The Butt Drama Circle (BDS) last night qualified for this year’s RTE All Ireland Drama Festival finals in Athlone.
Their powerful, and original, play made an almost clean sweep at last weekend’s Strabane Drama Festival awards ceremony.
Darkness Echoing is written, starred in and directed by BDS member, Shaun Byrne. It also stars Mairead McMenamin and JC Bonar.
The production took home awards for: First place in the Open Section; Blue Riband (overall winner); Best Actor for JC; Best Actress for Mairead and Best Lighting.
Shaun Byrne (L) and JC Bonar picking up their awards at the Strabane Drama Festival awards ceremony.
The Butt Drama Circle officially qualified last night for the finals in Athlone, despite not picking up any points at the finals of the Mid Ulster Drama Festival in Carrickmore.
Mairead McMenamin with her Best Actress award from the Strabane Drama Festival.
This is the second consecutive year the award-winning Ballybofey-based club has qualified for the prestigious finals. Last year, they just missed out on the top prize with An Incident with Dave Cotter, another play written, directed and starred in by Shaun Byrne.
The Ballyshannon Drama Society has already qualified for this year’s finals with their fantastic production, A Delicate Balance.
The play is directed by Rachel O’Connor, who also performs in the show as Claire, and she is assisted by Carl Duggan.
The cast also includes Trish Keane and Richard Hurst as Agnes and Tobias, Deirdre Ferguson and Troy Devaney as Julia and Harry, and Kay O’Dea as Edna.
The 2023 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival takes place in the Dean Crowe Theatre Athlone from Thursday 27th April to Friday 5th May.
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