Based in Balally, a suburb in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown area of Dublin city between the villages of Dundrum and Sandyford, the Balally Players Theatre Company has been part of the amateur theatre movement in Ireland since 1982.

Readings for Summer Shakespeare
on 8 & 10 March

News Headlines

Each year, a wide and varied range of productions is staged by Balally Players.

The year 2009 began with 'Vinegar Tom' by Caryl Churchill. The play was performed in the Mill Theatre Studio and also in the Mermaid Arts Centre Theatre as part of the Bray One Act Festival.

Springtime saw Alan Ayckbourn's play 'How the Other Half Loves' bring laughter in unlimited doses to the Mill Theatre in Dundrum. The summer shone with 'The Great Hunger' by Tom Mac Intyre a production that brought the group to the All Ireland and Ulster Drama Finals in Athlone and Armagh.

Also during the summer, the group was busy preparing for its visit to the Mondial du Theatre (World Festival of Theatre) where Balally Players represented Ireland in Monaco. With all that was happening, the usual outdoor summer production rested for a year, but there are plans to return to the garden with Shakespeare or something similar for mid-summer.

As winter shortened the days, the group's production of 'Many Young Men of Twenty' by John B Keane played to enthusiastic full houses at the Mill Theatre. The calendar year was brought to a close with the ever popular collection of carols, stories, music and humour that is 'Christmas at Airfield'. Staged each year by Balally Players in Airfield House in Dundrum, it is an enduring favourite with audiences in December and it closed another great year for Balally Players.

Read more about the plays mentioned above and other productions in Past Performances

NEWS
HEADLINES

'The Plough and the Stars'
Castleblayney 13 Mar - Shercock 14 Mar
and 3 more in March
Full details below

Summer Shakespeare
Readings for 'Romeo and Juliet' - Mon 8 & Wed 10 March

With the memory of snow, sleet, fog and flood not quite blown away by the chill North wind, it's hard to believe that Summer is just around the corner!

Well in joyful anticipation, Balally Players is getting ready to play in our Outdoor Summer Festival with readings for 'Romeo and Juliet'. This followed a series of workshops in Stage Combat, Verse Speaking for Shakespeare and Dance, which started on Monday 8 February. Everyone is welcome to come to the readings, which will take place in St. Tiernan's Community School on Monday 8 and Wednesday 10 March from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. See 'Rehearsal Venues' on the Links page for a map showing the location of the school.

.....so come along and enjoy the experience! The play will feature plenty of on-stage battles, sword fights, drumming, male group choreography, a masked ball for the ladies......

This will be a muscular production on the lives of the families - Mercutio and Tybalt, the feuding Capulets and Montagues - less romance and tragedy - more West Side Story than Baz Lurhman.

The Plough and the Stars
Seven Festival Performances in February and March

Following a week in the Mill Theatre in Dundrum, the group's production of this Seán O'Casey play takes to the road for a series of performances in the National Drama Festival between 24 February and 27 March. The play was first performed in 1926 by the Abbey Theatre and is on the syllabus for this year's Leaving Certificate examinations.

Gary Wall directed 'The Plough and the Stars' at the Mill Theatre in the first week of February. The opening performance was on Tuesday 2 and it was performed each night of that week until Saturday 6 February. The cast and crew are competing with the play in the National Drama Festival in February and in March. This is Balally Players' second entry in the festival for plays of more than one act. The group competed with 'The Great Hunger' in the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival last year.

The play is set in Dublin around the time of the 1916 Easter Rising. The title is taken from the flag of the Irish Citizen Army, an organisation that was born out of the struggle between workers and employers during the Great Lockout of 1913. Much later in the twentieth century, the 'Starry Plough' flag was used by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The first two acts of the play cover a period before the Easter Rising and the last two acts take place during the rising. The story is centred on a group of working-class Dubliners as they deal with the turmoil that engulfs them in that period.

O'Casey (right) explores many aspects of life in Dublin city in the early part of the twentieth century. Behind some great comic elements and wonderful characters, the overall picture painted is the dark, hopeless world that ordinary people experienced in the violent period of Irish history around 1916. Some of the soaring rhetoric of the time is contrasted against the inability of violence to address the basic needs of the people and to deal with poverty, sickness, loneliness and unhappiness. There are moments of joy and sorrow, laughter and tears all of which combine to make it a realistic portrayal of life as it was and a very enjoyable evening at the theatre.

Director Gary Wall worked with a large cast and crew that included many Balally stalwarts and some new faces too. The central character 'Fluther' was played by Dave Walsh and the Production Manager was Jean Monahan.

Fergal Cleary, Robert Webster and Aoife King on stage during rehearsal

The seven performances as part of the National Drama Festival are listed below.

Dave Walsh as Fluther	The first two venues in the festival tour are in February. 24 February Rush 28 February Newtownstewart
A further five towns are on the schedule for the month of March. 13 March Castleblaney 14 March Shercock 20 March Cavan	Peter Flood, Aoife King and Óran O'Rua
Judy McKeever as Rosie	21 March Rathangan 27 March Newry

Fiona Buckley as Bessie and Claire O'Donovan as Mrs Grogan during rehearsal for 'The Plough and the Stars' at the Mill Theatre in Dundrum

'Old Saybrook' at the Bray Festival in January
Best Supporting Actor and two nominations

Director Lorcan Dunne presented his production of 'Old Saybrook' by Woody Allen in the Mill Theatre Studio on Friday 8 January and the play competed in the Bray One Act Festival, on Wednesday 27 January in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow.

The play was nominated for Best Comedy at the Festival. Emma Coombes was nominated for the best supporting actress award and Sean Ahern won the best supporting actor award.

