Abbey Centre
The Abbey Cinema, Theatre & Community Arts Centre
In 2005 the Abbey Centre received Community Arts Status and is now classed as Community Arts Centre for South Donegal by Donegal County Council. The Centre’s broadly based artistic programme includes locally generated theatre, music, variety, community and youth performance, music education as well as visiting performance groups.
Theatre: The Abbey Centre houses two theatre performance spaces
The Rory Gallagher: A fine spacious auditorium, theatre 1 has a seating capacity of 280.
Theatre 3: An intimate theatre with a seating capacity of up to 80 people – perfect for small-scale productions or amateur theatre groups.
The Theatre provides dressing and shower rooms as well as a spacious green room for visiting performers.
Cinema
Our Film Club meets the second Wednesday of every month for a world cinema viewing session. Please see further details below .....
Exhibition Space
Our glass fronted spacious reception & foyer areas form an exhibition space. Artists interested in exhibiting in The Abbey Centre are welcome to send details of your work to Maura Logue, Manager, The Abbey Community Arts Centre, Tirconnaill St, Ballyshannon.
The Abbey Centre has full facilities for people with disabilities including designated seating in the auditorium and theatre 3, lift and specially adapted WC.
Arts Training - Workshops
The Centre provides workshop space in the form of the Green Room and the White Room.
The Abbey School of Acting: One hour Drama classes for youth are provided by experienced local dramatists/actors during the school term, usually between 3:30 – 5:30pm.
Static Dance Group: Youth can avail of modern & hip-hop dance classes every Saturday morning in the White Room from 10am – 2pm (split into age categories).
For more details on drama or dance classes contact the Abbey Centre by phone or call up to the office.
Arts Projects
Music Tuition
Local music tutors make use of the workshop space and the grand piano in the Centre for their music lessons to aspiring musicians of all ages.
Annual Ballyshannon Arts Events
- Ballyshannon Musical Society Production (1st week of March)
- Ballyshannon Drama Festival (approx. 17th – 25th March)
- Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival (1st weekend in August)
- Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival (June)
- Summer arts workshops (July & August)
- Donegal Bay & Blue Stacks Festival (various arts performances – see festival programme for details), funded by Donegal County Council Festival (Sept- Oct)
- Ballyshannon Carnival Parade (organisational base as part of Donegal Bay & Blue Stacks Festival – 1st weekend in October)
- Allingham Literary Festival – workshops & poetry competitions (end of November)
For information on forthcoming events in the Abbey Centre please contact us in the office on 0719851375 or join our electronic mailing list at abbeyartscentre@gmail.com
Contact Details:
Maura Logue,
Manager,
Abbey Centre,
Tirconnaill Street,
Ballyshannon,
Co. Donegal
Tel:
Office Line: 0719851375
Fax: 0719852832
Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon Summer Arts Programme
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YOUTH ARTS SUMMER CAMPS at Abbey Centre
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ADULT ACTOR AUDITIONS for 3 act play directed by Maura logue, Dark Daughter productions
CONTACT 0719851375 FOR BOOKING OR MORE INFO
DANCE PERFORMANCE & SONGS WITH STARS OF THE WEST DANCE & PERFORMANCE SCHOOL
SUMMER CAMP YOUTH AGES 4-15 Years! Tutors ; Suzanne Byrne & Special Guest Tutors!
Wednesday 14th July, Thursday 15th July, Friday 16th July Time ; 10am - 1pm
Daily Rate of 12euro per child or 30 euro for 3 days! Places LIMITED! Book now!
Songs, Dance & Drama from High School Musical, Glee!, Wizard of Oz & more!
Contact Suzanne on 086-1504455 or call into the Abbey Centre to book your place!
ABBEY SCHOOL OF DANCE /DANCE WORKSHOPS WITH AMANDA MAHON
FOR YOUTH 5YRS TO 11YRS SAT MORNING DROP IN DANCE CLASSES WITH AMANDA MAHON 11AM TO 12.00 EACH SATURDAY JULY & AUG
CONTACT AMANDA ON 087 9687175 TO BOOK YOUR PLACE OR JUST DROP IN ON SAT.
