Casey Hallahan - Drama Teacher, Director

12/11/2023

The YARN Storytelling Festival kicks off this weekend.

Now celebrating its 14th year, YARN is a community-based non-profit festival that strives to bring the art form of storytelling to as many people of all ages in the community as possible.

📅 Saturday, November 11th to Thursday, November 23rd
📍Various locations
🎟️ https://www.mermaidartscentre.ie/whats-on/all/category/yarn-storytelling-festival-bray

Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre YARN Storytelling Festival

13/09/2023

I was honoured and delighted to be part of this pan-European audio drama initiative. Getting to meet and work with local community advocates and workers was an absolute pleasure and an honour, and they made a wonderful short audio drama piece in the short space of one week.

Alexis was amazing too ; getting to learn from and work with incredibly experienced arts worker and advocate such as herself was a huge inspiration!
I, for one, can't wait to see what the Synchromesh Extended group produce!

Did you know some of our tutors have been working with the cohort for the full 2-week residency in Timișoara?

Say hello to the amazing team that’s been with us for the duration of our stay 👋

🤝 Alexis Johnson - Community extension
Alexis has been responsible for International Arts’ education and outreach for the best part of 10 years. Her output is extraordinary, from making audio dramas with 8-year-olds to community projects in Nigeria. Her community programme in Timișoara is all about capacity building.

🎙️ David Thomas - Sound design and recording production
David is International Arts’ first call when we need to produce a radio drama - and pretty much everyone else’s too! It’s a miracle to have him for 2 weeks, but he’s loving being able to teach a new generation of sound designers how to record the sound of silence in a dark theatre.

✨ Casey Callahan - Extension tutor and support staff
Casey has been working alongside Alexis supporting community groups, as well as being our hands-on person for organising all the project’s technical needs. They’ve worked quite a bit with International Arts creating audio drama with young people in Ireland. And their provision of exotic Irish whiskey is an absolute gift.

Please join us in giving them a hand for all the amazing work they’ve done with our cohort so far 👏

18/03/2023

Bray folk! Tonight's the night! Would love to see you there.

15/03/2023

Over the last year and a half I've been honoured to be Managing Director of Mr. Sands Youth Theatre in my home-town of Bray- they're an incredible bunch of young people.

We're performing a full scale show in a traditional theatre space for the first time since 2020 at the Whale Theatre in Greystones, tomorrow... and it's very nearly sold out from my understanding, if not completely sold out...!

There's one more follow-up show on Saturday the 18th at the Bray Methodist Church at 8pm. All tickets €5. We would love to see you there if you can make it; they've done such incredible work, and they deserve to pack out the place a second time!

--

This is a play about stories.

Lillie is a teenager who lives on the Heights Estate. A place where nothing ever happens, except in Lillie’s head. Lillie’s not like most people, definitely not. For starters, she never goes out, but sits in her bedroom window on the sixth floor of her tower block, watching the world and the people in it go by – though sometimes some of those same people enter her world. As she sits, she makes up stories. Some of these stories are sad, some are happy, some are funny, some are just wonderful, and some are just terrible.

This story is about Dara, who she watches from her window. It is about their brother Jimmy, and their gang. It's about a gun they find. It is about Bizzy, who never puts her book down. It is about Fran and Ann, who she can see arguing in the building opposite. It is about Jacob, who no one ever truly knows.

But they're just stories.

Aren't they?

This production is presented by Mr Sands Youth Theatre, Bray's local Youth Theatre with an open door policy. We are always welcoming new members!

Approx Duration: 1hr 10mins (no interval)

27/02/2023

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've been flat out!

But for good reasons... I'm delighted to be involved with two amazing youth theatre shows coming in the near future.

My youth theatre, Mr. Sands Youth Theatre , is presenting The Heights by Lisa McGee as part of the National Theatre Connections festival, under the steady directorial eye of Artistic Director Martha Breen. We've got two dates planned:

16 March - Whale Theatre , Greystones Co. Wicklow at 8pm https://whaletheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873633561/events/128442430

2 April - Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge Co. Kildare at 7:30 pm https://www.riverbank.ie/event/nt-connections-2023-mr-sands-youth-theatre-presents-the-heights-by-lisa-mcgee/

Not only that, I'm delighted and honoured to have been welcomed back by Dublin Youth Theatre to direct another show for the Debut One Act Festival, working with a fantastic group of budding young actors... more on that very soon!

This is a Mr. Sands Youth Theatre Bray production, as part of National Theatre Connections 2023. Please note: This production uses strong ...

08/04/2022

I've been working with an incredibly talented and wonderful group of young actors, who joined Dublin Youth Theatre just last year. This is their first time performing on stage and I could not be more proud of their work, and excited to see them take their first steps into a great artistic career. You can do so too!

The show runs next week from Tuesday to Saturday. You should go! It's going to be fantastic - three one acts in one night!

Tuesday is already sold out, too...so get in there while you can!

Dublin Youth Theatre delivers quality artistic experiences through a full and varied drama workshop programme and the production of excellent, exciting and challenging theatre made by young people

29/08/2021

I'm offering my teaching services on Fiverr!

https://www.fiverr.com/s2/611c16c089

If you or anyone you know might be interested in drama sessions, please spread the word. I would greatly appreciate it!

For only $20, Caseyliamh will help you or your child become an amazing actor. | Do you want take your first steps as an actor, whether it's for stage, screen or voice?Maybe you've got an audition coming up, and you | Fiverr

12/06/2021

Today is Cruinniú na nÓg, which means it's show time!

Tonight at 8pm is a free showcase performance of Night in A Cell by Harry Lawlor, performed by a talented group of Dublin Youth Theatre members (including the author himself!), and directed by yours truly.

It's absolutely free to join; would love to see you there. :)

Dublin Youth Theatre delivers quality artistic experiences through a full and varied drama workshop programme and the production of excellent, exciting and challenging theatre made by young people

14/04/2021

For the last 2 months I've been working with a very talented group of young people from Dublin Youth Theatre on a script from DYT's writer's group. Adapting a prison comedy to the online format has been a ton of fun, and we've made something that I think is unique, exciting and hilarious!

We are having a work-in-progress showing this Saturday, ahead of our full performance in June for Cruinniú na nÓg. You can reserve for this Saturday here :

Dublin Youth Theatre delivers quality artistic experiences through a full and varied drama workshop programme and the production of excellent, exciting and challenging theatre made by young people

04/03/2021

Today is day, and I'd like to give a shout out to the youth theatre that helped shape me into the teacher I am today - Prague Youth Theatre.

Getting to work full time as a drama facilitator for those 3 years is a gift I will always be grateful for, and I'm deeply proud of the scores of children who I worked with, played with, and learned from.

Prague Youth Theatre has reached its 10th year anniversary, and are going strong; I for one hope to be able to see their summer shows in June 2021. No lockdown will stop them!

14/02/2021

I was delighted to get to work with the PYT Seniors and Advanced groups this weekend and last weekend. They're taking the challenge of working online in their stride! :)

If you'd like to have me drop in to show your youth group the possibilities of working online, get in touch! :)

We had a virtual visit from a very familiar face during yesterday's rehearsals...

ex-PYT Acting Teacher Casey Hallahan led workshops with our older students who are busy preparing monologues as part of our second Theatre Skills Project.

Casey encouraged the students to present their texts in different ways using action words. They have one more week to rehearse before performing to family and friends at our online Monologue Showcase evenings.

Thanks for joining us Casey!