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The entire population of the Abbey Grammar School in Newry are bursting with excitement this weekend as the opening night of their latest production is imminent.
The curtains go up on The Hunchback of Notre Dame this Sunday 20 October and the bells will be ringing until Wednesday 23 October. Performances are at 7.30pm each night and Tickets are £12
Since school has returned the cathedral bells have been ringing loud in the Abbey, and in the corridors, strange statues and gargoyles have appeared!
Productions like this in the Abbey only come round every few years. The last one was a complete sell-out and they had to turn a huge amount of people away.
The Cast
Claude Frollo, Euan MacKenzie
Euan is a Year 14 student at the Abbey, currently studying his A-levels in English Language, Psychology and History. He is very excited to be playing the role of Frollo in the school production.
This is his first ever production that he has been involved in and although he is a little nervous, he has really enjoyed the experience to date. He watches many productions as a hobby with his favourites being Sweeney Todd and Hamilton.
Clopin – Jack Mallon
Jack is a Year 13 pupil at the Abbey, studying Drama, Psychology and Sociology. He is very excited to be playing ‘Clopin’ in the production. Jack is a member of Flynn Performing Arts and is studying for his Grade 6 in Musical Theatre under the Tutelage of Fiona Flynn.
Although he is still relatively new to partaking in shows, over the last year Jack has played ‘Mickey’ in the Bosco’s production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and his first lead role as ‘Mrs Trunchball’ recently in the Newry Youth Performing Arts’ production of Matilda.
Outside of musical theatre he has danced from the age of 5 with Sinead Nolan and has competed in World Championships and other major competitions with Irish dancing.
Pheobus is Oliver Larkin.
Oliver is a Year 12 student at the Abbey and is studying GCSE Drama and Music. Oliver has played a variety of roles before such as ‘Marius’ in NYPA’s Les Miserables and ‘Dean’ In Bosco’s Jamie, however he is looking forward specifically to be a part of his first school production.
Currently, he is a member of Flynn Performing Arts working on his Grade 8 Musical Theatre and Classical singing. Oliver is also working towards his Grade 6 Piano with Catherine McElroy.
Esmerelda- Tess McElherron
Tess is a Year 14 student at the Sacred Heart Grammar School, and is currently studying A level Theatre Studies and Drama. Tess is just one of 17 Sacred Heart students, 3 Our Lady’s students and 1 St Mary’s student who will appear in this production. It really is a community production.
Tess has played a variety of roles such as ‘Pritti’ in Bosco’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, ‘Fantine’ in Newry Youth Performing Arts’ production of Les Mis and ‘Anita’ in their latest production, West Side Story.
She is currently working towards her Grade 6 in Musical Theatre with Jordan Walsh. She is also working towards her intermediate grade in Modern Dance with Morgan Theatre Arts.
Quasimodo – John McCaffrey
John is a Year 11 student at the Abbey CBGS, currently studying Drama at GCSE. He is currently working on his Grade 5 Musical Theatre with Fiona Flynn through Flynn Performing Arts.
John is also a part of Newry Youth Performing Arts where he got his start in musical theatre, and he also attends weekly classes on Sunday afternoons with them. He has previously undertaken roles such as ‘Oliver’ in the production of Oliver, ‘William’ in our school’s last show Frankenstein and Mr Wormwood in Matilda. He is delighted to be given the chance to portray Quasimodo in this production.
The Choir
The Abbey's production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be complimented by the services of Flynn Performing Arts and a brand new, just out of the box, bespoke choir of FPA singers!
Thanks to Fiona Flynn for taking on the task and thanks also to Anna-Maria Boyle, Maria Convery, Cliodhna Cowan, Sean Devlin, Daire Downey, Rachel Finnegan, Ben Grant, Clare Keeley, Tara Lundy, Rebecca Mulligan , Mícheál O’Hare, Judith Quinn, Michael Sloan and Fergal White for rehearsing and preparing for performance over the last 6 weeks.
You can get your tickets from the Abbey Reception Box Office every morning or Telephone them on 028 3026 3142
