News
Dec 09
The Bradans celibrate their recent all Ireland win and Christmas at the Bradaun restaurant, Leixlip House Hotel - see photos
HERE.
We'd like to wish all our friends and supporters a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year!
Dec 09
Thanks
to Declan Donohue from Backstage Theatre, Longford, we have a video
clip of our All Ireland winning play "The Quakity of Boiled Water" for
you to view. Click
HERE for more.
Dec 09
After
a fantastic weekend of theatre in Longford, we won the covetted first
place in the open section with "The Quality of Boiled Water".
We'd like to congratulate all the participating groups on the
standard achieved this year. Special praise must go to Backstage
Theatre in Longford for organising such a magnificent festival.
Click
HERE for some photos taken during the tech set-up in Longford (thanks to Declan Donohue for supplying the camera!).
Nov 09
After
a nail biting wait, our place has been confirmed at the All Ireland.
The standard this year was very high and the finals are shaping
up to be the toughest and most competitive for many years. The
league table is listed below for the open section and its a testament
to the quality of amateur theatre in Kildare that 4 of the 8 groups are
from the county (shown in bold). Congrats also to our former
Leixlip friends, Connie and Mairead Broderick from the Rath Players who
will be flying the "Lilywhites" flag in the confined section - 5
kildare groups out of 13! Not bad! The draw for running
order will be held in Longford on Sat 28th Sep. Check out
www.oneactslongford.com
| Group | Play | Author |
| Bray Arts Group | The Librarian | James Prideaux |
| Silken Thomas Players | A Dog Called Redemption | Matthew Landers |
| 36 Players | 27 Wagons Full of Cotton | Tennessee Williams |
| Cornmill Theatre Group | Wagging Finger | Seamus O'Rourke |
| Dalkey Players, Dublin | Specter | Don Nigro |
| Prosperous Dramatic Society | The Zoo Story | Edward Albee |
| Dark Horse Drama Group | Virtual Reality | Alan Arkin |
| Bradán Players, Leixlip | The Quality of Boiled Water | Jason Milligan |
Oct / Nov 00 - Progress at One-act festivals| Festival | Placed Position | Awards |
| Birr | First | Best Director - Tom Byrne |
| Dundrum | Third | |
| Balbriggan | First | Best Director - Tom Byrne
Best Supporting Actor - George Hogan
Best stagecraft - John Duggan |
| Skerries | Second | Best Supporting Actor - George Hogan
Best Supporting Actress - Maeve Kerrigan
Best presentation |
| Carrigallen | Not placed | |
Oct 09
We're off on the one-act circuit again with Jason Milligans "Quality of boiled water". Festival dates are as follows:-
| Date | Venue |
| Sun 25th Oct | Birr |
| Sat 31st Oct | Dundrum Mill Theatre |
| Sat 7th Nov | Balbriggan |
| Fri 13th Nov | Skerries |
| Sat 14th Nov | Carrigallen |
Sep 09
Tom
Byrne and Joe Bergin have been busy this September. Following on
from their successful performance of "Whats the Pint?" at the pub
crawl, they were invited to perform the piece, which is a celebration
of Guinness based on the writings of Tom Corkery, John D. Sheridan and
Flann O' Brien, at the Guinness staff party in the Guinness storehouse
to celebrate the 250th birthday celebrations on the 12th of Sept.
The party had almost 2,000 people in attendance and the pair took
to the stage in support of none other than the popular Dublin band
Aslan. Click
HERE for some
photos. For Arthurs day itself on the 24th Sept, Joe and Tom were
invited to perform the piece twice in Leixlip; firstly for a private
performance for an invited audience in Leixlip Castle and subsequently
in Murphys pub for a public showing before toasting Arthur at 17.59 in
the Courtyard. For Arthurs day., Tom and Joe were joined by
fellow Bradan players, George Hogan and Ken Byrne who portrayed
Archbishop Price and young Arthur Guinness for a re-enactment of the
lease signing for Arthurs first brewery in Leixlip. Click
HERE for photos
June 09
We've
just completed another successful "pub crawl" - although it has become
more of a "pub stall"! So successful has this event become, that
we felt it was time to abandon the crawl aspect and for the sake of the
performers and the audience, we performed all 3 plays in a single venue
- the re-furbished "Zinc" nightclub. Again, we thank Thomas
Hannigan for his support. Click
HERE for photos and
HERE for a video clip.
