Talent is in no short supply at Letterkenny One Act Drama Festival

Letterkenny One Act Drama Festival took place last weekend and certainly lived up to drama enthusiasts’ expectations with three days of top-class one-act plays from all over the country. 

Audiences agreed that the standard was as high if not higher than previous years and were very impressed by adjudicator Pádraig McIntyre, with both his nightly critique of the nine plays and with his final adjudication.

Letterkenny One Act Drama Festival operates in a competition style. The experienced acts can join the open section and the smaller groups are placed in the confined competition. The leading groups in each competition receive a place in the All-Ireland Finals. 

The Results:

• Best Play (Open): Bunclody/Kilmyshal, “Dead Man’s Bells” by Meadbh De Brun
• Best Play (Confined): Oakhill Players, “The Chip Van Plays Dixie” by Robert Iles
• Best Director (Open): Michael Dunbar, Bunclody/Kilmyshal, “Dead Man’s Bells”
• Best Director (Confined): Mary Callaghan Oakhill, “The Chip Van Plays Dixie”
• Best Actor (Open): Killian McGuinness, Cornmill Theatre Group, as Man in “Clarity at Last”
• Best Actor (Confined): Jamie Dockery, Carlow Little Theatre Society, as Ludwig Van Beethoven in “Heilgenstadt”
• Best Actress (Open): Louise McWilliams, Theatre 3 Newtown Abbey as Mary AnnTwomey in “Even Numbers”  
• Best Actress (Confined): Cathy Collins, Oakhill Players as Babs in “The Chip Van Plays Dixie”
• Best Technical, Carlow Little Theatre Group, for “Heilgenstad” by Mark Cradock
• Adjudicators Award, Charlie McGuiness, Cornmill Theatre group, for new writing, “Clarity at Last”

Siobhan Montgomery, Northern Lights Glass, created and designed the Letterkenny One Act Drama Festival awards for both sections of the competition again this year

The Prize winners now hope that the points they have gained in this festival will help them secure a place in the All Ireland Finals in Castleblaney, at the beginning of December.