HIP HOP DANCE & DRAMA CAMP WITH AILEEN MC CANN & FRANCINE KEON
YOUTH -HIP HOP DANCE & DRAMA & SONG CAMP 18TH TO 24TH JULY TIME 10AM TO 1PM DAILY
CONTACT AILEEN MC CANN FOR INFO & BOOKING ON 0868961067
Act Up
-EXPERIENCED LONDON THEATRE GROUP VISIT THE ABBEY CENTRE FOR ONE WEEK IN AUGUST - BOOK NOW
Drama Summer Creative Play Week I (5-8yrs)
When? Monday 9th August to Friday 13th August, 10.30am – 11.30am
Where? The Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon. € 50
Booking form available from ask@act-up.org or The Abbey Centre,
Ballyshannon.
Come and join us for a fun packed week of drama exploring a magical island after you and your friends have been shipwrecked in a storm. Will you ever manage to find your way home? Will the island’s inhabitants allow you to leave?!!
You will:Play drama Games! Make new friends! Be part of a group play! Share your performance with your family and friends!
Drama Summer Creative Play Week II (5-8yrs)
When? Monday 9th August to Friday 13th August, 11.30am – 1.00Pm
Where? The Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon. €50
Booking form available from ask@act-up.org or The Abbey Centre
Come and join us for a fun packed week of drama exploring a magical island after you and your friends have been shipwrecked in a storm. Will you ever manage to find your way home? Will the island’s inhabitants allow you to leave?!!
You will: Play drama Games! Make new friends! Be part of a group play!
Share your performance with your family and friends!
Drama Summer Camp (8-13yrs)
When? Monday 9th August to Friday 13th August,1 .30 pm – 3.30pm
Where? The Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon. €60
Booking form available from ask@act-up.org or The Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon.
Have you ever wondered what lurks up in the attic? Were you tempted to look but too frightened to dare? Someone has left you an invitation. Are you brave enough to accept?
In one week you will: Learn how to create and play a character Devise a play with a professional actor
Share your thrilling tale with your family and friends!
DARK DAUGHTER PRODUCTIONS -LOOKING FOR ACTORS 20YRS AND OVER
AUDITIONS FOR 3 ACT PLAY ON 13TH July at 8.30pm at Abbey Centre,for actors aged 20yrs and over male & female no experience necessary Contact Maura Logue, director to know more.0719851375. Leave name & contact details for call back
FILM CLUB EVERY 2ND WEDNESDAY at Abbey Centre
8.00pm start. Tickets €7. All welcome
Summer film choices
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Wed July 14th
Män som hatar kvinnor
Dir: Niels Arden Oplev Denmark/Sweden 2009 152 mins Cert: 18
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube, Peter Haber, Peter Andersson, Marika Lagercrantz, Ingvar Hirdwall, Bjorn Granath.
Language: Swedish
Based on the first book in Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s bestselling Millennium trilogy, and set in contemporary Sweden, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo stars the popular Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist hired by a wealthy businessman to investigate the disappearance of his niece 40 years earlier. Blomkvist – with the help of the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) – links the disappearance to a number of grotesque murders and begins to unravel a dark and appalling family history.
For the uninitiated, the Millennium novels are probably the biggest international phenomenon to emerge from Sweden since ABBA, and director Niels Arden Oplev finds some elegant visual shortcuts for Larsson’s exposition-heavy prose in this accessible, attractive thriller. And yes, the inevitable Hollywood remake is due in 2011. - Cambridge Film Festival Programme
Micmacs Wed JULY 26TH
Micmacs à tire-larigot
Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet France 2009 105 mins Cert: 15A
Starring: Dany Boon, Andre Dussolier, Nicolas Marie, Yolande Moreau, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Julie Ferrier
Language: French
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's gorgeously romantic Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain is unquestionably one of the most beloved and popular films of the last decade. Jeunet's amazing visual vocabulary and hyperactive imagination provide the foundation for all his cinematic creations, and this ability to be both playful and serious is used to devastating effect in his latest piece of movie magic, Micmacs à tire-larigot.
Drawing on one of France's most popular screen stars, the incorrigible Dany Boon from the comedy megahit Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, as well as a cast of some of the country's best-known actors, Jeunet turns on the afterburners in this searing piece of romantic filmmaking set against the storm clouds of warring arms dealers. Boon plays the role of Bazil, a man who was orphaned as a youngster when his soldier father was killed by a roadside bomb. Now working in a video store and trying to find his place in the world, Bazil is hit by a stray bullet in a freak drive-by shooting incident. Emerging from hospital, he finds himself jobless and penniless, but good fortune appears in the form of an ex-con, Tire-Larigot. The ingenious salvage artist ekes out a marginal existence living in a scrap dump together with a tirelessly good-humoured and resourceful group of misfits. Charmed and overwhelmed by the hospitality he receives, Bazil turns the dump into a warm underground home full of magical tools and sculptures made from discarded junk. Meanwhile, an opportunity to get even with the arms manufacturers who killed his father and left him with a bullet in the head keeps Bazil busy plotting sweet revenge.
