Coolmine Musical Society was delighted to stage the first production in the auditorium of the new Draíocht Theatre in Blanchardstown. This was “Oliver!” which we staged from March 5th to 10th, 2001. The seven performances were sold out, with the public demanding more.
Fifty “adults” joined the children onstage for this huge production. The adult cast included Paula Fay as Nancy, well known to those who’ve been to the Eastern Region Concerts, Barry Kavanagh, also well known to AIMS members, as Fagin and John Furlong as Sykes.
	But seven shows were quite enough – “leave ‘em hungry!” The show featured a cast of 53 children between the Workhouse children and Fagin’s Gang. Way back in November, Vivian Coates and Andrew Purcell had performed the mammoth task of whittling down the 215 children who auditioned, to the 50ish we could cope with onstage.
The child stars were discovered at audition and what finds they proved to be! Gary Sheridan (right), who’s 9 years old played Oliver. This was Gary’s first major role in a musical, but we reckon it won’t be his last. We had two alternate Artful Dodger’s Liam McCrone (2nd right) and Anthony Corbett (left). Both are 12 years old and equally talented. Sean O’Connell (front), Gary’s understudy played the part in the Saturday matinee to great acclaim.
	The staging of “Oliver!” presented an enormous challenge to the Society. This challenge has generated tremendous spirit and enthusiasm among the Committee, production team and the cast, all of whom worked hard to bring this show to life. We have seen new and younger members join and the Society is much stronger for the experience. It augurs well for the future.

What the AIMS Adjudicator, Jack Neavyn, had to say about Oliver!
"Coolmine Musical Society had the honour of being the first show on the main stage of the new Draíocht theatre in Blanchardstown. What great memories it will bring to the cast, particularly the fifty plus children in the years to come. And not just because of being the first in the venue, but also being part of such an excellent production of Lionel Bart’s “Oliver”. Director, Vivian Coates, and his assistant, Bill Elliffe, together with the talented Andrew Purcell, Siobhán McQuillan and John O’Donoghue as Musical Director, Choreographer and Set Designer, gave the audience a great night of theatre. Toss into that melting pot superb atmospheric lighting design by Derek O’Neill to complement the set and Frank Boland as Stage Manager, running the show and it’s complex set changes to perfection and pretty well everything was in place………….

Any group attempting Oliver has to find the boy to play the part and Coolmine were successful in their search in locating the talented Gary Sheridan. His singing of “Where is love” was very touching in its simple sincerity, and the audience loved him.

No matter how good the adult actors are, and they were very good, they are, inevitable, outshone by the playing of the kids as orphans and pickpockets. What a totally uninhibited bunch they were. I was very impressed by the contrast between disciplined formality of the workhouse kids and the free and easy movement of the ragamuffins in Fagin’s den who could scurry into their bolt holes if the going got tough. A joy to watch all evening.

Coolmine set a very high for themselves and they rose to the challenge superbly, on this very fine stage, in this production of the ever-popular Oliver."

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Coolmine win two top awards 
From Community Voice, July 2001
The Coolmine Musical Society created a unique piece of history recently when they took two of the top prizes at this year’s AIMS Awards. Each year the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) presents its equivalent of the Oscars to societies based on the shows they staged in that year.

In its 22 year history, Coolmine has received two nominations for its productions, but to date it had not achieved any awards. This year the Society received three nominations for its production of Oliver, which was staged in Draíocht last March.

When these nominations were announced, by Rebecca Storm, at a reception in the Temple Bar Music Centre, Society Chairperson Máire Caffrey was ecstatic. In one year they had achieved more than they had in their previous 21 years of performances. 

The Society’s nominations were in respect of Visual Presentation of the show, including props, costumes and make-up, Best Supporting Actor and for Stage Management. At last month’s Awards ceremony in the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Coolmine received the top prize for it’s Visual Presentation and Stage manager Frank Boland was honoured with the Award for Best Stage manager.

Speaking afterwards Maire Caffrey paid tribute to all of the hard work by members of Coolmine in this year’s show. “There was no doubt”, she said, “that having such a magnificent venue as Draíocht for the production helped enormously. Certainly having the use of such a superb theatre helped us all to raise our standards to a very high level this year”, she said.

While the members of Coolmine have been celebrating hard in recent weeks they will soon have their musical noses back to the grindstone as auditions and rehearsals for their next production get under way.

In November the Society will stage a variety show in Draíocht and as soon as the curtain falls on that production, work will begin on next year’s big show. For their musical in 2002, they have chosen the ever popular “My Fair Lady” which will be staged in Draíocht in March.

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