The 42nd Claremorris Drama Festival will be held from March 9th to 19th, 2012 (excluding the 15th).
The Adjudicator for the 2012 festival will be Paula Dempsey from Offaly. Click here for more details on Paula.
Anyone who wishes to become a Patron or Sponsor please contact any Member of the Committee
The 41st Claremorris Drama Festival was held from March 11th to 21st, 2011 (excluding the 17th).
The Adjudicator for the 2011 festival was Garry Lombard from Wexford. Click here for more details on Garry.
The 2011 drama festival finished on Monday March 21st with Palace Players and Garrymore Drama Group taking first place in the Open and Confined competitions respectively.
The full results are now on our Results page.
The 2011 festival official opening was performed by Joan Kitching.
Joan spent her formative years in Claremorris. Shortly after joining Claremorris Players, Joan became one of the leading female actors on the Festival Circuit, winning many awards. She has given many memorable performances on the stage of Claremorris Town Hall.
She was a member of the Claremorris All Ireland winning Production of "The Black Stranger" and of Charlestown’s "Buried Child". Both wins brought with them, a weeks performance in the Peacock. Joan regards P.V O'Brien, Ray Leonard and Paddy Henry as mentors extraordinaire who taught stagecraft, whilst directing with genius. Joan's Favourite roles were Bridie in "The Black Stranger", Halie in "Buried Child", Maria in "Lend Me a Tenor" and Maggie in "Big Maggie".
Joan is Founder member of Clann Machua Street Theatre Company, Kiltimagh Town Hall Theatre and Mephisto Theatre Galway. Joan served as chairperson of the Mayo Galway branch of the ADL and also served on the national executive. She holds a Masters Degree in Drama and Theatre Studies NUIG.
We are delighted to have Joan to perform the official opening of our 41st Festival.
The Ennis Players won the 2010 Blue Riband Award (The Ray Leonard Memorial Trophy) and the Best Play Award in the Open competition.
Compantis Lir claimed the Best Play Award in the Confined competition.
The full results for 2010 are now available here.
The 40th Claremorris Drama Festival started on Friday 12th of March 2010 in the Town Hall in Claremorris, Co. Mayo. The festival ran for ten nights (every night except Thursday March 18th) with the final night on Monday March 22nd. There were big celebrations for the 40th Birthday of the festival.
The adjudicator for the 2010 festival was Anna Walker ADA. Click here for more details on Anna.
The Claremorris Drama Festival are delighted to have Mr.Sean Smyth perform the official opening of our 40th Festival. Sean grew up on Convent Road where he played football with Ray Leonard RIP and the Festival Chairman. His first involvement with Drama Festivals was with Relays from Ballinasloe. On his return to Claremorris he was responsible for forming "Claremorris Players". Some people might remember their first production which was staged in "Issacs Hall" beside Griffiths Garage. Sean has been involved in amateur drama in the sixties and early seventies, and was a member of the 1973 All-Ireland winning production of "The Black Stranger" with Claremorris Players.
After "resting" for 30 years, he returned to the stage with KATS, Galway, in 2003 and played the Woodcutter in the All-Ireland winning production of "Rashomon". He has won many acting awards on the Amateur Drama Festival circuit over the years.
He counts himself fortunate to have had the privilege of working under two of the great directors of the Irish Amateur Drama movement, the late Fr. P. V. O'Brien and the late Mr. Paddy Henry. One of Fr.O' Brien's productions that Sean and his wife Mary probably will never forget is Thornton Wilders "Our Town" where he and Mary had the leading roles.
Welcome back to The Claremorris Drama Festival Sean and Mary.
The 39th Claremorris Drama Festival began on Friday 13th of March 2009 with an official opening at 8:20pm in the Town Hall in Claremorris, Co. Mayo. For nine nights (every night except Thursday March 19th) audiences enjoyed a host of wonderful performances.
The festival took place at 8:30pm nightly in the Town Hall except 8:45pm on Saturday nights and 8:00pm on final night (Sunday 22nd of March) when that night's performance was followed by the presentation of prizes.
Click here to see more photos from the 2009 opening night.
KATS won the 2009 Blue Riband Award (The Ray Leonard Memorial Trophy) and the Best Play Award in the Open competition.
Pictured left: Pauline Byrne (Adjudicator), Frank Commins (KATS) and Pauline Leonard.
Compantis Lir claimed the Best Play Award in the Confined competition.
The full results for 2009 are now available here.
Mary O'Rourke performed the official opening of the drama festival on Friday March 13th at 8.20pm.
Mary comes from a family steeped in Amateur Drama, her father Patrick Lenihan founded The All-Ireland drama festival in Athlone. He also wrote radio plays, he became a close friend of John B Keane when John B visited Athlone with the Listowel Players with their production of "Sive".
The Claremorris Festival organisers are delighted that Mary came to Claremorris to perform the opening in 2009.
Our aim is to make this website as useful and informative as possible. If you have any suggestions as to how we can make it better or any photos or stories about the history of the festival then please email them to info@claremorrisdramafestival.com