The kinetic level of invention and narrative so familiar to Jeunet lovers is on full display in Micmacs. This is a film that revels in contemporary contrasts. While the rich arms dealers scheme away and make weapons, Bazil and his rag-tag band of friends create objects to delight and charm. Along the way, Bazil finds romance amid the craziness of the modern world. - Toronto International Film Festival
Eamon Wed Aug 11TH
Dir: Margaret Corkery Ireland 2009 86 mins Cert: 15A
Starring:
Robert Donnelly, Darren Healy, Amy Kirwan
Language: English
Made for less than five hundred thousand dollars, Eamon plays like the most expensive low-budget film you've ever seen.; the result is a fabulously fresh and highly entertaining first feature.
Selfish, bratty little Eamon (Robert Donnelly) shoos his father aside for a privileged place in his mother's heart. King of her bed and dictator of all things, he leaves no space in her affections for anyone but himself, having banished his father to what feels like a distant planet a planet where touching your spouse is punishable and sleeping on the couch mandatory. Lonely and sexually frustrated, brooding Daniel (Darren Healy) covers himself head to toe while bikini-clad Grace (Amy Kirwan) actively pretends he doesn't exist.
Though he might not look it, their son is well aware of the parental climate and does his best to keep amorous heat waves at bay. Sitting between them every chance he gets, he insulates one from the other to make it easier to get what he wants which is just about everything. Monopolizing attention and eliminating sexual desire is what Eamon does best.
A bright, satirical drama with dark overtones, Eamon follows this idiosyncratic trio on a family holiday of sorts, intended to give them a break from their dire financial straits. Unfortunately, salvation does not sprout on the Irish coast, and sooner or later they come face to face with their problems. Too bad one of the three has no interest in seeing them resolved.
Director Margaret Corkery strips her first feature down to its bare essentials: three leads, an uncluttered narrative and the merest sprinkling of ancillary characters. The film's strength lies in the details. One of the most important elements in Eamon is the weather: it might be sunny outside, but it's certainly raining in the master bedroom. - Dimitri Eipides / Toronto International Film Festival
Best Film - Forum of Independents, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2009
Dir: Lee Daniels USA 2009 110 Cert: 15A
Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz
Language: EnglisH
Raw, vibrant and resoundingly hopeful, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire will stand in years to come as one of the strongest American films of 2009. Although the details of its plot may shock, it is at heart the story of a young woman determined to better herself despite overwhelming obstacles set against her.
Harlem, 1987: Claireece “Precious” Jones is a teenager in a living hell. She is pregnant, for the second time, by her own father. Her mother, played in a searing performance by Mo'Nique, is emotionally abusive and physically brutal. Precious has been mistreated and undervalued her whole life; her obesity appears to be both a result of and a shield against the hateful acts committed by those who should love her most.
But she can dream. Sullen and suspicious to most casual observers, Precious has a rich inner world full of colourful fantasies of celebrity and adoration. As in the original novel by Sapphire, Precious narrates her interior life with sometimes hilarious wit. Director Lee Daniels keeps the sparkle and insight of Sapphire's language, even as he shows a girl keeping her head down in the face of shocking abuse and neglect.
Already in grade nine, Precious can neither read nor write. Faced with expulsion, she accepts an alternative programme, Each One/Teach One, without fully knowing what “alternative” means. Here, she finds opportunity for the first time. The teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), glimpses the Precious beneath her fierce exterior and begins to draw her out.
The hardship is real in Precious, which is based on Sapphire's experiences teaching in Harlem. But the effect of the film is an electric encounter with the highs and lows of life. Daniels inspires his actors to reach deep into themselves to communicate the truth of this story. Patton is consistently strong, Mo'Nique is a revelation, Mariah Carey utterly transforms herself and Lenny Kravitz is pure charm playing a nurse. But all respect must go to newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as Precious. She is simply unforgettable. - Toronto International Film Festival
Winner – Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globes 2010
Winner – Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA 2010