THE FESTIVAL YEARS

By Seamus McNabb

I wasn't born a director! Indeed, we were far from the world of the theatre when I was growing up in rural Tummery. I have no formal training which makes me jealous of the students of today. They have their drama, their communication studies and their technology. However, on second thoughts, many of them, despite their study, hold no real love for art in its many forms. Perhaps they are suffering from overfeed? I do love the theatre but I got my love from the simple upbringing it St. Dympnas. No head in the air nor artificial ladidas there! Perhaps we did lack the technical know how, perhaps all our stage manoeuvres were less than West Endish but what we did was genuine and for the love of our art without profit and sometimes without credit. I say this last thing with great care for I respect and value the audiences over the years. They turned out time after time. If they liked what they saw, they let you know. One or two plays that they were not so thrilled with, well you just knew.They didn't necessarily come and say so. It is to everyone's credit that Dromore still holds on to the practice of Amateur Drama!

As mentioned elsewhere, I was dragged screaming into directing due to tragic circumstances. My first production of "The Country Boy" was a daunting experience. Here I was supposedly telling Will Ward and Eugene Donnelly what to do! Men that I had apprenticed with over the years were now supposed to listen to a jumped-up jack like me. But, to my amazement, they did. You see there has always been the honourable tradition in St. Dympnas' that the director is the boss, even when he's wrong! With my first production successful and me, relatively unscathed, I allowed by youthful exuberance to out and chose an English play by Yorkshire man J.P. Priestly. The "Inspector Calls" had had many successful outings in the West End. The world of the well-to-do Birlings in the South of England was a daunting setting for Dromore actors. I detected the lack of association with such a society in the initial readings but to their eternal credit, the cast stuck to the task. Grainne McGlone was a marvellous set designer who know how to provide a setting for such prosperity and Willie Ward turned out an excellent performance as the Inspector. The audience loved the story with its moral lessons and I had got away in the smoke again!

I personally had attended a lot of drama festivals and I felt that groups did learn at them. I also saw some of their disadvantages but, overall, I was being nudged towards them. A good contact from South Fermanagh Mr. Hugh Murphy had an extraordinating in drama and he had notions of running a drama festival in his native Kinawley. He approached me to bring St. Dympna's group to his inaugural festival. Our play was "Year of the Hiker" and we agreed to perform. There was trepidation amongst our cast. Old stories of adjudicators with satanic characteristics die-hard. We won our first festival and were on our road, sometimes a hard road, to drama festivals. Our next production was, in my opinion the best production we had ever had. I am talking about Brian Friel's "Philadelphia here I come". Occasionally a play comes along for which your cast is perfect and this was it. We had the Colton brothers as the two Gars, Dolores Mc Crystal as "auld flatfeet Madge" Hugh Colton as Senator Doogan, John Mc Cusker as Master Boyle and so on. The cast is included elsewhere in this booklet and every one of them was perfect. We headed to Kinawley for a second time and brought home most of the trophies. There would be no stopping us now.

Of course, life is not as simple as that and we have had productions which simply did nothing as far as festivals were concerned. One that was successful was "Freedom of the City". The large cast, composite set and effects were daunting. I would at this stage like to mention the contributions of Eddie Fitzpatrick and Justin O'Doherty. These two gentlemen, and I use the word deliberately, came from the Omagh players to help us with the quite complex lighting involved with "Freedom of the City". Previously David King had been our lighting expert and good he was, with very limited equipment. However David had gone elsewhere and we were stuck. Eddie and Justin rescued us and have been doing so ever since. "Freedom of the City" won all the festivals in which it had been entered.

However, we had still to bring a performance to the All-Ireland finals "All in Favour said No" was our first and we travelled all the way to Tralee. We had a few days of glorious fun and, as in, most instances the first experience cannot be beaten. "Big Maggie" also reached the All Ireland as did "Lovely Leitrim" although the competition was cancelled due to Foot and Mouth. I have had the good fortune to produce many other plays including "Drama at Inish","Callaghan's Place","Moll" and this year's "Juno and the Pay cock".

I have also been involved with Joe Daly, John McCusker, Grainne O'Hanlon, Cathy Colton, and Danny McLernon in their productions. I say thanks to each and every actor that I encountered for your grace and acceptance of me. I enjoyed working under the directors. Thanks to be God for the health and strength.

During the years, the society was lucky to enlist individuals from outside the normal catchment area. In days gone by Kathleen McCarney and Stephen Traynor joined us from Fintona as did Carmel O'Neill form Clogher. Lately we had Dympna Slevin from Beragh who played many landing roles as well as this years' Juno in "Juno and the Paycock". Seamus McMahon played in "Philadelphia" and hailed from Roslea. Anne Donaghy from Sligo played in "Is the Priest at Home", Seady Hamilton came from the South of England and became a very competent actor. Seady now lives in Austria. A present stalwart of our society is, of course, Danny McLernon. Danny is an Omagh native and a terrific actor and director. Annette Owens, head of drama in Mount Lourdes Grammar School, Enniskillen, joined our group this year and has contributed enormously.

We often hear that young people are no longer interested in "outdated" pursuits like drama. Unfortunately it is a belief that I would have gone along with until this year. Then out of the blue, we were able to enlist quite a few young people. Young Dalian Campbell, Jason McNabb, Paula McNabb, Damian Hannigan, Neil McNabb joined Hugh Donnelly and Roddy Hughes. These are our future stalwarts and we sincerely hope they maintain their involvement.

Plays are what you see on stage.   Sometimes the real drama is to seen.   When a prompter tries desperately to throw a line to a struggling actor, an essential prop has to be smuggled on stage, a sound effect is not coming, or the actor forgets his entrance or his exit! All of these things can happen. It takes a collection of diligent people to ensure that the production runs at least half smoothly. St Dympna's has been lucky. Anne Mc Guinness has carried out the thankless task of continuity for years. Seamus McQuaid, as well as being a talented actor and writer, has designed and constructed the sets with good humour and aplomb. He has been aided by Jim Winters and Manus Murphy, Jim and Manus have travelled the country to festivals the lorry usually laden with rubbish but still our set. No better company could you have with you than these two and no better men to ensure return to earthiness when circumstances and individuals are getting above their stations. David King did lighting with poor equipment, Paul Mc Goldrick was an efficient stage manager who wore the "cans" with authority and the late Donal Mullan did everything.

I could go on but it might be invidious of me to do so for I am sure to omit someone. Many locals have helped out in many ways and we are lucky that we have the support of the local community. To anyone who as much as lifted a chair on behalf of St Dympna's I say a big thank you. If your name has not been mentioned, you are still remembered.

Yes, we have come 100 years. I have come forty of those years with the group. I don't regret one minute of all the work and effort. I have met good people, we have celebrated and suffered in unison and long may it continue. Here's to the next one hundred years.

- Seamus McNabb