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creating adventures with young people in Newbridge, Ireland since 1996
Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights'
19th-20th November 2019, Riverbank Theatre
In this modern adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Gothic fairy-tale, Jane Thornton infuses Wuthering Heights with quick-fire dialogue and an urgency that brings the age-old tale to life for contemporary audiences! In this searing, wild, and often funny, production, five storytellers take their audience on a whistle-stop tour of the novel all the while inhabiting some of literature’s most iconic characters!
This is the story of Catherine and Heathcliff as they grow up together on the Yorkshire Moors. Published over 170 years ago, Wuthering Heights is an enduring tale of Obsessive Love, Violence, Social Class and the Supernatural.
See below the programme for the show:
Becky Donovan as Catherine Earnshaw
Daniel Porter-Moloney as Heathcliff
Kayleigh Doyle as Nelly Dean
Becky Donovan as Catherine Earnshaw
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Click through to see the full cast - hover over for more information
Logos International Training Course
24th August - 3rd September 2019, Pelion, Greece
Logos was an Erasmus+ funded training course set in the beautiful mountains of eastern Greece. It brought together 34 participants to train in more advanced methods of facilitation and devising. Using a mix of peer-learning, practical demonstration, collaborative creation and discussion, young Irish and Greek facilitators worked together to boost their facilitation skills and techniques. The project took place in the little village of Agios Ioannis, where our participants slept at a local campsite, void of wifi and home comforts.
The project culminated in a series of site-specific performances around the campus which expressed and displayed the themes and topics discussed throughout the week.
"Coming into contact with a different culture was fascinating; experiencing their food, and enjoying their music and other aspects. Sleeping in a cabin out in a Greek forest was an incredible experience" - Irish male, 20.
"It was exciting to work with other young people and experienced facilitators. The new techniques and devising exercises they brought were refreshing" - Irish female, 20.
A Greek documentary on the festival can be viewed here.
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Watch below an edited documentary of the Logos project, produced by our Videographer Alec Delaney:
Kairos International Youth Exchange
3rd-11th August 2019, Newbridge
Kairos was an Erasmus+ funded international youth exchange hosted by Crooked House. It involved young actors from Kildare Youth Theatre, Kinitiras from Greece, On&Off Teatro from Spain, Jugendkulturarbeit E.V. from Germany, Bronks from Belgium, and New Woolsey Theatre from the UK. The project aimed to use theatre-making and dance to make short performances that promote what we believe in as young people. Participants worked in groups of mixed nationalities to research the rise of right-wing parties and governments across Europe, discussing how they might best respond to some of the arguments put forward by these parties. The nine day project culminated in short performances which responded to the policies of right wing agendas.
"I feel very lucky that I had the chance to work, to speak, to laugh and to explore such an important subject. The fact that so many young people are aware of those issues makes me feel very optimistic" - Greek male, 26.
"I have had a liberating, unifying and exciting week. I have not only learnt a lot about other cultures, but I have reflected on my own" - UK female, 21.
I am grateful to the European Union for supporting programmes like this because I think it is a huge enrichment, and shows what humans are able to create: a space of art and benevolence and empathy and diversity" - German female, 18.
A Little Box of Oblivion
16th-17th June 2019, Liffey Studio
A Little Box Of Oblivion was a comedy play devised and performed primarily by the Oberon and Touchstone drama groups, created for the 2019 June Fest season.
A Little Box of Oblivion was directed by Sandra Sakavitsi.
The play featured Harriet Ronayne, Becky Donovan, Ralph McFly, Kim Morrison and Grace Ní Laoghaire. It was performed in the Liffey Studio over two nights to limited audiences.
Purple
11th & 14th June 2019, Liffey Studio
In Purple, author Jon Fosse shows a boy leading a girl into the dank, disused factory basement where his hopeless would-be rock band practices. She wants to leave, he wants to stay; then the drummer arrives, full of such a contradictory tempest of rage, desire and hair-trigger aggression that the boy begins to seem in real danger, as competing teenage needs for connection and self-sufficiency reach an explosive level.
The dialogue is short - the characters are unable to express what they mean, and they are afraid to say the truth in front of each other. A tense play, Purple is rife with atmosphere and suspense.
