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Radio Masterclass
Posted February 2011
The
amazing
Kevin Hough will be giving the Innovations
students a masterclass on radio and radio plays
this Saturday in Gorey Community School from 12
noon. Beg, borrow, but don't steal, a ride down
to this fantastic opportunity!!
Suuuummmeeerrrr
School
Posted July 2011
Yes,
it's time for the summer school, and despite using
the dreaded word, school ,it's going to be an
amazing week, with an astounding amount of
singing, dancing, and acting. I'm starting
to wish I was young enough to join in!! For
all the info, head on over to the page here...
Arklow Showcase
Posted April
2011
The year
seems to be racing away from us, we've been
very busy, the Nutcracker went off so very well,
and preparations are well underway for Alice in
Wonderland. And just in case you thought
that that was all for the Arklow school, you were
wrong! They are busy preparing for the end
of year showcase! They are auditioning,
practicing and rehearsing like ants! Theis
will take place on the 25th of May in the Bridge Christian
Community Centre in Arklow, from 17:30 to
19:30, please come to see what we have been
teaching the kids this year. There will also
be Awards and certificate given, including the
much desired Student of the
Year!!
The House of Bernarda
Alba
Posted April
2011
We are
doing a small, but surprising, change we are
putting on a full length play, The House of Bernarda
Alba. This is quite a change, because it
does not contain any snappy, upbeat musical
numbers! Instead it's a serious, and
challenging emotional journey of a family that
have experienced grief and tragedy, and the
secrets that drive them!
Innovations at
Shillelagh
Posted January 2011
Innovations was well represented at the
Shillelagh Search for a Star competiton this
year. We had 3 acts, and they were, I'm sure
you'll agree, stunning! But just in case you
missed it, here's
some video of the acts...
Gorey
Moves...
Posted December
2010
The Gorey school is moving to
Christchurch School Hall, on the Main street,
opposite the Garda Station. Auditions will
be held there on Saturday 8th January from 12 to
2pm. Classes will start on the 15th, the
following week, and you will be diving straight
into auditions for Alice in Wonderland! Good
luck
everyone!
Back
to
Work!
Posted
December 2010
The Arklow school will resume
after the Christmas break on Wednesday. That
is the 5th of January 2011, at 4pm for juniors,
and 6pm for the seniors. Let's hope it
doesn't snow
before
then!
Nutcracker
Postponed
Posted
December 2010
Due
to the recent weather - the snow and ice you may
have seen out your window - we have reluctantly
decided to postpone the Arklow school's production
of the 'Nutcracker' until February 3rd-5th
2011! Hope you can all make it
then.
Innovations Theatre
school was very well represented in the Y-Factor
talent competitionin Arús Lorcáin on Saturday
13th. There were several entries by
students, and a group entry - Scaramouche, who
took 3nd place in the 12-15 category.
Browse the pictures
below...
Arklow in
Moneylands
Posted
September 2010
The
Arklow school was to be meeting in Bridge
Christian Community Centre, however, due to the
centre's renovation, and the insurance saying we
can't be on a building site, we will be holding
classes in Moneylands
Leisure Centre for the next few
weeks.
Realtíní
in
Arklow
Posted
September 2010
YES...Realtíní are coming to Arklow at
last. The classes for 4 - 6 year olds will
be taught by Lindsey, and are open to all, if you're
not too old! Classes will be starting in
October, stay tuned for more...
Auditions
Posted
September
2010
The auditions for this
year took place on Saturday & Sunday the 4th
& 5th. We had quite a few turn up for
Gorey, and dazzle us, and then we were nearly
bowled over with the applications in Arklow, so
many of you came to audition, we just hope we have
room for you all!
The
Agency
Posted August 2010
Innovations theatre school
now has an agency to help our amazingly talented
students to get work doing what they love
most! This is run by our own Anne MacIntyre,
please contact her for more
information.
