June Summer Drama Festival at NUI Galway

In celebration of the city of culture and the wealth of dramatic talent in Galway, NUI Galway are partnering with local theatre practitioners and emerging dramatists to bring a new festival to Galway from 20-27 July. The Summer Drama Festival is co-hosted by the University’s Societies Office and Drama Society.

The festival will feature nine productions over eight days, ranging from award-winning student-led productions to established theatre practitioners. There will be a variety of performances for all ages and interests, from comedy to thought provoking political satire, and a show for children. All productions will take place in the Cube Theatre in Áras na Mac Léinn, NUI Galway.

Riona Hughes, Societies Officer at NUI Galway and Festival Artistic Director, said: “The Festival is a partnership, which facilitates the city and the campus to come together, to showcase the wonderful theatrical talent in Galway during July, when the city is bursting with art and full of appreciative audiences looking to find the hidden gems and experience what Galway artists have to offer.”

Well-known local Galway theatre practitioners will reprise previous award winning productions as well as showcase original work including:

• Little John Nee will be performing ‘Small Halls and Potholes’, an evening of eccentric songs and strange stories, a show that celebrates all that is weird and wonderful about the Irish summer
• Gerry Conneely will stage a comedy double bill, bringing back the acclaimed one-act ‘Shakespeare in Connemara’, along with a new one-act comedy ‘Fashion Show’. He will also be performing his moving one-man- show based on Patrick McGills chilling recounting of a night in the First World War trenches ‘The Great Push’.
• Hot Potato Productions will reprise their Galway Fringe award-winning one act ‘Just Guff’ Based on factual events about a series of revelations which turn everything upside down for an aging party political hack Sean T.
• Visionation’s ‘Behind Closed Doors’, fresh from its success at the Galway Theatre Festival, devised with actors living in direct provision in Galway, exposes life in the direct provision system.

The Summer Drama Festival will present an Irish Student Drama Award (ISDA) winning production NUI Galway’s Dramsoc’s ‘Alone It Stands’ by John Breen. ‘Alone It Stands’ tells the tale of the 1978 rugby match when Irish provincial side Munster infamously beat the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks.

Current students and alumni of NUI Galway’s O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance will also perform during the Festival. Recent graduate Eibhleann Caffrey will be staging an original work ‘Recognition’, which focuses on two college students and their trials and tribulations. War/War/War student theatre company will stage ‘From There We Saw The Stars’ fresh from their success as the Manchester Fringe Festival. This piece takes inspiration from Dante’s Inferno exploring how our ever-changing understanding of spirituality, sin and souls morphs the world around us.

Beluga Theatre will be reprising the children’s show ‘Marty Moncrieff the Teddy Bear Thief’ for the Summer Drama Festival after their sold-out run at the Galway Theatre Festival. Billed as Toy Story meets Father Ted, the play features live music from a four-piece band and beautiful puppetry designed by Yvonne Lydon.

Tickets will be on sale soon and information can be found at www.galwaydrama.com.

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