"Delightful one-act play set in and around New York, in which sophisticated characters confound one another in ways only Woody Allen could imagine. Old Saybrook is a humorous, and insightful play about infidelity! The characters, archetypal New Yorkers, all start out talking innocently enough, but soon the most unexpected things happen or are revealed and the audience enjoys every minute of it (though not all the characters do). The play dramatizes Allen's continuing preoccupation with people who rationalise their actions, hide what they're doing, and inevitably slip into sexual deception -all of it revealed in Allen's quintessentially pell-mell dialogue". -- Review

The cast includes Sean Ahern, Richard Stowe, Dan Atkins, Emma Coombes, Orla Cooney, Joan McKevitt and Derek Greene.

The Bray One Act Festival, which was founded by the late Fred Lee to encourage amateur drama in the Dublin/Wicklow region, is now in its 33rd year.

Christmas at Airfield
Airfield House, Dundrum from 2 to 4 December

The Christmas show at Airfield House, Dundrum is always one of the most popular productions staged each year by Balally Players.

The show is a variety of performances by members of Balally Players that includes everything from seasonal stories, poems, songs and Christmas carols to comedy sketches - many old favourites and some new ones too. It's a most entertaining evening full of variety and good cheer. From the time that Mrs Overend (Teresa Dempsey) welcomes one and all to her home at 8pm to savour the Christmas spirit, the audience is entertained royally until just after ten o'clock. And during the interval, the atmosphere and enjoyment is enhanced still further with mulled wine and mince pies.

Audiences come back year after year for this wonderful evening of seasonal entertainment - and they were not disappointed this time. The Christmas season and the seasonal spirit sparkled with great performances in the company of great audiences.

Many Young Men Of Twenty
J B Keane play a great success at the Mill Theatre

The group's production of 'Many Young Men of Twenty', directed by Karen Carleton, closed to an enthusiastic full house on Saturday 14 November. Considered by many to be one of J B Keane's finest plays, 'Many Young Men Of Twenty' was first produced in Cork in 1961.

The story is told in the back room of a public house during the summer in 1950s Ireland, in a small rural village in Kerry. It's a play, with music and dance, that deals with emigration and the lack of jobs at home which forced people to leave their native Ireland for England. The story tells of the emigrants' longing for home - "Everyone is lonesome leaving home" - their annual homecomings and their return to jobs and places they disliked. However, its message is delivered with wonderful characters, sharp wit, great humour, music and song - all of which combine to make it a very entertaining and enjoyable evening at the theatre.

John B Keane

This production proved to be a huge success and a favourite with audiences throughout its week long run in the Mill Theatre. It was a marvelous night out for the whole family with laughs and songs galore and something for everyone to talk over and argue about for days afterwards. It may have been about Ireland in the 1950s, but it resonated with young and old like a contemporary piece of social commentary.

Visit the page for this production in the Past Performances section to see more about the play and some pictures taken during rehearsal and one of the performances.

Dundrum One Act Festival 2009
Mill Theatre 29 to 31 October

The fourth Dundrum One Act Festival took place in the Mill Theatre from Thursday 29 October to Saturday 31 October. The festival was once again being organised by a team headed by Festival Director Jean Monahan. The Adjudicator this year was Anne Mekitarian.

The groups represented this year were: Leeson Park Players Taney Drama Society Trinity Drama Group Prosperous Dramatic Society Breffni Players Silken Thomas Players Clondalkin Drama Group Crossbridge Players 36 Players Bradan Players Hollywood Players

The Open Category Winner was 36 Players and the Confined Category Winner was Breffni Players. For more information on the the plays performed and the other awards presented, visit the Dundrum Festival page

DLI Summer School
University of Limerick taken over for a week in August

The Drama League of Ireland (DLI) held its 44th Summer School in the University of Limerick between 1 and 8 August. The week long mix of study and socialising was with the very best of tutors and representatives of drama groups from all over the country.

This year's courses: Course A – Come Out From The Wings Tutor: Kevin O'Connor Course B – Sweet Clarity Tutor: Liam Halligan Course C – Filling The Empty Space: The Crafty Art of Directing Tutor: Derek Campbell Course D - Russian Realism Tutor: Geoff Colman Course E – '...with your feet in the air and your head on the ground' Physical Approaches for Theatre Practitioners Course F – The Essentials of Theatre Design - Your World on the Stage Tutor: Maree Kearns Course G – The Joy Of Theatre Tutor: Bairbre Ní Chaoimh

This year the programme included a design course, which opened the week to a new group of people interested in amateur drama. The Summer School was attended by several members of Balally Players, some of whom are seen in suitably dramatic guise below.

Bell(es) of the Ball!
Matt Powell takes the Fancy Dress prize at the University of Limerick

Newsletter
Latest and recent editions in the Archive

Visit the Newsletter page for a copy of the latest bulletin that you can read and/or print at your leisure.

Mill Theatre
Front of House volunteers needed

In return for access to the facilities at the Mill Theatre for specified periods each year, the amateur drama groups in the areas around Dundrum provide volunteer support for Front of House. Several members of Balally Players give some of their time each month. To share the workload as evenly as possible, there is a need for some more volunteers. If you can give one evening each month to help at the theatre (from 7:20pm), please contact Karen Carleton through the Mill Theatre office on 01-296 9340 or 087-670 1252.

Annual Subscriptions
A little goes a long way

Keeping our growing programme and group alive and well requires the modest subscription associated with membership. It also covers the insurance that is needed for participation in staged events. Treasurer, Tony McGettigan, can give you more details and accept payment if you contact him by email at or through the Balally Players mobile phone 087-694 4088.

Calendar of Events
Balally Players schedule of activity

Keep up to date with what's been happening, is happening and will happen soon by paying a regular visit to the Calendar of Events