Scapino
Class
Posted August 2010
The Scapino
class won the Gorey Active Retirement
Talent Competition, which is held as apart of
Gorey's annual Bealtine Festival.
Gorey
Student of the Year
Posted August 2010
The wonderful Ciara Hughes is
the 2010 Gorey student of the year. Well
done Ciara.
Arklow
Student of the Year
Posted August 2010
The fantastic Jessica Davis
is the 2010 Avoca/Arklow student of the
year. Congratulations Jessica.
Deirdre
Short Memorial Award
Posted
August 2010
This year's
recipient of the Deirdre Short Memorial Award for
Most Promising Student is the amazing Karla
Tracey. Keep going Karla.
____________________________
Talent
Show Shillelagh
Posted 18 December
2009
Congratulations
to Áine Collier and Myles Wafer who won 1st place
in the u-16 Irish Dance category in the Grand
Final of the 'Search for a Star', which was held
in Parkview house in Shillelagh on Sunday 6th
December.
Áine and Myles
are both students of Innovations Theatre School
Gorey and the Laura Kitt School of Irish
Dance.
Following the
final performance of Oliver! on Saturday 25
April, the title of Student of the Year was
awarded to Scaramouche student Rosie Byrne (seen
here after appearing as Widow
Corney).
The Student of
the Year Award is an annual award that goes to the
student who has made substantial progress during
the year, who has shown real focus, determination
and desire to achieve. The teachers vote from a
shortlist of five or six nominees, and the winner
is announced on the last night of the Spring
show.
Also nominated
for the 2009 Student of the Year were Aine
Collier, Saoirse Comerford, Tony Glavin and Orla
Hughes.
The award was
presented to Rosie along with flowers given by the
2008 Student of the Year, Maeve O'Keeffe, who also
appeared in Oliver!
Innovations
talent will be on display in the Avonmore Musical
Society's upcoming presentation of the
ever-popular Guys and
Dolls. As well as current Innovations students
Tara Sterling-Byrne, Angela Sheehy, Jonny Holden,
Shauna Crooke and Josh Wade, a number of past
Innovations/ PASS students are taking part in this
special 30th Anniversary show.
The show runs
from Tuesday 14 April to Saturday 18 April in St.
Mary's College Hall, Arklow. Tickets cost from 13
euro and are available from Patrick on 0894117396.
For more information, you can visit www.avonmoremusicalsociety.com.
Innovations
singing teacher Denise Brennan is taking to the
stage with The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra on a
tour of the US this year singing Isle of Hope,
Caladonia, Na Bris Andiu mo Chride from Deirdre of
the Sorrows, Suantrai and many more. She is also
featured on an Irish album with The Dublin
Philharmonic Orchestra and many more to be
promoted on tour….watch this space! For tour
dates, venues and tickets log onto The Dublin
Philharmonic Orchestra website. For tour dates and
venues you can log onto www.denisebrennan.ie.
This week marks
another appearance of an Innovations student in a
Masquerade production following Conal O'Shiel and
Christine Mangan's turns in last April's Portia Coughlin. Current
Imp Ink member and past Innovations student
Stephen Duignan will be appearing in a two-man
play as part of Masquerade's
annual one-act plays, which run from Wednesday 5th
to Friday 7th at 8.00pm in the Arklow Bay Hotel,
and due to popular demand, again on Friday 14th in
Lawless' Hotel in Aughrim. Admission is 12 euro -
for more information, call 086 325
9780.
Innovations
student Jonny Holden was recently selected to take
part in RTÉ's JAM The Musical. Jonny is one of
just 15 lucky performers who were whittled down
from the many that attended the open auditions for
RTÉ's popular show.
JAM will be
shown all this week on RTÉ TWO at 11am and is
repeated at 4pm. From RTÉ's website: "Over the
week the performers will be mentored by Ireland's
top musical theatre performers - Peter Corry,
Aoife Mulholland and Rebecca Storm. On Friday,
October 31st, the three groups will go head to
head in the ultimate musical battle in front of a
live audience where the public will get to vote
for which group they think performed the
best."
