The inaugural Síofra Bursary presentaions took place last week at the Old House at the Annebrook House Hotel to celebrate the abundance of acting and singing talent in the town.
By Claire Corrigan
While the organisers had originally planned on only awarding one prize, the organisers felt that there was a number of performers who really stood out during the audition process last week, so they decide to award three runner-prizes too.
First Prize went to Chris Corroon (28yrs), a well known and talented 2 times AIMS nominee. He was awarded a place on the Irish College of Musical Theatre one week Intensive Summer Course, a commuter ticket from Mullingar to Dublin for the week and a daily lunch allowance.
In his speech the 28 year old thanked Eleanor and everyone involved in the bursary. “Musical theatre is something I don’t take lightly. I love it.” He advised the younger budding actors present not to wait too long to follow their dreams. “It’s something I got into maybe later than other people. Nowadays kids have great opportunity especially with all the talent in Mullingar and the Arts Centre which is a great outlet for people to express themselves. It’s become something that I really do want to pursue. I don’t want to do anything else. If I can give you a bit of advice it’s do it sooner than I did.”
The Awards Presentation began with a speech by professional musical theatre performer Mullingar’s Mark Irwin about studying musical theatre, becoming a Westend performer and the bursaries he has won along the way and how they have helped him.
The three runner-up awards went to James Craig (17yrs), Ella Scally (16yrs) and Conor Leavy (16yrs) who were each awarded a place on Association of Irish Musical Societies one week residential Youth Summer School.
Speaking to Topic, Ms McDonagh explained why she decided to set up the bursary. “I established the Síofra Bursary in memory of my late daughter, Síofra MacDonagh Maher (1 Feb 1992 to 6 July 2014).
Síofra loved musical theatre having performed for more than a decade with Mullingar Charity Variety Group; she could be seen among the groups of children in the early variety shows, enjoying a featured role as Downy in Honk!, as one of the jungle folk in Seussical the Musical and as a backing dancer for her Mum in All that Jazz in the Summer Serenade concert of 2013, while later that year she performed for the last time, in Mullingar Musical Society’s production of Whistle Down the Wind.”
The Síofra Bursary was organised by Eleanor MacDonagh with the administrative support of Tracy Meade (friend and amateur performer). In addition Eleanor was advised on the auditions by Petrina Mills (friend and Musical Director of Mullingar Charity Variety Group), Joanne MacDonagh (sister and amateur performer – recently Wednesday Addams with Mullingar Charity Variety Group and soon-to-be Mary Magdalene with Mullingar Musical Society), Helen Hassett (friend, Soprano and renowned Vocal Coach), Niamh O’Shea (friend, neighbour, amateur performer and Musical Director with Mullingar Student Players) and Greg Bentick (friend and professional Musical Director of boundless talent!) who also accompanied the auditionees on keyboards.
