THE OUTSIDERS

Poster design by Claire O'Donovan

writer

director

video artist

costumes & set

choreographer

Pat Daly

Jenny Grangel

Ken Coleman

Deirdre Dwyer

Trish Murphy

Why are we obsessed with becoming famous?

Who says we need to look a certain way?

How difficult is it to step outside the box? ...to be an individual, to be unique?

These are some of the difficult issues which local playwright Pat Daly tackled in his new play ‘The Outsiders’. As Pat explains “The remit was to write a play that looks at the effect of "Image", and all that goes with it, on young people, especially young women. This would include Fame, Advertising, Peer pressure, Obsession and so on.” A hard task you may say but one, which Pat has made very entertaining “ There is a great sense of fun from young people and I know that the lads in the cast had a ball creating this play.”

This was Pat’s first commission for Waterford Youth Drama (the drama wing of Waterford Youth Arts) and one which they were very excited about. As the director of the play Jenny Grangel explained, “To find a play for 25 teenagers is very difficult but it's great to have someone of Pat Daly’s expertise on board and we are sure it is going to be good.”

Here are some thoughts on The Outsiders by cast member Laura Roche:

The Outsiders is a play that focuses on the pressures forced on teenagers in today’s world. These pressures include influences of the media (image), parents, teachers, peers etc. Basically all the external forces that impact on the thoughts and decisions of a young person (especially young girls). This play seeks to highlight these issues in a unique, interesting and often humorous way. The play involves fifteen teenagers and the writer has divided these into those who represent real teenage girls with genuine problems and "The Outsiders". The Outsiders are unusual and somewhat phantom beings. They are not clearly defined as possessing particular characteristics but can represent the persona of all the influences on teenagers. They challenge these problems clearly asking the difficult questions that people in our society often find better to avoid, often escalating the problem.

My experience of working on this play has been absolutely fantastic. I’ve gained invaluable acting experience and learned to deal with some of the problems performers must face eg we had to deal with working on a traverse stage. While rehearsing for any performance can sometimes be tedious, our director Jenny Grangel has maintained a strong sense of fun and unity within the group during the rehearsals. I’m sure most of the cast would struggle to recall a day when we didn’t laugh ourselves silly!! Jenny is an excellent director bringing out the best from each and every performer. She was helped by Claire, Trish and Deirdre who make a great team. I have to admit that that the atmosphere within the group is one of the most positive I have ever encountered while working with a group of people my own age. Everyone is very close and we are like a great big family. I have made friends with everyone and I definitely want to stay in touch with everyone! I only knew a handful of people at the start but now I feel as if I’ve known them all forever. I definitely want to repeat this experience again and am signing up for drama class this year. I will miss the daily rehearsals so much but I hope that our play will highlight these difficult issues in an interesting way and will help anyone who is affected by these issues. We’ve had an amazing experience on this project.

PAT DALY lives and works in Waterford City. His first play The Pilferers was performed by Red Kettle Theatre Company in 1999. Next came Urbs Intacta Manet, originally performed by The Bowler Hat Theatre Company. Bowler Hat also put on his play GTi during the 2004 Waterford Imagine Festival.

The next year the Imagine Festival commissioned a new short play Clem and Ben, performed by WYA. In April 2006 his play John Roberts Square was produced by Bowler Hat.

Pat is the recipient of the 2006 Ted and Mary O'Regan Arts Bursary.