Actress Laura is ready for take-off in Dramateurs

FROM being a flight attendant with Emirates Airline, Laura Gleeson is currently waiting in the wings to take off with the revised production of the Letterkenny Music and Drama Group’s Festival play, ‘Dramateurs’.

After scooping awards at a number of the drama festivals before lockdown condemned it and other such shows to those same wings, the play is set to take to the road again – starting with a special showing in An Grianán Theatre this coming Sunday evening.

Due to other commitments, some of the original cast have had to pull out – leaving the way for others, like Laura, to come in and add their interpretations to the respective roles.

Daughter of Jimmy and Rita Gleeson of College Farm Road, she was involved in a number of local productions and pantomimes before work took her abroad.

After seven years based in Dubai, she returned in 2019 and found her passion for the stage hadn’t diminished.

“Because of my job I couldn’t get involved in acting and I did miss it. And so it’s great to be back involved again.”

This week, as the countdown to curtain up edges closer, the Letterkenny woman has, she admits, been feeling the nerves.

“Definitely over the past few days, I’ve been getting more nervous.”

The fact that the play is again embarking on the Festival Circuit, will, no doubt, add to those nerves but that’s all part of the theatrical edge.

“I caught a few shows when I was home visiting and always loved going to them.”

And she was one of the fortunates who saw ‘Dramateurs’ before lockdown intervened.

”I loved the show so much, it was so good.”

Now Laura swaps the auditorium for the stage as the play’s revival takes hold.

She fills the role of Gronya – ironically a part played in the original show by her good friend, Andrea Emmett.

The cast of Dramateurs which returns to the drama circuit on Sunday night in Letterkenny.

‘Gronya’ is an Irish American complete with accent.

“Sometimes I feel I’m slipping out of it during the rehearsals but I’m hoping all goes well in that respect.

“I find myself enjoying it every time we have been rehearsing. And months later since we started rehearsals, still laughing at the jokes. I laugh at us laughing.”

Those rehearsals got underway in November and in recent weeks it’s been an almost nightly venture to the rehearsal venues to perfect the show. Truly a commitment that matches anything in the professional theatre.

“Writer and director, Kieran Kelly, who also brings his acting skills to the production, says the intervening two years and the subsequent rehearsals to bring it back on the circuit again have helped tighten up the play.

“We’ve been dropping lines out and adding other lines and we know what jokes are working and which of them don’t. It’s been a great collaborative effort from everybody involved.”

And it will be one of the few original dramas on the Festival circuit.

“I think new writing should be encouraged and we shouldn’t always be turning to the likes of Brian Friel and Arthur Millar.

“It’s great to have Shaun Byrne of the Butt Drama Circle and his play ‘An Incident with Dave Cotter’ ] taking to the festival circuit. That will encourage more to get writing and bring more originality to the festivals.”

It’s Laura’s first venture into that festival merry-go-round and one she’s keenly anticipating.

“It’s very exciting and while I am nervous, I can’t wait.”

Kieran Kelly during rehearsals.

The last occasion that ‘Dramateurs’ was staged was in Tubbercurry in March 2020 after which the curtain fell completely on, not just the festival circuit, but most other aspects of life and living.

“I think everybody thought things would be returning to normal after two weeks but here we are almost two years later and only now getting there.

“We are the first local amateur show to come back after the lifting of the restrictions and it’s just brilliant. It’ll be great to hear
audiences laughing again,” says Kieran who describes his play as a “love letter to amateur drama”.

“And in the times that are in it and the two years we have just gone through, I believe we can appreciate even more the importance of theatre in bringing a community together. The play was written three years ago but the message couldn’t be more relevant.”

In the week when Valentine’s Day was providing the romance, ‘Dramateurs’ – to be staged on Sunday night at 8pm – is set to
bring the love, and the laughs, back to the world of amateur drama. Check out www.angrianan.com for tickets.

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