Dear Reader –
It’s all things Theme Night #31 today as we prepare for our biggest ever Theme Night audience next week. If you haven’t got your tickets yet, you can still join us…
**All hyperlinks in bold.
The Big Thing
This show will feature….
Our first Theme Night poet - and what a poet he is - coming all the way from Dublin to join us.
The highest (non-falsetto) note ever sung by a male vocalist on a Theme Night.
Gerry Grennan in the band!!
Both a mother/daughter duet and a mother/daughter performing separately on the one night.
An almost entirely different line-up to TN #30 - the depth of talent in these parts being tested but coming up trumps again!
The most country and western songs on a Theme Night since it was all braces and bowties for our night at the The Grand Ole Opry 7 years ago.
Where else but Sligo?
As you surely know by now, Theme Night #31 is all about Stories - and last week’s letter featured the first in a series of stories about some of our Theme Night crew. Here’s Story No. 3…
Joe’s Dad is well known in Sligo and beyond. Now Sligo isn’t that big a place so many of you will know who he is (and I haven’t made it that difficult for the rest of you to work it out)! But although Joe’s Dad is great, so is Joe. And since not as many of you know his story, here it is (or part of it anyway).
I have known Joe for a long time. I remarked to him recently how a panto rehearsal in Ransboro School reminded me of a November afternoon more than ten years ago when he and his friends were playing football outside the window of the school hall. Now it just so happened that inside said hall at that very moment a gang of teenage girls his age were rehearsing for the show. He claimed no prior knowledge of the rehearsal. I’m not so sure.
Joe (along with his contemporary Nell Kelly) was the first ever Teenage Theme Night emcee, and it was clear from the start that this was a job that suited him down to his toes. He was our standard-bearer and many subsequent emcees mentioned Joe when I asked them if there was anyone they would like to emulate in the job. One even told me of their parents’ reaction when they heard the news that she was going to be an emcee – ‘Well done, but how are you going to be as good as Joe’?
So I wasn’t surprised to see a picture of him speaking for our Taoiseach recently. He is a bright, upstanding and grounded young man and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for him.
Joe is making his Theme Night debut on Theme Night #31, and while he has a fantastic baritone voice, it’s no surprise that he has chosen a song where many of the words are spoken. He will inhabit a character for its duration, and funny enough – he’ll tell us a story about that character’s Dad. Who was the opposite of well known, but did commit one very significant action in his life.
What’s New?
STORY NO. 2: In case you missed it on social media last week…read it here.
LEE KEEGAN: Possibly my favourite footballer of the last decade retired yesterday. Here are some of his greatest moments.
CONGRATS MARGARET…on winning four tickets to Theme Night #31 in the big final night raffle draw at the recent Coolera Dramatic Society Christmas pantomime. Thanks to Joe Grogan and Walker 1781 for sponsoring dinner for four as part of the prize.
Finally…
Surely one of the most famous story songs ever written…but did it make it into the show?? Or has he any other story songs that might?
Till next time - Kieran.
