Moat Theatre looks to expanded future

Kilcullen resident Celine Garvey is planning a wide range of innovations at The Moat Theatre in Naas, where she recently took over as manager, writes Brian Byrne.

She has moved from her previous role as assistant manager following the retirement of Kathleen Smith (pictured above with Celine) in August.

Among those changes will be the theatre's hosting of the Naas Country Market when it is moved out of its longtime home, Naas Town Hall. From the new year, the Market will be in the Moat every Friday morning.

The foyer of the Moat, the theatre which Celine describes as the 'heart of the community of Naas', will also be available to local groups, for events, meetings and as a creative space. "We will be offering movies and plays from all over the country and indeed the world," she adds. "We’re looking at hosting live recordings of Podcasts next year and introducing some new types of shows.”

One of those new shows is ‘The Peacock Parlour’ on Wednesday 14 November. It features Burlesque and Nouveau Cabaret performers from all over Ireland, including the inimitable Foxy P Cox (above) from Cork, well known to Electric Picnic attendees as she features every year at the Jerry Fish Sideshow stage. Also featuring Sade O'Sapphic from Australia, Bonnie Boux who runs the Bazooka Club in Waterford and Letycha Le'Synn, another award winning performer also from Cork, the show will include aerial dance, striptease, song, cabaret and drag.

The Moat Theatre will also be taking over the @Ireland Twitter account for a week in November in the run up to Panto Season. Celine, along with the writing and directing team of this year’s Panto ‘Robin Hood’, Ger and Lianne O’Shea, will talk about life in the Moat Theatre and what goes into bringing the Panto to the stage, and sharing it with 71,000+ followers of the account. During their week-long tenure on the account, the team plan on revealing details about a special night show for 2019.

And more ... but that's all for later updates.

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