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Its been a while since I blogged about the play, mainly because I have been busy directing it and preparing the improv course which kicked off last week. Things have been busy in our virtual hospital!

As you can see from above, we now have a poster. The poster was designed once again by Grainne O’Sullivan, whose unique style is embedded in all of her work. Once you have your poster, in many ways things start to feel real. You have in print, the date you are aiming toward. There’s no going back!

I was delighted when esteemed No Drama member Patrick O’Callaghan offered his services with the set. Aside from being a fantastic actor (having starred in many of our productions), Patrick is a talented graphic designer and artist. It is very reassuring having him on board. He only really had 2 questions for me. “What is your vision?” and “whats the split with reality and arty?” With my answers in tow, he went off to his design lair and came back with I would consider a ‘better-than-I-could-have-possibly-imagined’ set design.

The actors have being embracing their characters nicely. I like to impose an earlier than expected script ban, which much to the rhubarb rhubarb of the actors, allows me to get stuck into the finer detail of directing sooner. Not to mention gently encourage them to learn their lines sooner! Each actor brings a uniqueness to their character that no other actor obviously can and its my job to ensure that the chemistry between the actor and character is correct so that the chemistry between character and character is perfect.

I’m also quite fortunate to have people from the medical profession involved in the production both in the cast and crew. It has allowed for a more accurate portrayal of the characters and the environment they are in. From Brian becoming to dab hand at adminstering injections, to Saskia and Ellen becoming experts at muscle manipulation, I’m sure we’d get a few exemptions from medical school!

With every project comes challenges and obstacles. I start a production with a list in my head of obstacles to be removed, boxes to be ticked. Fortunately for me, the commitment of the cast and crew has eliminated many of those challenges in recent weeks. As a result my blood pressure has reduced and the colour returned to my face. That being said, there is one ongoing enormous challenge in PR and publicity. This will be the largest capacity venue to date that No Drama Theatre have utilized. (If we exclude of course Electric Picnic and Body & Soul Festival; we did have a helping hand there!) We will be pulling many PR exercises and publicity stunts out of the hat for this one! (More on this to follow over the coming weeks!)

We have 6 weeks to go before curtains. Its an exciting time for us. We’re not far off having blocked and locked! From then, it will be run through after run through until it becomes a natural rhythm!

So today was our first rehearsal for Whose Life Is It Anyways? It has been an exciting yet challenging few weeks for me as I had some strong auditions to mull over and casting decisions to make. It’s fair to say that assistant director Brendan, along with Vonnie and Christine who sat in on all the auditions shared the challenge as we had lengthy discussions about casting.

But decisions were made and the cast was confirmed!

Ken Harrison – Kevin O’Flynn
Dr. Emerson – Brian Quinn
Dr. Scott – Sophie Van Het Erve
Sister Anderson – Saskia Carroll
Nurse Sadler – Ellen Hallinan
John – Shane Robinson
Gillian Boyle – Pearl O’Rourke
Andrew Eden – Harry Walsh
Dr. Travers – Cathal O’Donovan
Dr. Barr – Albin Lahore
Phillip Hill – Alan Rogers
Ms. Kershaw – Sinead Dunphy
Justice Millhouse – Ken Ryan

The ensemble brings a mix of hardened No Drama veterans and more recent members who will be making their No Drama debut but the talent amongst all is strong.

Today’s rehearsal consisted of some warm up exercises and a full read through of the script. One of the warm up exercises is taken from my briefcase of improv games, which tests people’s memory, concentration and teamwork skills! There was much giggling and laughing as the cast struggled with the game, however as the rehearsal process goes on, I’m sure they will be dab hands come show time!

The read through went well and it was great to start to see things moving along. I’m looking forward now to getting the blocking done. (or to use a less technical term, directing!)

One faux pas of mine today, I brought my camera to the rehearsal with the purpose of taking cast shots. But I forgot to take pics. I hope my cast will better at remembering lines than I am at remembering to take photos!