Purple was performed as part of the 2019 Newbridge June Fest. It was directed by Sandra Sakavitsi with assistance from Rhea Thomakou. It was aimed at new Kildare Youth Theatre members who had never acted before, and ran to limited audiences in our Liffey Studio.
The Séance
6th-8th June 2019, Crooked House | 21st June 2019, McAuley Place, Naas
The Séance by Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson is a one-act short play from the National Theatre's Connections collection.
At the end of the summer holidays, seven teenagers get together to hold a séance, complete with an Ouija board, scented candles, and crystal glasses, in the hopes of communicating with the spirit of their dead friend. The play is full of ordinary, subtle dialogue that reveals tensions, relationships, dreams and possibilities.
CAST:
(in alphabetical order)
Andy: Lorcan O'Shea
Jarjar: Eoghan Kenna
Mark: Sam Duggan
Nadia: Amy Wynne
Natasha: Faith Olasogba
Phoebe: Aoife Doyle
Sophie: Jenny Dillon
PRODUCTION:
Director: Vasiliki Psarra
Lights: Max Magnus, Rhea Thomakou
Sound: Vasiliki Psarra
Setting: Vasliki Psarra
Seance 1
Seance 2
The Seance Poster 4
Seance 1
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A selection of posters from the show.
The Séance was performed as part of the 2019 June Fest season, (along with Purple and A Little Box of Oblivion) as well as the Naas and Sallins Midsummer Arts Festival.
William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
1st-3rd May 2019, Riverbank Theatre
Click through to see some Hamlet rehearsal pics;
Hamlet Rehearsals
Hamlet Rehearsals
Hamlet Rehearsals
Hamlet Rehearsals
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Click through to see some Hamlet performance pics;
Riverbank Rig
Hamlet 8
Hamlet 7
Riverbank Rig
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A Promotional Trailer:
Artwork by Hollie Murphy
Audience Reviews of Hamlet:
A full, edited, live performance of our 2019 production of Hamlet can be viewed below:
NT Connections 2019 - 'The Small Hours'
29th & 31st March & 22nd June 2019, Riverbank Theatre | 13th April 2019, Lyric Theatre Belfast | June 27th 2019, Dorfman Stage, National Theatre of London
Every year, Kildare Youth Theatre takes part in the National Theatre's Connections Festival. Each year, youth theatres across the UK & Ireland select from 10 specially written brand new plays to perform, with one rendition of each play chosen to perform on the Dorfman Stage in the National Theatre, in London. For the 2019 season, Kildare Youth Theatre performed Katherine Soper's The Small Hours, and was chosen to be performed in London.
![Small Hours March].jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02dbaa_ed59c231aa43462993df325da944c532~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_496,h_701,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Small%20Hours%20March%5D.jpeg)
Photography:
© The Other Richard, 2019 (London)
Act of Oblivion: IV - The Penal Laws
8th-9th February 2019, Riverbank Theatre
A Promotional Trailer:
A full, edited, live performance of The Penal Laws can be viewed below:
Drama For Youth Work (KA2) - Spanish Filming
1st-7th February 2019, Logroño, Spain
In the first week of February, three young filmmakers from Kildare Youth Theatre ventured off to Logroño, in the north of Spain, to initiate the first stage of our Strategic Partnership Erasmus+ programme with BiondekBühne of Austria, and On+Off Theatre of Spain.
The trip to Spain marked the commencement of a multi-year project involving the brainstorming, filming, editing and production of a network of drama based workshop training videos on
Our Irish team worked alongside other young European filmmakers through all stages of production.
More information regarding Drama For Youth Work can be found here.
More information can be found about our trip to Spain on our blog.
With thanks to: Dasha Lavrinenko, Doug Morrison, Charlie Hughes-Farrell, and Alec Delaney.
![Crooked House Logo(Black)[1].PNG](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/02dbaa_29e02036752c4beba827f3869cd2660c.png/v1/fill/w_46,h_92,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Crooked%20House%20Logo(Black)%5B1%5D_PNG.png)
Miscellaneous
See below a compilation of some other noteworthy 2019 moments for KYT
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