Thank you Ollie
Ollie Breslin
It’s a best bib and tucker night for Waterford Youth Arts as old friends and new in the Arts world share greetings and stories and memories of a movement that has given so much to the arts in Waterford.
There are pictures and posters and memorabilia in the Theatre Royal foyer, although none for sale. Understandable really. Show posters that store memories, friendships, hard graft and inspiration are priceless.
Mayor Séamus Ryan noted the achievement and praised Artistic Director Ollie Breslin’s legacy and organisational skills of Administrator Cathy Hanrahan in working and crafting this organisation into a well-honed machine that never lost sight of its mission to empower its young members to find their own creative vision.
WYA Chairman Robert Browne spoke of the pride he felt as the Chairman of one of the leading young arts organisations in the country.
‘Waterford Youth Arts has always been my passion’ he beamed and raucous voices joined in the celebration.
Performances showed just how far this group has come with its innovative approach.
Originally established as Waterford Youth Drama, they performed everywhere.
In parks, church fields, historic sites, buses and – would you believe it – even in a professional circus tent in Dunmore.
"Ollie had us everywhere," declares Kalle Ryan, our MC for the evening. "We were supported and connected," he explained, "and driven by the power of storytelling. He’s mesmerised by the magic of it all…’50p to join and it changed all our lives", as he wonders just what it was like back then when the world was a young person’s oyster.
A dance ensemble from the current team of WYA conjures up a now and then sequence where the ‘now’ segues into ‘then’ with the collaboration of older members that appear from the audience.
WYA gathers them all together in webs of invention.
A Romeo and Juliet balcony scene somehow morphs into a missing Juliet and a buddy burglar who makes off with the swag with the collaboration of Jamie Flynn, David Rowe, Shane Flynn, Be di Placido, Ryan Keogh and Shane Barry. Ah…the inventions of youth.
Kalle Ryan chipped in with a couple of songs and a play discovered in an attic written by his 11-year-old self and performed by his middle-aged self and grown-up son while Wayne Power’s performance poetry wins many admirers.
The highlight of the night is the performance of Keith Dunphy as the Ancient Mariner with a soundscape from Jamie Beamish.
Keith’s eyes are everywhere searching out for non-believers and his face lit up the Large Room with a nuclear-charged passion.
The range of his vocal delivery never allowed for any lulls in Coleridge’s gothic horror tale of the man who shot the albatross that doomed his ship mates to a lingering death. Beamish’s soundscape mixes wind and sea and storm into a frenzy and the cataclysmic shipwreck is a deafening thunder clap of sea and storm and breaking timber and deafening terror.
There are many tributes tonight to Artistic Director Ollie Breslin who sustained this ship of artists through the ups and downs of life in the arts.
The hardest challenge in any organisation is the task of keeping it going and Ollie kept this show on the road.
Thank you Ollie.
