A Donegal teenager has been selected to take part in the National Youth Theatre’s production of Gulliver’s Travels.
Aoife (right) and her friend Megan.
Aoife O’Connor, 16, is the only local actor taking part in the show which has shows around the country.
2013 marks 30 years since the first production of the National Youth Theatre in Ireland.
Aoife, who is one of just 16 actors chosen to take part, said she is delighted.
“I was completely over the moon when I got the letter in the post telling me that I had been accepted into NYT,” says Aoife O’Connor from Ramelton who is with Letterkenny Youth Theatre.
“I feel so honoured to have been chosen for this production. After our introductory three days I was thrilled that we all bonded together so well as a group and that everyone came away from it twice as excited as they were going in! I can safely say this version of Gulliver’s Travels is going to be nothing like anyone’s ever seen before!”
Over the past 30 years many major actors, writers and other theatre practitioners including Aiden Gillen, Cathy Belton, Jim Culleton and Philip McMahon have been involved with NYT, as well as some of Ireland’s finest directors including Jimmy Fay, Wayne Jordan, Mikel Murfi and Gerry Stembridge.
And for the first time in 26 years, the National Youth Theatre will go on tour, travelling to the Everyman Theatre in Cork after their Dublin performances.
This unique staging of Swift’s classic novel will bring an exhilarating mix of pure adventure and biting political satire to vivid life as Gulliver encounters Lilliputians, giants, warmongering scientists and horses that govern over humans.
The cast of the National Youth Theatre who will rehearse throughout August in Dublin, come from all over Ireland. As well as Aoife from Donegal, there will be young people from Dublin, Cork, Mayo, Wexford, Longford, Sligo, Kildare, Clare and Wicklow taking part.
The National Youth Theatre is an initiative of the National Association for Youth Drama (NAYD) and is produced by NAYD Director Michelle Carew.
NAYD is the development organisation for youth theatre in Ireland and funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.. With a membership of 60 youth theatres, NAYD supports youth drama in practice with a national programme of activity (www.nayd.ie).
