Talented Kids wow in Hollywood

Although the recent Talented Kids Summer Camp in Kilcullen Community Complex was a bundle of fun for all, lots of those present still had stars in their eyes from their recent trip to Hollywood.



Many of them were part of Team Ireland in the World Championships of performing Arts, and came back with medals and bursaries and, more importantly, a sense of having represented their country very well indeed.

They included Ellen Gallagher from Cnoc na Greine, who not alone performed in an 11-member sub-group called Celtic Fusion, but won many awards for her solo dancing, singing and acting. She took home nine medals. “It was my second year at the World Championships, so I was able to prepare better this time,” she says.

Susie Power from Calverstown, aged 5 and who is already a junior star in the RTE series ‘Fair City’, was the youngest competitor there, and took home eight medals for vocal, drama and dance competitions.

Aaron Lockhart from Kildare competed with some set acting pieces, including ‘The Joker’, ‘Goodfellas’. He also got an invitation to attend the New York Conservatory of Drama, as their representative was very impressed with his performance. “It was really exciting to be over there where acting lives, basically,” he says.

Other star performers included Lorna Dempsey from Leixlip, who has been signed by New Leaf record company to be part of a new international girl band.

There were 24 youngsters in this year’s Summer Camp at the Kilcullen venue, where classes for children in drama and musical theatre are run from September to June by Maureen Ward, assisted by Johnny Ward and choreographer Lorna Dempsey. Maureen was National Director for Team Ireland and won the Best National Director award in the Hollywood event.

Originally based in Dublin, the Talented Kids Performing Arts School now has a firm Kilcullen footing as Maureen lives in Calverstown. She also operates a talent agency, and a number of her students now act in such shows as 'Fair City' and in films.



This year’s camp included as tutors Mick McDermott, actor and entertainer, who gave a workshop on balloon modelling and face painting, Catherine McKiernan from RTE’s The Den, and Sinead Mulvey from the Eurovision Song Contest.

"The whole point of the summer camp is for kids to enjoy themselves," she says. “But this year is special, because I am so proud of how our own students performed as part of the very successful Team Ireland.”

Brian Byrne.

(This article was first published in the Kilcullen Page of last week's Kildare Nationalist.)