So you may have read a previous blog post about No Drama Theatre’s Improv shows (Previously called Improvlova) or perhaps you have attended one of our shows (and hopefully had a good time!). We recently rebranded the improv show to Laughalot Improv to coincide with the launch of our regular monthly show in The Duke pub in Dublin. Serious business then? So how did it come about and what the hell is a theatre group doing improv comedy for?

For those of you who have no idea what Im talking about, improv comedy is comedy improvisation. Its unrehearsed, unscripted and with many of the games peformed, influenced based on suggestions from the audience. The result, when done right, should be a performance of sharp wit with hilarious scenarios. If done wrong, tumbleweeds, boos and tuts from the audience. If done very well, be prepared for accusations of having rehearsed or prepared already! (Some of the episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” are so funny, they often look rehearsed!)

I’ve always loved improvised comedy. About 18 months ago, I thought it would be fun to organise a night of improv comedy as a fundraiser for the group. We were quite nervous on the night, a few drinks were consumsed for Dutch courage and the adrenalin was pumping. The first show was in Cassidy’s bar on Westmoreland St in Dublin. It was a massive success. I judge success based on the feedback of audience members present with no affiliation with the group. It proved to be quite inspiring! So we proceeded to organise some more shows, at random all of which were received well with a great turnout.

Earlier this year I figured that the improv show was something that could be turned from a fundraiser to a viable arm of No Drama Theatre. There was a demand among members for improv and for the chance to perform on stage. There are of course other improv comedy groups in Dublin but for new people wanting to get involved, it can prove very difficult as the improv groups are a tight knit unit.

I attended other improv shows this year to see how the competition faired. Choke Comedy Improv in Limerick and the Craic Pack group in Dublin. Both groups were excellent and each had their own slant with their improv shows. I chatted to one of the founders of Craic Pack after one show, the talented Peter O’Byrne.

Peter is no stranger to comedy. He has been performing with Craic Pack for many years since its founding and also frequents the stand up scene. When not on stage, he can also be found on the TV from time to time. Peter also runs Introductionary courses to Comedy Improv.

Knowing that it was time for us to invest seriously in our improv and up our game, I invited Peter to run some improv workshops for No Drama. They were a roaring success. He’s an excellent tutor and those of us who perform in the improv show benefited greatly from his tutorage.

Our improv shows in the Duke now have a more structured and confident edge. We ban performers taking alcohol before and during the show. We have call times and a 1 hour warm up before each show. We also have “rehearsals” the week of the show.

“Rehearsals” I hear you say? Well, its not a rehearsal as such but an improv fresher. We’ve learnt that being funny has very little to do with successful improv. It takes good teamwork and going with what you are presented with on stage. It is in fact, a mindset. Improv goes against the grain of how we were reared to live our lives. Therefore in our rehearsal class, we spend the time carrying out improv exercises that have little to do with humour and everything to do with getting in the mindset. It makes a massive difference to our performance on the night of a show.

I never tire of improv. Every show brings something different and there is always a few moments of comedy gold in each show. The buzz of hearing the audience laugh and the odd heckle is fantastic.

As the show has become more successful, we now have the additional challenge of ensuring that people dont view No Drama Theatre as a improvisation theatre group. The rebranding and handling of our improv shows and workshops is being kept seperate to our theatre workshops and shows to ensure we keep ourselves focussed. But it has to be said, its alot of fun! Hopefully you will catch one of our shows too!

No Drama Theatres upgraded website has gone live. There is still lots of content to add but the new layout is there with links to photos etc.

You can click to the site here: www.nodramatheatre.com

So I’m just recovering from our sellout run of Wanted – One Body! that we staged in the excellent Teacher’s Club on Parnell Square in Dublin. It was an awesome run. Four nights, no empty seats and an a great response from the audience!

So how did it feel to direct my first full play. It was hard work. Don’t get me wrong, its not as if none of the other people involved didnt have their work cut out for them, but I doubt they sweated as much as both myself and my co-director, Noel Murphy, did during all four performances. But it was worth it. It was sad to wrap up on the last day, a set that took 3 days to build came down in 3 hours. The friendships that were struck up, the bond between actors and crew and the banter during rehearsals and backstage, it will all be missed.

I just wanted to put my thanks to people in writing and mention everyone! Please bare with me! This thanks list is in no particular order.

