An Grianán Youth Theatre: Year in Review 2022/23

An Grianán Youth Theatre’s 2022/23 term was our first nearly normal year after all the disruption caused by the pandemic. Classes were in person and back in the building and it ended up being a very busy year with lots of different projects.

We started in August with a summer school intensive with our senior group who had chosen to produce a full length play for An Grianán’s autumn programme called A Vampire Story.

An Grianán Youth Theatre's A Vampire Story: Left to right Saoirse Alleyne as Ella, Freya Bonner as Eleanor, Megan Lynch as Claire. Photo by David Faughnan.
An Grianán Youth Theatre’s A Vampire Story: Left to right Saoirse Alleyne as Ella, Freya Bonner as Eleanor, Megan Lynch as Claire. Photo by David Faughnan.

A dark and moody tale, it proved a great opportunity for the students to really stretch their acting skills, a challenge they were more than up for.

On a lighter note we also took part in the Halloween Parade in Derry which was a lot of fun and in December we revisited the glory days of Bugsy Malone for a reprisal of ‘Fat Sam’s Grand Slam’ at Constellations, a concert which celebrated local performing arts groups here at An Grianán.

In April our members took part in the One Donegal Diversity Showcase with a devised piece about racism by member Saoirse Alleyne.

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An Grianán Youth Theatre – Snack Box Theatre for Cruinniú na nÓG 2023

In June we brought all our classes, junior and senior, together to perform a show devised by the students for Cruinniú na nOg. Inspired by 1980s pop culture this was a promenade style murder mystery show where the audience became part of the show as prospective students for a performing arts academy with an alarmingly high murder rate! It was great fun and very nostalgic for lovers of 80s culture like Fame and The Breakfast Club.

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Home from Kilkenny! A happy gang.

In July we were also delighted to be invited back to the National Festival of Youth Theatres in Kilkenny, our first time post-pandemic. Our resident facilitator Nora Kavanagh was joined by guest facilitator Orson Sterritt to look after our group of 7 students. The festival is always an amazing experience for our students, a whole week where they get to meet lots of other youth theatre students and tutors and experience a wealth of different workshops.

Looking forward to 2023/24

We’re really excited to move forward into a new year and welcome students both returning and new. We’ve recently being working on a new artistic development plan for the youth theatre and have lots of exciting plans in the offing!

We are holding auditions for new members on Sat 2 September – you can learn more here.

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