'Nationwide' comes from Enniscorthy in county Wexford, a town which has a proud record of amateur and professional drama.
The Enniscorthy Amateur Drama group have the claim of being the only group to have run the All Ireland Drama Competition two years in a row. This is largely as a result of the work of local man, writer, actor and teacher Andy Doyle. It is hoped that Andy Doyle's latest play 'Something About Roses' will lead Enniscorthy to honour again in the All-Ireland Drama Competition.
Helen McInerney went along to get a sneak preview of the play as the Enniscorthy Theatre Group fine tune the production during rehearsals in The Athenaeum Hall. Enniscorthy Theatre Group has been competing on the festival circuit for the last twenty years and have won the All-Ireland title on three occasions.
Included in this report is footage voiced by Ciaran Mullooly of the group receiving the All-Ireland award at the Dean Crowe Hall in Athlone for their production of 'Moonshine' by Jim Nolan in 1997. The Enniscorthy Theatre Group received the award for the second year in succession. Director of the group Andy Doyle describes the secret of their success.
We believe in ourselves. We only work on plays and playwrights whose work we believe in and if we are true to ourselves and true to the work of the playwright, I think what happens as a result is this kind of thing.
Five years later, Andy Doyle is the playwright as the group take on his play 'Something About Roses'. Andy says the play is a celebration of local effort in Enniscorthy.
It was published locally, printed locally, designed locally and it will be performed locally. So it's a big communal effort from Enniscorthy to make that happen.
The play's director Frank Murphy also tells Helen about the challenges of directing a play written by somebody you know.
This episode of 'Nationwide' was broadcast on 20 February 2002. The programme is introduced by Michael Ryan.