Co Director
Noel Murphy

Cast
Patrick O’Callaghan
Shane Robinson
Caelinn Largey
Tracey Diamond
Sarah Moloney
Laura McGovern
Tom Murphy
Alan Rogers
Dave McGowan

Crew
Brian “Silvio” Quinn
Rose Geoghegan
Sheila Dooley
Darragh Beirne
Cat O’Sullivan
Maria “Ladyhammer” Dillon
Louise Hall
Barry O’Donovan
Lisa McSharry
Louise Hall
Paul Bonner
Dearbhla Lawler
Damien Holmes
Jonathan Hughes
Kate Feeney
Vonnie Duran
Rachel Byrne
Ruairi De Burca
Angela Carlin
Grainne O’Sullivan

Everyone else:
Teacher’s Club – Tadhg, Dave and Stephen
Dav and Darragh from boards.ie
The Live Drive Team on Dublin City FM
James Power of Stagemad Theatre
Margaret Curran
Jason Gill of Athlone Little Theatre
Gavin Byrne
Members of No Drama Theatre who have supported us all along!

A big thanks also to those who came along to see us!

Ok so maybe this is a shameless plug but its worth it given it is most exciting! No Drama Theatre’s online shop, filled with everything from mugs to thongs, went live officially today!

You can get your fix of No Drama merchanise by visiting:

As some of you remember, No Drama Theatre staged our first ‘major’ production back in May. It comprised of two One Acts, Tales From The Fairground, and the main event, Night At The Invasion. The latter of course being the piece where I played the character, Col. Hazelby. Our esteemed director of Invasion, Barry O’Donovan, had his work cut out for him. Given he had written the play, it put him under increased pressure as it was his work being staged afterall.

We had a cast member pull out half way through production, many re-writes and an enormous amount of rehearsal time (5 months), which was due to the lack of funds available to us in the early days to put us in a position to put the play on. While the end result was something to be proud of, no one will deny the struggle we had putting the whole thing together. Directing seemed like a role best left for the foolish.

I’m some fool it seems. No Drama is staging Charles Dyer’s excellent farcical murder mystery chiller, Wanted – One Body! in January and muggins here is directing. Why I’m directing instead of acting is a long story (I did set up the group because I wanted to direct) but when I took the reigns I decided that a major battle plan was needed. Afterall the play is 2 hours long. It seems we are doing another “first major” production and stage time is less than 8 weeks away…

Fortunately the passion and committment of the No Drama members has been fantastic. I have a co-director in Noel Murphy. And I have a Stage Manager and Production Manager in Darragh Beirne and Cat O’Sullivan. Most amateur drama groups struggle organising a backstage and production team. Working with Darragh and Cat we have a team of almost 12 people. Friends in the theatre world have commented on how lucky we are to have such a large committed team. It seems its something that only the professional world has the privilege of having. And I must add, that no one is getting any form of payment to be involved in the production.

I’m very impressed by my cast of 9 people. Some of them have never graced a stage before. All of them have shown massive dedication. Everyone learnt their lines for Act 1, as requested, before the first rehearsal. In the next few days, we are starting to do full run throughs of the play. It is being staged in The Teachers Club on Parnell Square from January 20th to 23rd.

My stress levels are 90. Yes, I admit it. Despite how organised things are, it impossible not to be anxious. During some rehearsals, it has taken us 30 minutes to get a snippet of a scene of 1 minute nailed. There is so much going on in the play be it dialogue, visual or General Comedy Business (as we have kindly christianed it!)

But despite my blood pressure, I’m very excited and privileged to be doing this. I don’t see myself wanted to direct again for some time (I prefer to be performing!) but I know I benefit greatly from this experience.

Big thanks though goes to James Power of Stagemad Theatre and Jason Gill of Athlone Little Theatre. While they probably don’t realise it, they have been acting as my mentors on occasion over the past weeks. Without it, I’d be a raging alcoholic by now!

The above poster is a draft and not the final product. Wanted – One Body! was written by Charles Dyer. This amateur production is performed by arrangement with Josef Weinberg Ltd