Lucan drama set to host community open mic night

“YOU CAN expect a relaxed evening of entertainment delivered by the local community in the comfortable surroundings of Courtney’s upstairs venue,” explains Ellen Downes, chairperson of Lucan Drama.

Lucan Drama are delighted to be opening up their stage to the local community again for an open mic night as part of Lucan Festival 2026.

This will be taking place on September 3, upstairs in Courtney’s, Lucan; doors will open at 7:15pm, and the show starts at 8pm sharp, running until about 10pm or

10:30pm with an interval.

Their MC will take to the stage to make everyone feel comfortable and introduce the experienced, new and emerging talent to share their art.

There will be short performances from actors in Lucan Drama; there will be songs sung throughout the night from a variety of singers and musicians, poetry, spoken word and stories told.

There has been “great interest” and “lots of sign-ups” already, but the group expects to have about twenty performances throughout the evening.

Lucan Drama has had a busy year; a big highlight was

“transforming the Courtney’s stage into a cosy Connemara cottage” when they staged Martin McDonagh’s ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ in the spring.

They also had a unique experience this year, when three of their members brought their own original writing forward to stage three world premieres in the summer for their evening of one-act plays.

As well as this, they got to relive a bit of Lucan Drama history when they went on a group outing to the Abbey Theatre in July to see Lennox Robinson’s classic 1916 Irish comedy, ‘The Whiteheaded Boy’; this was the first play Lucan Drama ever staged in 1958.

Highlights of these open mic nights would usually include the variety of acts and the relaxed environment, a notable example being a young singer-songwriter leading the whole room to sing the chorus of their song.

Ellen remarks, “You could be laughing your head off at a poem one minute and almost moved to tears by the next.”

The biggest challenge for these events would usually be scheduling; to navigate this challenge, the group keeps in touch with the performers on the run-up to “try to figure this piece out and occasionally asks them to tweak their timings”.

Lucan Drama will be staging these one-act plays again from October 19 to 22.

One of the plays, ‘Reunion’, will be heading out on competition across Ireland on the Drama League of Ireland (DLI) and Amateur Drama Council of Ireland (ADCI) one-act festival circuit.

Then in the winter, the group will be looking to audition for their big production, their full-length play, which will go on stage next spring.

Next year, 2027, will be a big year for Lucan Drama, as it is their platinum anniversary; it will be 70 years since Lucan Drama began in 1957.

“We are really looking forward to celebrating our anniversary with the community and look forward to sharing updates on these plans,” continues Ellen.

She would like to thank all of the management and staff at Courtney’s Lucan, the Lucan Drama committee, Joe Byrne, chairperson of the Lucan Festival; the Lucan Festival committee; and group member David Doyle for allowing use of his microphone and amp.

Finally, Ellen would like to thank the local community for taking part and bringing their art to the stage.

Tickets are free but limited; attendees must register in advance to be in the audience or to perform on stage; for more information, visit the group’s website, LucanDrama.ie, or their social media, @LucanDrama, on Instagram or Facebook.