Portlaoise Musical Society AIMs to be celebrating in the Kingdom

The Portlaoise Musical Society are in the running for big national awards this weekend at the gala awards event for musical productions around Ireland.

The Society says it is already celebrating bein nominated in a number of categories at the 2023 Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) Musical Awards being held in Kerryy.

This year Portlaoise have been nominated in the Gilbert Section for ‘Best House Management’, ‘Best Technical’ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ (Andrew Docherty) for their Irish musical premiere of the sensational stage hit show ‘Sunshine on Leith – The Musical’, which the society presented at Dunamaise Arts Centre last November.

Members of the musical society were delighted to receive the nomination for ‘Best House Management’ which they say featured many outstanding elements including spectacular front-of-house displays and decorations.

Balloon arches, a red carpet, a display of traditional Scottish attire and a performance by Bagpiper Cormac Bowles from Abbeyleix, were key to setting the tone for the show. Yellow bunting adorned the front-of-house areas and the front-of-house team, managed by Annette McCaul, (a long standing member of the society) alongside Martina Lawless from Dunamaise Arts Centre were all dressed in smart attire that featured Scottish and tartan accessories. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Chris Kavanagh designed and crafted lit-up sign for the entrance, while PRO Lorraine O’Callaghan designed a balloon arch and co-ordinated the other elements throughout the building, aided by a hard-working team of people including Chris Kavanagh, JJ Tynan, Colin Fitzpatrick, Jamie O’Callaghan, Caroline and Terry Conroy among others.

The ‘Best Technical’ award nomination is a particularly proud achievement for the society as Sunshine on Leith, being an Irish premiere, was a challenging one to produce – technically.

The show, directed by Paul Norton, who designed the set and layout featured 36 scene changes, 22 microphones, large props moving on and off the stage and highly technical photographic and projection mapping processes - the first time an Irish musical society has done so to this extent.

The Society says that, despite the hurdles, the logistics all came well into place to make Paul’s vision a reality. This was enabled by a very talented and capable team including: Stage Manager Bob O’Kelly;  Nick Anton (Technical Manager at Dunamaise) who managed the Lighting Design and Projections; JJ Tynan; Chris Kavanagh; Colin Fitzpatrick; Jamie O’Callaghan; Dave Walsh (staging props/set rigging) and Vinnie Osborne (Sound & Music Co.). MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Photography was a prop in itself in this particular show and made a big difference in setting the scene as the show’s Director Paul Norton, together with photographer Terry Conroy took various trips to Edinburgh itself to capture what was needed for the stage.

To top it all off, for one of the shows an ISL Interpreter Mary Guest put in a tremendous effort and performed alongside the cast to make the show more accessible, which is always a priority for the society.

Andrew Docherty, nominated for ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’, took to the stage in Portlaoise for the first time as he played the role of ‘Rab’ in the show. He is also nominated this year for ‘Best Comedian’ for Naas Musical Society’s Anything Goes.  Andrew is also regularly seen on the stage and behind the scenes at Kilcock Musical and Dramatic Society and has performed with Maynooth Musical Society.

Chairperson of Portlaoise Musical Society JJ Tynan commented on the nominations.

 “We are absolutely thrilled with our three nominations in this year’s AIMS awards in Killarney and the news certainly brought a lot of sunshine to our members who worked so hard in this fantastic show. We are so proud of the nominees and on behalf of the committee I would like to congratulate them but also to thank all who gave so freely of their time.

"We wish our nominees all the best the awards on Saturday and we can’t wait to celebrate the success of our Irish musical premiere in Killarney,” he said.

Portlaoise Musical Society, established in 1999, have been the recipients of many awards over the years including most recently A.I.M.S. ‘Best Overall Show’ with Titanic - The Musical in 2019 and ‘Best Overall Show’ (Runner-up), ‘Best Visual’ and ‘Best Actor’ (Shane Kelly) with Ragtime-The Musical in 2020!

Sunshine on Leith in Portlaoise featured a production team including Director: Paul Norton, Musical Director: Emer Hartnett and Choreographer: Stephanie Browne, and a cast and chorus of over 50 people.

The show was staged with support of all sponsors and advertisers and especially to People First Credit Union and Laois Arts Office, and AIMS.

The 2023 AIMS Awards take place in the Gleneagle Hotel this Saturday 17th June and can be viewed live via the AIMS Facebook or YouTube pages

MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Sunshine on Leith is written by Stephen Greenhorn and features songs by The Proclaimers. Created & produced by Dundee Rep Theatre, Scotland’s leading production theatre. The amateur production was presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International All authorised performance materials are also supplied by MTI www.mtishows.co.uk .