May 09
After
a sucessful festival run culminating in a great final performance in
Athlone, we did not achieve any awards at the all Ireland. Our
congratulations to Estuary for scooping the premier award for the
second year running. Our own Jenny Ni Lucais received a
nomination for best actress. Now, we are in preparation for the
Leixlip festival on the June weekend.
April 09
The
draw for the Athlone finals has taken place and the running order is
shown below. Don't forget that we will be staging "Faith Healer"
on the 26th
April at the Draiocht in Blanchardstown.
DATE
Fri 1st May
Sat 2nd May
Sun 3rd May
Mon 4th May
Tues 5th May
Wed 6th May
Thurs 7th May
Fri 8th May
Sat 9th May | GROUP
Kilmeen Drama Group
Estuary Players, Dublin
Bradán Players
Bangor Drama Club
Silken Thomas Players
Balally Players
Bunclody/Kilmyshall Drama Group
Shoestring Theatre Company
Theatre 3, Newtownabbey | PLAY
'The Kings of the Kilburn High Road'
'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot'
'Faith Healer'
'True West'
'Equus'
'The Great Hunger'
'The Wake'
'A Night in November'
'Plaza Suite' | AUTHOR
Jimmy Murphy
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Brian Friel
Sam Shepard
Peter Shaffer
Tom MacIntryre
Tom Murphy
Marie Jones
Neil Simon |
April 09
We're
off to Athlone! After performing at 7 out of 37 festivals, we
have again qualified for the All Ireland in Athlone.
33 drama groups set out on a journey nearly 2 months ago.
The top 9 are through to the final. In preparation for the
final, we will be staging one performance of "Faith Healer" on the 26th
April. See "Current Production" for more details. Heres to
the first week
in May!!
Mar 09
We
kicked off our festival tour with great success winning 2 of our first
3 festivals and winning many individual awards. It was great to
win the Enniskillen festival for the second year running. Check
back for regular updates. We'll record our progress in the the
table below. You can also check out the up to date overall
league table
HERE
| Festival | Placed Position | Awards |
| Derry | Not placed | |
| Enniskillen | First | Best Actor - Colin Walsh
Best Actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best Director - Tom Byrne
Overall best production |
| Tubbercurry | First | Best Actor - George Hogan
Best Actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best Supporting Actor - Colin Walsh
Best Director - Tom Byrne
Overall best production |
| Rossmore | Not placed | |
| Cavan | First | Best Actor - Colin Walsh
Best Actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best Director - Tom Byrne
Overall best production |
| Rathangan | Third | Best Actor - Colin Walsh |
| Scariff | Second | Best Actor - George Hogan
Audience award for stage management |
Feb 09
We're
currently rehersing for our 2009 Spring Production and full
length festival entry. This year, we're presenting Brian Friels
classic "The Faith Healer". See Current Productions for details
of our performances in Leixlip, We will be touring the country,
competing at 6 drama festivals in total. For anyone
interested in a night away, the dates are:-
| Date | Venue |
| Wed 11th March | Derry |
| Thurs 12th March | Enniskillen |
| Sat 14th March | Tubbercurry |
| Sat 21st March | Rossmore |
| Wed 25th March | Cavan |
| Sun 29th March | Rathangan |
| Tue 31st March | Scariff |
Dec 08After
a great set of results in the preliminary rounds, we
unfortunately didn't achieve any honours at the All-Ireland but in true
Bradan fashion, we had a great party and were delighted when our old
friends from Causeway swept the boards with "Address Unknown" and we
became honorary members of Causeway for Sunday night! So congrats
to Gerry, Robert , Geraldine and Eoin on their success.
Congratulations to all the groups who provided a great weekend of
drama and thanks to all in Tubbercurry for organising such a great
festival. Click
HERE for photos.
Oct / Nov 08 - Progress at One-act festivals
| Festival | Placed Position | Awards |
| Kilmallock - 26th Oct | First | Best Director - Tom Byrne |
| Dundrum - 31st Oct | First | Best Actor - Shared between Colin Walsh and George Hogan
Best Actress - Shared between Jenny Ni Lucais and Brenda Cahill
Adjudicators Award - Tom Byrne (for direction) |
| Prosperous - 7th Nov | Second
| Special award for set |
| Cavan - 8th Nov | First | Best Actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best Director - Tom Byrne |
| Rosmore - 22nd Nov | N/P | Performance photos |
Oct 08 - One-acts in Draiocht
We've
just completed a successful run at the Draiocht Theatre with our two
one acts - "Autograph Hound" amd "The Bald Prima Donna". See out
photos section for more. We're now off on the one-act festival
circuit with "The Bald Prima Donna"
Sep 08
We
are currently preparing for the one act festivals and will be
performing two one-act olays in the Draiocht in October. See
current production for more details
May 08 - Leixlip Civic Awards
We
were delighted to receive a civic award from the local Town Council in
the area of Cultural achievement. The award ceremony was
held in Leixlip House Hotel on Friday 16th May. Tom Byrne, the
artistic director of Bradan Players, accepted the award on behalf of
the group. In his acceptance speech, Tom noted the achievements
of the group at national and international festivals - all without the
availability of proper rehersal and performance facilities.
