Tallaght Community Arts ‘Act Up’: Theatre festival for second level students

‘Act Up’ is a festival for second-level students in schools across South Dublin County, where schools are given a choice of selected scripts to “cast, rehearse, and perform,” according to Jennifer Webster, spokesperson of Tallaght Community Arts (TCA) and creator of the ‘Act Up’ programme.

She created it thirteen years ago to introduce students to the world of theatre and give them the opportunity to take leadership in a creative process.

With the support of their teachers, they practice together at their school for several weeks and share their work with audiences during the festival week.

In many school communities, the focus is on musicals, whereas ‘Act Up’ narrows in on the craft of theatre and the many roles involved.

Alongside acting, students participate in directing, stage managing, and running tech. The festival is open to all age groups.

This year, each of the five schools involved (Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School, Deansrath Community College, St. Aidan’s Community School, Firhouse Community College, and Tallaght Community School) encountered various challenges, including changing rehearsal schedules, learning lines, and unforeseen circumstances such as performers getting “cold feet.”

However, these moments provided TCA with chances to think “outside the box” and collaborate even more closely with their team and the “amazing” students and teachers.

There were many special moments that TCA caught during the festival, like watching as student directors take some of their own and find innovative solutions to staging issues and seeing as performers support each other through dress rehearsals and performances.

Jennifer goes on to state that “the biggest highlight of this year’s ‘Act Up’ was watching as the students stepped out of their comfort zones and put on such amazing performances.

Hearing their cheers in the dressing room after their bows left everyone in the audience beaming.

We know how much hard work goes into each and every performance and the teams of people who come together to make the magic happen—teachers, parents, and students.

‘Act Up’ is not just about the final performances; it is about the journey of creative growth, the learnings, and all the friendships made along the way.”

When asked how the performances went, Jennifer responded with “an absolute joy. To watch all of the students across the 5 schools go on a creative journey with theatre that started in the classroom and finished on the stage at Rua Red was so special.”

Some of these students had participated in the festival for several years, and for many, it was their first time ever performing, and TCA is “so delighted” to have been a part of that.

The team was “very impressed” by the teams working behind the stage this year, with some extremely strong stage management teams coming from the schools as well.

TCA held their awards ceremony on May 1, where their festival adjudicator highlighted all of the “massive” achievements and gave recognition to some stand out moments over the course of the week.

Future projects for TCA include collaborating with Creative Places McUilliam to produce free events for young people as part of ‘Crunniu na nOg’ this year.

For their help with ‘Act Up’ this year, Jennifer would like to thank the five schools that TCA collaborated with, the students that took part, their teachers for their dedication, hard work, and going “above and beyond” in supporting their students, as well as the TCA creative team and festival adjudicator Martha Knight.