Kildare schools drama competition starts today

Naas’ Moat Club hosts a  drama competition - Class Act - for secondary schools, starting today (Tuesday 24 March)  to Thursday March 26 at the Moat Theatre. 

The event, now in its fourth year, sees schools from across the country compete for an array of awards. Local schools Naas CBS, Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara and Scoil Mhuire Clane, are among those taking part this year.

The rules of Class Act reflect for fairness and simplicity: the play (which may be original) must not exceed 20 minutes; the cast must have a minimum of four players; no "sets" allowed – all productions must make use of black stage boxes (also known as rehearsal cubes), which will be provided by the Moat Club. 

Class Act is the brainchild of local teacher an tUasal Brian Ó Laighin, a seasoned performer for the Moat Club on the one-act drama circuit.

This was his inspiration for a similar competition for secondary school students. Each performance is given an on-stage appraisal by a qualified drama adjudicator, affording the students an opportunity to learn stagecraft from the experience. The organisers of the competition have been blown away by the creativity exhibited by the groups on stage, despite the strict rules of the competition.

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This year's adjudicator this year is Evelyn O’Sullivan from Kilcullen, who runs Drama Dynamics school of speech and drama and has an honours MA in Drama and Performance from UCD. She is an examiner with the Royal Irish Academy of Music, examining at several feiseanna and she teaches the new Leaving Certificate subject, Drama, Film and Theatre Studies. She’s also an adjudicator on the festival circuits.

The action gets underway at 6pm each day with the final adjudication and awards ceremony on Thursday night. Tickets are €5 (plus €1.50 booking fee) from www.moattheatre.com or on the door. 

For more information contact Moat Club PRO Eilish Rafferty at eilishr@hotmail.com