Leixlip has demonstrated such a wealth of talent in all areas of
the performing arts and it is such a shame that groups have to move
outside Leixlip in order to perform in proper theatrical venues.
As a real example of this, Tom mentioned Claire Tighes
TheatreWorx student show which has to stage its performances this
coming weekend at the Helix Theatre in Glasnevin. Tom paid
tribute to the Hannigan family for their support throughout the years.
Click
HERE for some photos from the award ceremony.
May 08 Ulster final
Unfortunately,
we did not secure any awards at the Ulster final but we received a very
good criticism from the adjudicator and an excellent reaction from the
audience.
May 08 - All Ireland final results
We
came third in the All-Ireland with our good friends from Estuary coming
first (congratulations Myra) and Ballyduff coming second. Click
HERE for photos from the presentation ceremony. All in
all, we were delighted with our performance and the result. It
was a great achievement to reach the full length All-Ireland on our
first outing and coming in the top three was an extra bonus.
Congratulations to all the participating groups and a big thank
you to the organisers in Athlone for a great festival.
We're
off to the Ulster finals on Tue. 13th May for what will be our final
performance of "Extremities". Check back for the results.
May 08
In
preparation for our All-Ireland performance on Thur 8th of May, we will
be presenting a special performance of "Extremities" in St. Marys GAA,
Green Lane, Leixlip on Tue 6th May at 8.15. Admission is free.
All are welcome.
Apr 08
All
the results are in and we've qualified for the All-Ireland in Athlone
which is taking place from the 2nd to the 10th of May. Draw for
performance dates will take place Sunday 13th April. Check back
for more detail. Click
HERE to view the final league table from the festivals.
View photos from the Draiocht performance.
Mar 08 - Overview of full length festivals
| Festival | Placed Position | Awards |
| Enniskillen | First | Best actor - John Duggan
Best actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best
director - John Duggan
Audience award.
Click HERE to view the Fermanagh Herald |
| Carrickmore | N / P | |
| Tipperary | Second | Best actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best supporting actress - Gillian Purcell |
| Tubbercurry | Second | Best actress - Jenny Ni Lucais |
| Rathangan | First | Best actor - John Duggan
Best actress - Jenny Ni Lucais
Best
director - John Duggan
Click HERE for Photos |
Mar 08 - Full length festivals
Bradan
Players sweep the board in Enniskillen. We kicked off our full
length festival campaign by winning the Enniskillen festival. We
also won best actor (John Duggan), best actress (Jenny Ni Lucais), best
director (John Duggan) and audience award. Congrats to all the
cast and crew. Well done. Click
HERE to view the Fermanagh Herald newspaper report
Dec 07 - All Ireland one-act finals
The
results are in. We came second AGAIN to Balally! Seriously,
congratulations to Geoff and all the Balally gang on an excellent show.
Special thanks to all at Rossmore for making this years festival
so memorable and enjoyable. It was a true celebration for all of
us in the amateur theatre world - with a big emphasis on celebration!!
Congratulations to all the participating groups for providing an
excellent standard of theatre. Clich
HERE for some photos.
Nov 07 - Draw for one-act final places
The
draw for the all Ireland running order was held on Sunday 25th Nov.
We are opening the festival on Friday evening at 8 pm!
Click
HERE for full line-up
Nov 07 - Outcome from one-act trail
We've
completed all festivals and "
A BENCH AT THE EDGE" has qualified for the all-Ireland in Rossmore.
Unfortunately " PILLOW TALK" was not successful, narrowly missing
out on a place at the final. The play received 3 second places
and 1 third place; so hard luck to Colin and Brian who gave great
performances at all the festivals and if audience reaction was anything
to go by, the play would certainly have reached the final.
Anyhow, heres to a great weekend in Rossmore.
Nov 07 - Updates on one-act festival resultsWe're on the one-act trail. We'll keep our progress updated in the table below.
