"We did a drive-in, we did online but there is nothing like having a full audience."
Alan Hughes is thinking back to the days of the pandemic when live shows were either severely curtailed or cancelled altogether.
This Christmas, however, theatres are open to full capacity and Alan is back as Sammy Sausages in the Alan Hughes/Karl Broderick production of Snow White and Sammy and Buffy at the National Stadium in Dublin.
The show opens on Friday but has already played to preview audiences including very excited school children and Hughes says it was incredible to feel their enthusiasm.
For some children, he says panto is their first taste of a live show and hopefully it will give them a feeling of how powerful live entertainment can be.
Over at the Convention Centre in Dublin city centre, Toy Show the Musical is also preparing for its opening week.
Although inspired by the Late Late Toy Show, it's not a live version of the TV experience, rather a new story about a family who come together to watch the famous show.
It's based around the character of a young girl called Nell who lost her mother during the year and has to figure out a new way to spend Christmas and indeed Toy Show night.
Director Séimí Campbell has a wealth of experience on UK and Irish stages and is hugely enthusiastic about the fact that this is an all-Irish production.
Musicals require a huge investment as well as very experienced cast and crew and he says, although they are performed in community venues all over the country, not enough new professional work is performed.
Campbell says this show is a 'huge opportunity' for Irish talent, both behind the scenes and on stage to work at home for Christmas.
There had been fears in the entertainment industry that audiences might be reluctant to come back to crowded venues but Robert C Kelly, who produces the annual pantomime at UCH in Limerick, says this is certainly not the case this year.
This year's show at UCH is Peter Pan, the first full capacity panto in three years and he says ticket sales are already more than they were in 2019.
There are pantos and other Christmas shows taking place all over the country this year from community venues to national theatres
Producers and performers ready to take to the stage again.