Jonny is not the
first Innovations student to be chosen for JAM -
past pupil Leah Penston appeared on the show in
2007.
Jonny was also
part of Innovations' recent 12-day tour to America
with An
Croí: Irish
Heart.
Coincidentally,
during the week, mentor Aoife Mulholland, a former
pupil of Anne Shumate
during her Performing Arts School Galway days,
brought in choreographer Paula McGuirell, who
originally choreographed the first act of
An
Croí: Irish
Heart!
15 senior and
past Innovations students are just back from a
12-day tour in the USA where they performed
An
Croí: Irish
Heart for the city of
Mitchell, South Dakota. Known as "the Irish
Ambassadors", they travelled across three states
and performed An
Croíin full and in part in all
sorts of venues, from theatres to street festivals
to baseball games!
The students are
Rachel Bothwell, Shauna Crooke, Stephen Duignan,
Emma Foster, Jonny Holden, Kathleen Holden,
Jessica Jenkinson, Mark McGann, Sarah Morris,
David Mulrooney, Eoin O'Grady, Conal O'Shiel, Sean
Roper-Nolan, Tanis Tonge and Emma Wall.
The students
will bring their international tour to a close on
Friday, September 5 when they present An
Croí in St.
Mary's College, Arklow. Details of that
performance can be found here.
There have been
a few changes around Innovations Theatre School
Online. The site has been completely redesigned
with the intention of making the site A) easier
for you to navigate and B) easier for us to
update. This means that hopefully there will be
more frequent updates to the site. Navigation of
the site has been made easier with simplified
links across the top each page and with the
addition of a brief site directory along the
bottom of each page. And if you still can't find what
you're looking for, we've also added a search
engine, also found at the top of each
page.
Three
Innovations Theatre School students are involved
in the upcoming Masquerade production of Portia Coughlin, the
award-winning play by Irish playwright Marina
Carr. Conal
O'Shiel and Christine
Mangan will both be appearing on stage while
Caoimhe Duignan will be helping behind the scenes.
The play will
run for four nights from Tuesday 15 to Friday 18
April, 8.00 p.m. nightly. Visit Masquerade's
website here for more
information...
Innovations
singing teacher Denise Brennan's website is now
online here! The
site contains the latest news regarding upcoming
gigs and concerts, as well as info about her debut
album "Sailing with the
Wind". Look out for news regarding
her new single "Ever and Ever" in the upcoming
months...
Last month a
group of Innovations students went on a 'field
trip' to the Project
Theatre in Templebar,
Dublin to see Dublin Youth Theatre's 30th
Anniversary production This Is Still Life.
To launch her
new album "Sailing with
the Wind"Innovations teacher Denise
Brennan will be performing in concert on
October 18 in the Arklow Bay Hotel. Joining her
are special guests Jason E. Bernard (American
tap-dancer with Riverdance), soprano quartet
Celtic Harmony, tenor Michael Flood and
flute-player Pat Fitzpatrick. Also performing are
several Innovations students! Tickets can be
booked at www.ticketsireland.com.
Not the town -
the school, of course. Originally set up as
Performing Arts Stage School, Innovations Theatre
School Avoca is now 10 years old. To celebrate
that fact, this December the Avoca school will be
presenting a 10th Anniversary show - Charles
Dickens's A Christmas
Carol. As part of this 10th Anniversary
celebration, there will also a reunion party for
past pupils and teachers on one of the nights of
A Christmas Carol.
A show such as
this deserves a better venue than the Arklow Bay
Hotel, so the decision has been made to present A Christmas Carol in the
Gorey Little Theatre. (Don't worry students - all
rehearsals will still take place in Avoca!) The
show will be performed during the first week of
December.