Click
here to view the ADCI league table (opens new window)
| Placed Position | Awards |
| A BENCH AT THE EDGE | | |
|
SUN 28TH OCT - KILMALLOCK | Second | Best Actor - George Hogan.
Click here for photos |
|
THU 1ST NOV - BALBRIGGAN | Third | |
|
SAT 3RD NOV - CAVAN | First | Acting award split between George Hogan and John Duggan |
|
FRI 16TH NOV - SKERRIES | First | Best Actor - John Duggan
Best Director - Tom Byrne |
|
SAT 17TH NOV - MANORHAMILTON | First | Best Actor - George Hogan. |
| | |
PILLOW TALK
| | |
|
SAT 27TH OCT - BIRR | Third | |
|
FRI 2ND NOV - DUNDRUM | n/p | |
|
SUN 4TH NOV - PALMERSTOWN | Second | Adjudicators award for team acting to Colin Walshe and Brian Phillips |
|
THU NOV 14TH GOREY | Second | |
|
SUN 18TH NOV - CARRIGALLEN | Second | |
Oct 07
We are currently in preparation for the 2007 one-act festival circuit.
This year, we are bringing 2 plays ("A Bench at the Edge" and "Pillow
Talk") on the circuit with an initial performance at the Ozone - see
current production for details. We have also been accepted in 5
festivals for each play.
BENCH AT THE EDGE
SUN 28TH OCT - KILMALLOCK
THU 1ST NOV - BALBRIGGAN
SAT 3RD NOV - CAVAN
FRI 16TH NOV - SKERRIES
SAT 17TH NOV - MANORHAMILTON
PILLOW TALK
SAT 27TH OCT - BIRR
FRI 2ND NOV - DUNDRUM
SUN 4TH NOV - PALMERSTOWN
THU NOV 14TH GOREY
SUN 18TH NOV - CARRIGALLEN
Sept 2007
Just completed a 5 night run of "Come back to the 5 & dime, Jimmy
Dean, Jimmy Dean" at the Draiocht. The play was a huge success with
great performances from all involved. Well done to all!
July 2007
Rehersals are underway for our forthcoming production of "Come back to
the 5 & dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" by Ed Graczyk. Click on
"Current Production" for more details.
June 2007
Another successful Theatrical Pub Crawl
April 2007
We've just completed a highly successful run of "Extremities" by by
William Mastrosimone. Congratulations to all involved. Click
here
for more.
Mar 2007He can sing too! Congratulations to our own
Bobby Harpur who recently gave an outstanding performance as Judas in
the Leixlip Parish production of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Well done
Bobby and indeed to the entire cast and crew of the show
Dec 2006We came second in the All-Ireland.
Congratulations to the Balally Players who won the final with "Melody".
We had a great time in Carrickmore and we'd like to thank the
organisers for putting on an excellent festival. We'd also like to
extend our congratulations to all the participating groups (old friends
and new) including Kilcock, Estuary, Blue Transit, Malthouse, Taney,
Breffni and the rest. Well done and heres to Rossmore 2007!
Nov 2006
We're off to the all-Ireland in Carrickmore!!!
After
winning our final festival in Carrigallen, we are now guarranteed a
place in this years all-ireland one act finals in Carrickmore which
will be held on the 1st 2nd and 3rd of December. Check out our photos
page for some shots from the play.
Nov 2006
Festival results to date:-
Kilmallock - Second place
Dundrum - not placed. Received adjudicators award for stagecraft (managing transition between scenes)
Virginia - First place and best director (Tom Byrne)
Balbriggan - Third place, best supporting actor (George Hogan) and stagecraft award
Carrigallen - First place and best actor (John Duggan)
Oct 2006 Bradan are on tour with our production of
"Geography of a Horse Dreamer". As well as presenting at the Draiocht
in Blanchardstown, we have been accepted into 5 one-act drama festivals
Kilmallock, Limerick - 30th Oct
Dundrum, Dublin - 2nd Nov
Virginia, Cavan - 3rd Nov
Balbriggan, Dublin - 9th Nov
Carrigallen, Leitrim - 18th Nov
June 2006
Not just a pretty face. Bradans own John Duggan was a key member of the
winning tug-of-war team during the festival week-end. John was on the
Middle Shops team. Click
HERE for photos.
May 2006
We have just returned from a successful visit to the Liverpool
International Theatre Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada where we
performed our All-Ireland winning production of "Small Box Psychosis"
by Barry McKinley. The play was extremely well received and Coin Walsh
won the award for "Outstanding Actor" in a lead role. You can read an
account of the groups performance at:-
Liverpool International Theatre Festival - Press Releases
