirbhile and Ciaran. Deirbhile was surprisingly good at playing an old lady and Ciaran was unsurprisingly good at playing a creepy guy, he had spent much time perfecting his seedy winks which he pulled off excellently.

At first we had been directed by Mr. Cox, but he was soon called on to look after his newborn so Mr. Gargan took over. We met once a week or so and in the end we were all reasonably confident with the upcoming show. Well a say confident we were all terrified but it seemed to go fairly well. We slipped up at a few parts but we recovered fairly well and there were no major hicups, besides not being able to find my newspaper at the beginning and having a whispered argument with Jennifer over whether or not I needed it at the side of the stage as the curtains opened.

The judges had alot of advice for us after the performance and there was plenty of praise aswell. Mr. Gargan seemed happy with us anyway and I suppose that's the main thing.

Elliott Greene, 6G