While there will
be no new additions to the Innovations Gorey
staff, come September, there will be a few
changes. Erin
Klatt will no longer be teaching
drama on a regular basis, instead taking up the
task of administration, the post formerly held in
Gorey by school director Anne Shumate. So,
filling Erin’s shoes is Avoca dance teacher Anne
McIntyre.
On October 18,
Innovations singing teacher Denise Brennan will be
launching her first album, Sailing With The Wind, a
collection of Celtic songs, including many penned
by Denise herself. In conjunction with the release
of the album, a new website www.denisebrennan.ie will
be going online soon…
The luck of the
Irish was definitely with Innovations Theatre
School this St. Patrick's Day with Laura Kitt's
School of Irish Dancing winning second prize in
the Gorey Parade. The judges were treated to some
excellent Irish dancing as well as the spectacle
of St. Patrick fighting off a giant
snake!
At Innovations
Theatre School, we encourage students to take what
they have learned here and perform wherever they
can. So, all this week Innovations students are
involved in outside productions. From Tuesday to
Friday P.A.C.E. Award winner Stephen Duignan is
appearing in Masquerade's
Red Roses and Petrol 8 p.m. nightly in the Arklow
Bay Hotel, and on Wednesday many students from
Innovations Gorey will be taking part in
Showstoppers, a charity concert in aid of the Share A Dream
Foundation at 8 p.m. in Gorey
Little Theatre.
Masquerade.ie - the
official website of the Masquerade Drama Group
Arklow - has posted photos from Innovations
Theatre School's recent production of It's Christmas! on their
News page.
Previous posts
include pictures from past Innovations Theatre
School productions Midsummer Madness (With
Apologies to Shakespeare) and White Hot and
Different.Click
here to check them
out.
A big thanks to
Masquerade for their support in the run-up to and
during It's
Christmas!
Many students
from both Innovations Theatre Schools Avoca and
Gorey recently landed roles in Gorey Little
Theatre Group's upcoming production, the pantomime
Ole King Cole, with
Stephen Duignan and
Tanis Tonge cast in
the principal boy and girl parts.
Other
Innovations students taking part in the show are
Morgan Bonney, Caoimhe Duignan, Jessica Saunders
and Ellen Whelan from Avoca, and Sarah
Augustt, Kiera Butterly, Saoirse Comerford,
Aisling Conway, Karen Dunbar, Donna Hassett,
Caolan Kelly, Clodagh Leacy, Sara Jane Mangan,
Maeve O'Keeffe and Colleen O'Reilly from
Gorey.
In addition to
many Innovations students appearing in the
production, Innovations teachers are also involved
- drama teacher Erin
Klatt will be appearing on stage
and dance teacher Áine Kavanagh is currently
choreographing the show.
Following on
from this year's successful Jack and the Beanstalk,
Ole King Cole will be
taking taking place in January 2007 - for full
details, head over to Gorey Little Theatre Group's
website here!
Kiera Byrne of
the Innovations Theatre School
Goreymade her first step into the
music business with the launch of her own CD this
summer.
Simply titled Kiera Byrne, the CD was
released on Friday 14 July and features covers of
favourites such as I Will
Always Love You, Runaway and Man! I Feel Like A Woman!
Keira (17) is noted among the school for her
stunning performance as Puck in Innovations'
Midsummer
Madness, stopping the show with
songs like Can You Feel
the Love Tonight?
The release of
her first CD hasn't stopped Keira – there's
already another CD in progress that the
Innovations student hopes to launch
soon.
Laura Kitt, who recently
received the TCRG exam in Irish dancing, is
currently teaching a new Innovations class in
Irish dance that started on September 16. Classes
take place every Saturday in Gorey Community
College from 3.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m.
This new class
is separate to the main Innovations course, and is
entirely optional. In turn, this class is also
open to students outside of Innovations Theatre
School. The class is currently made up of all
levels until Laura has a better idea of the
students' abilities.
You can check
out the Innovations Irish dancing class when they
present their piece in our upcoming concert It's
Christmas!
The
amazing 
