Youngsters on stage

There's an old showbiz saying, 'don't perform with children or animals'. Because they'll eclipse you, is the thought.

But when all on stage are kids, it's a different dynamic altogether. As individuals and in the collective, whether they're doing poetry, monologues, singing or dancing, it's all about them becoming themselves. And showing themselves.



That's the sense that comes across at the annual finale show from Evelyn O'Sullivan's 'Drama Dynamics'. Now in her fourth year in Kilcullen encouraging, cajoling, lifting youngsters beyond what they might have believed themselves capable of.

In the Town Hall Theatre presentation they strutted their stuff in front of their proud parents. They took their certificates for completing the year, whether their first, second, or more, with a real pride of their own. And in the interval, before the youngest were taken home by their mums and dads, to leave the stage free for the older ones, many came up to Evelyn and gave her a kiss or a hug.

They were at the age when 'thank you' is a meaningful gesture, rather than mere words.

With around 70 youngsters involved at this stage of 'Drama Dynamics', aged from five to 14, Evelyn feels that there's a wrinkle etched around her eyes for each of them. "But I enjoy it. I want kids to be confident, I want them to be happy. That's my base, my ethos. After that, really, it's easy. You treat kids like they are people, and not like they're kids."

Looking back over the past four years, Evelyn reckons she has seen a 'huge' change in the children who came at the beginning. "You see the little ones who were shy now full of confidence. The ones who didn't want to come in are now naturals on the stage."

Evelyn is herself one of the 'new' Kilcullen people. And, given their ages, most of her pupils are children from the same 'incomer' people. But Evelyn is adamant that none of what has happened since she arrived could have happened without the 'old' village.

"Look at the facilities we came in to," she says. "This theatre, for instance. And the community and the goodwill that's behind it. Kilcullen is such a 'giving' place, it has made my life much easier, and it has certainly helped us to grow."

But that a village that was actually declining in population just 12 years ago is now in acceleration mode, even in a national recession, is not only due to its past and those who dreamed of its future. It is thanks to those who are already making tomorrow happen.

"We're all growing together here," Evelyn says.

Brian Byrne.