AGM Hon Sec report

The Hon Sec suggested you might like to read his report from the AGM... so here it is...
There was a sad start to the year with the death of Sheila Marlow. Sheila had been a member since 1992. She was a lively and active member of the society. She was meticulous in her preparation and whole hearted in her every performance.

Our two plays this year were by Charles Richards and Oscar Wilde. They are now level on four plays each. Both were large cast plays, each with 12 and they were well attended, well received and made money.
A Fete Worse Than Death left some audience members confused as to whether justice was done and indeed, who did what - which is a major flaw in a whodunit. A Woman of No Importance was beautifully designed and costumed. Credit is due too to Helena for her direction in her swansong for Leeson Park and a terrific cast.

Our outings this year were to ‘Hamlet’ at the Peacock, The Merry Wives of Windsor at Airfield and The Constant Wife at the Gate. The Hamlet was cut to two hours and there was a lot of cutting of body parts going on on stage that sent Roly and Helena to the bar for Act II. The Merry Wives..we decided wasn’t one of Shakespeares best but the setting in Airfield Gardens and the staging made for a terrific evening nonetheless. The Constant Wife was a delight.

We made full use of the Drama League of Ireland courses this year. Andrew attended a week end lighting course in Birr. On the strength of his additional expertise he was appointed lighting designer on a series of CDs on dissection produced by the College of Surgeons. Noeleen and Adrian attended the week long Summer School in Limerick. Adrian now does a very good impression of a packet of Rice Crispies running for a bus, Noeleen can do this as well but with the emphasis on the comedy. More seriously, the whole Summer School was very well run, good value for money, a lot was learnt, good contacts and friendships made. Adrian has booked for next year and Noeleen hasn’t ruled it out.

The play reading evening was held at Jean and Garrett’s for the 5th year running. Noteworthy were the Dancing at Lugnasa all female ensemble piece, Dee’s reading from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Jean and Garret giving us their Basil and Sybil Fawlty impressions.

Fine weather saw us Bar B Q ing once more on Bray Head. Croquet was the game of choice, the Treasure Hunt had valuable prizes this year and Roger again led the more energetic out on the Inca trail.

While we supported our traditional charities during the year, we also helped Craig for the Mozambique project where he worked with orphans of the AIDS epidemic there.

Sinead and Siobhan read plays widely and produced an excellent list of plays with synopses that will be very useful in choosing plays for the Spring.