An exhibition at the Mermaid Theatre looks to celebrate 50 years of Ardmore Film Studios and Bray.
Since opening in 1958 Ardmore Film Studios has played been important to the people and town of Bray, County Wicklow. A new exhibition hopes to celebrate the relationship that the studio has with the local area.
Artist Fiona Hallinan is curating an exhibition at the Mermaid Theatre in Bray. The subject of the exhibition is fifty years of film-making at Ardmore Studios and the impact it has had on the people of Bray.
A public call for submissions to the exhibition wants to hear how Ardmore affected the lives of the people of Bray. Their stories will form part of an exhibition celebrating the impact that the film studio has had.
Whether they owned a dry cleaners that had famous actors calling in to drop off their costumes or whether they were an extra as a child or whether they began their life as a cameraman through working in Ardmore.
Stuart Hetherington was one of the first cameramen to work at Ardmore when it opened in 1958 and his memories of the studio will be part of the exhibition. He always carried an 8mm camera with him to capture moments from behind the scenes while filming.
Bray resident and actress Gladys Sheehan has had roles in many films made at Ardmore.
The film companies were queuing up to get into Ardmore. The amount of good that that did the town of Bray. It wasn't just actors and actresses but it spilled over into so many fields.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 28 July 2009. The reporter is Philip Bromwell.
