by Rose Rushe
TWENTY six years a-teaching, costuming and staging energetic shows, Expressive Arts Theatre School combines several works in one next week at the concert hall. Set aside the option of two dates, Monday March 30 and Tuesday 31 from 7.30pm to enjoy the groomed spectacle of 160 pupils ‘treading the boards’.
May O’Halloran, co-director with Expressive Arts’ Pearl Kiely, is game on “for a night that hopefully, will be entertaining for young people and those older. Our pupils are aged from five to 18 years and we try to instil a love of the musical world in them. That’s why we choose musical items that suit these age groups”.
So younger children perform edited synopses of scenes from ‘The Sound of Music’ in act one while teens take over then with works from ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
May references known successes such as Liam O’Brien, master of ceremonies next week and Nigel Dugdale, but feels Expressive’s other story is “building self esteem and confidence” in the shyer, younger children to the point they can take to the stage and deliver brilliantly.
“Costuming is a mammoth task,” she adds, crediting Pearl Kiely with the work here. Live music is by a Tommy Drennan-led trio of Bart Kiely Jnr and Michael Hennessy. Book on www.uch.ie or contract group rates from the school on 061-453715.
