Setting up a drama group in Cork, interested?

Chazz Michael Michaels

I've been waiting for my previous thread to float down the page before posting this, but it won't budge! Anyway...

I am moving back to Cork after several years away. I was involved in an amateur drama group in Dublin (No Drama) and I was looking for something similar here, but I haven't been able to find one, so I am going to try set one up. While there are many groups on Cork, I could not find one with regular weekly workshops with no yearly membership, but rather a cheap pay as you go fee. I saw this model work very well before and I think it could work here. The weekly element means there is a great social group as well as being a theatre group.

The fundamental policy of this group is “open-door”, meaning that anyone can walk in, pay a small fee and immediately begin contributing to the group. Experience is not an issue, we are trying to capture that element of the population who would like to act, but are too inhibited to pop along to the type of drama group that only assembles to audition. This is a rather large group of people in Dublin, I assume the same group exists in Cork. The weekly, cheap, city-centre based drama group is there to attract them.

This will set us apart from groups who assemble only to audition and draw only the “semi-professional” type of actor, and only cast their friends in every production. Our ethos is “if you are willing, you are able”. In my experience, this has been proven to work time and again with the previous group I was part of. People who had no previous experience with sound, lighting, stage management, make-up, etc, stepped up to the plate and delivered, time and again. This must also apply to casting. Just because someone has been in the group the longest guarantees them nothing, if someone steps off the street a few weeks before and puts in a stellar audition, they get the part. It may sound idealistic, but I have seen it work to great effect.

If this sounds interesting to you, PM me, I have about six involved already and I would like more. If you ever wanted to be involved in the founding committee of a drama group, this is your chance. We are meeting in Cork City centre next week.

Any questions, fire away.

Chazz Michael Michaels

Tomorrow night (Thurs) is the final meetup before workshops start next week. If anyone is interested in playing a part in running this theatre group, or simply would like to attend the workshops, or simply fancies meeting new people (which is the whole point of this, isn't it?), feel free to come along to the Woodford at 8.30pm tomorrow.

PM me for details on how to find us.