THE YEAR THAT WAS 2023
2023 has been an incredible year for us here at Brassneck Theatre Company with not 1, not 2 but 3 World Premieres!!!🌟🌟🌟
We kicked off in January with the acquisition of a new post when we welcomed Lyndsay Campbell into the company as our General Manager. Lyndsay hit the ground running, spearheading us into 2023!💃
At the start of the year, we were very proud to become the first arts organisation in the north to sign a unique contract with our union Equity, adopting a five-day-working-week. This trailblazing contract protects artists and creatives rights and brought us into line with many other unions.🥳
February saw us kick off rehearsals for our first show of 2023 funded by Belfast City Council. We were honoured & delighted on day 1 of rehearsals to be joined by Belfast Mayor Cllr Tina Black to launch the play. The result was the World Premiere in March at The Devenish as part of Féile An Fhearraigh, of Pearse Elliott’s powerful and hilarious state-of-the-nation address, ‘MY CORONA’. Starring the wonderful Caroline Curran, ‘MY CORONA’ (celebrating the work of our health care workers in this the 75th anniversary of our NHS), completely sold out its Belfast run and subsequent regional tour an entire month before it even opened and was extremely well received by audiences and critics alike. Throughout its run in March, we partnered with Dementia NI as our charity partner, and were delighted to present them with a cheque for £802.19 from monies raised on the door, to help them in a small way towards the incredible work that they do!💃
May, June & July saw us develop and rehearse our next World Premeire, Fionnuala Kennedy’s powerful ‘PROJECT CHILDREN’ which had its introduction to the world in the all new St Comgall’s as part of Féile 35! An outstanding show with sold-out houses that blew the roof off an already iconic new arts space in West Belfast, we were very proud that 2 young actors from Brassneck Youth played alongside professional actors in this show! We were also privileged to partner with ‘Include Youth’ on this project and they received over £1000 in donations from our generous audiences to help with their charity.💖
August also saw the remount of Pearse Elliott’s hilarious ‘My Corona’ at Féile an Phobail and our first return to Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre in almost 3 years after its refurbishment, (also the first time we ever presented 2 shows at Féile) followed by a regional tour concluding in the beautiful Amharclann Gaoth Dobhair in An Ghaeltacht in West Donegal!💚
Our friends at Brassneck Youth also hosted their 9th annual Summer Scheme at our all new premises in Hannahstown in August which was as always, a roaring success!🙌
As every year in September, we presented the Marc O’Shea memorial bursary as part of the Aisling Bursaries in St Mary’s University College to a very deserving young person from West Belfast who is now heading off to third level education to study acting.👏
At Christmas, we were proud and humbled to present our first ever ‘PEOPLE’S PANTO’, another pioneering event from Brassneck to couple that Equity agreement at the beginning of the year. ‘Cinderella’ by Neil Keery, partnering with our friend and West Belfast’s very own superhero Donate4Dáithí and funded by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, was a roaring success in December at The Devenish and we also were privileged to take the production over to the Shankill Road community at the Forthriver bowling club. We hope that this will become a long-standing partnership and are already planning for ‘The People’s Panto’ for 2024 so watch this space!🌟
Stand by for some incredible announcements in the New Year folks as we have a very exciting calendar planned ahead for you all. 🤩
Wishing you all, the safest and happiest of New Years from us here at Brassneck and we are already looking forward to seeing you all in 2024!
We kicked off in January with the acquisition of a new post when we welcomed Lyndsay Campbell into the company as our General Manager. Lyndsay hit the ground running, spearheading us into 2023!💃
At the start of the year, we were very proud to become the first arts organisation in the north to sign a unique contract with our union Equity, adopting a five-day-working-week. This trailblazing contract protects artists and creatives rights and brought us into line with many other unions.🥳
February saw us kick off rehearsals for our first show of 2023 funded by Belfast City Council. We were honoured & delighted on day 1 of rehearsals to be joined by Belfast Mayor Cllr Tina Black to launch the play. The result was the World Premiere in March at The Devenish as part of Féile An Fhearraigh, of Pearse Elliott’s powerful and hilarious state-of-the-nation address, ‘MY CORONA’. Starring the wonderful Caroline Curran, ‘MY CORONA’ (celebrating the work of our health care workers in this the 75th anniversary of our NHS), completely sold out its Belfast run and subsequent regional tour an entire month before it even opened and was extremely well received by audiences and critics alike. Throughout its run in March, we partnered with Dementia NI as our charity partner, and were delighted to present them with a cheque for £802.19 from monies raised on the door, to help them in a small way towards the incredible work that they do!💃
May, June & July saw us develop and rehearse our next World Premeire, Fionnuala Kennedy’s powerful ‘PROJECT CHILDREN’ which had its introduction to the world in the all new St Comgall’s as part of Féile 35! An outstanding show with sold-out houses that blew the roof off an already iconic new arts space in West Belfast, we were very proud that 2 young actors from Brassneck Youth played alongside professional actors in this show! We were also privileged to partner with ‘Include Youth’ on this project and they received over £1000 in donations from our generous audiences to help with their charity.💖
August also saw the remount of Pearse Elliott’s hilarious ‘My Corona’ at Féile an Phobail and our first return to Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre in almost 3 years after its refurbishment, (also the first time we ever presented 2 shows at Féile) followed by a regional tour concluding in the beautiful Amharclann Gaoth Dobhair in An Ghaeltacht in West Donegal!💚
Our friends at Brassneck Youth also hosted their 9th annual Summer Scheme at our all new premises in Hannahstown in August which was as always, a roaring success!🙌
As every year in September, we presented the Marc O’Shea memorial bursary as part of the Aisling Bursaries in St Mary’s University College to a very deserving young person from West Belfast who is now heading off to third level education to study acting.👏
At Christmas, we were proud and humbled to present our first ever ‘PEOPLE’S PANTO’, another pioneering event from Brassneck to couple that Equity agreement at the beginning of the year. ‘Cinderella’ by Neil Keery, partnering with our friend and West Belfast’s very own superhero Donate4Dáithí and funded by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, was a roaring success in December at The Devenish and we also were privileged to take the production over to the Shankill Road community at the Forthriver bowling club. We hope that this will become a long-standing partnership and are already planning for ‘The People’s Panto’ for 2024 so watch this space!🌟
Stand by for some incredible announcements in the New Year folks as we have a very exciting calendar planned ahead for you all. 🤩
Wishing you all, the safest and happiest of New Years from us here at Brassneck and we are already looking forward to seeing you all in 2024!