The cast and crew of The 39 Steps.
THEY came, they saw, they conquered! Letterkenny Music & Drama Group are again celebrating with their hugely successful staging of The 39 Steps.
Last Saturday night, they won the coveted Ulster Drama Festival in Newtownabbey to add to their All Ireland title won in Shercock three weeks previously.
The Association of Ulster Drama Festivals (AUDF) is a separate competition to the All Ireland Final and to qualify for the Newtownabbey finals, the group had to win three Overall Best Show awards within the six counties – they did so by virtue of winning in Derry, Portadown and Carrickmore.
They were the first confined group to qualify for the event in a long time and came up against five of the very best groups from the Open Drama category such as last year’s winners Rosemary Drama Group and the nationally renowned Silken Thomas Players from Kildare with thier much acclaimed version of the hit West End show Jerusalem.
The group performed their show last Tuesday, May 15 and received an instant standing ovation from the packed audience but had to wait anxiously until the following Saturday evening for the results from the adjudicator, Russell Boyce.
He described the show as being ‘full of invention’ and ‘a joy to behold’ with the drama group being ‘at the top of their game’.
He also reserved special praise for director Pluincead Ó Fearraigh for keeping the show ‘tight and on par with the professional production, if not exceeding it’.