Our Radio Short Waves writing course reached its conclusion on Thursday 15 December with a showcase performed to an invited audience of family and friends. Facilitated by playwright Tara McKevitt our group of 9 writers have been working since September on these short radio plays, each approximately 10 minutes in duration.
The Plays
A Chain of Events by John Logue
Windows by Michael Leddy
The Seventh Wall by Edwin Masterson
Pulse by Marie Kelly
The Lad’s Night Out by Pauric Gallagher
Rain by Fergal Lonergan
Cake by Meg Grehan
Clean by Averil Meehan
Sorry Wrong Target by Paul McCollum
The Cast
Valerie Bryce
Orlaith Glicreest
Fionn Robinson
John D. Ruddy
The Crew
Director: Guy Le Jeune
Stage Manager & Sound: Jude Barriscale
The Writers
John Logue was born in Derry, and has lived in Letterkenny for the past 30 years. He is married to Siobhan, and has two children, John F and Ali. John is a cabinet maker by trade, and a former Gaelic and Rugby footballer. He is currently Captain of Portsalon Golf Club. During the winter months he likes to enroll in night classes that challenge him. This Radio Play is his latest endeavour.
Marie Kelly has previously undertaken Creative Writing courses with Denise Blake, Ronan Carr and Patrick Kearney. She also has an interest in drama and has taken part in productions with Worklab, Bread and Roses, An Grianan Theatre, and An Grianan Actor’s Studio. This is her first radio drama.
Michael Leddy, originally from Leitrim, has lived in Donegal since 1999. He has been writing and acting on stage, and short films for thirty years. He collects various Old Time Radio shows from American radio, as well as Marvel Comics and rare, hard-to-find TV series. He wrote and directed a short film in 2013 Firefall. He previously had two short stories broadcast by RTE in the 90s. This is his first script for radio.
Edwin Masterson is from Northern Ireland and started writing with the Derry rehabilita- tion writers group after recovering from a serious illness. He is now an active member of Scribophile.com. An avid film aficionado and poetry enthusiast, he recently finished the NaNoWriMo challenge in November. He has previously completed an advanced course in scriptwriting at the Letterkenny Culture Centre as well as an International literary course at the L.Y.I.T.
Averil Meehan writes radio drama, poetry and fiction. Her radio play, “A Family Christmas” was broadcast twice by RTE. Her poetry collection, “Until Stones Blossom” is published by Summer Palace Press. Her writing has been published in literary journals and placed in various writing competi- tions.
Pauric Gallagher has been performing stand-up comedy all over Ireland since October 2013. He was a finalist in Forbidden Fruit Comedy Compe tition in 2015 and has played support for such names as Gearoid Farrelly, Pat McDonnell and Andrew Maxwell. He has recently returned from a tour of Canada. He is also a long standing mem- ber of the Diamond Writers group based in Raphoe and was a writer and director on the AyeTV1 webseries ‘Letterkenny People’.
Fergal Lonergan is a 16 year old nerd in 5th year in St. Eunans College. He first got into theatre with Letterkenny Youth Theatre and is focusing on comedy, writing sketches and directing for youth theatre the most notable being a stage adaptation of Blackadder. Fergal performs stand-up regularly, mainly in the Voodoo Vintage. After the Leaving Cert, he’s hopes to go on to study thea- tre and media, and eventually end up doing something in entertainment, be it comedy or writing weird, precipitation-based tragedies.
Meg Grehan is a writer and stage manager originally from Louth and now living in Letterkenny with too many pets, all with ridiculous names (Starbuck, Ororo, Catgar and Doctor George O’Malley). Likes include cake and pink things. Dislikes include the patriarchy and going outside. Meg’s first book The Space Between will be published in 2017 by Little Island.
The Facilitator
Tara McKevitt is from Moville, and has written for stage and radio, including RTE Radio 1, the Abbey Theatre, and Traverse Theatre. She has facilitated workshops in Higher Education, (NUIG VEC Galway), Youth Groups, Schools, Prisons, as well as various other community groups.
Project kindly supported by the Donegal County Council Arts Office.
