Players Profiles

Here members share their thoughts on acting, the theatre and their dream roles.

Adriana Dinneen

When you’re acting you are part of team. It takes so many roles, (so to speak!) to get a production up and running from the back stage crew, front of house, lighting, costumes, and of course the audience. One is no good without the other. Acting is when I feel the most alive, the learning of lines, the rehearsals, the frustration, the nerves before you step out onto that stage, the adrenaline and relief when it goes well, but also there maybe time when you have that sinking feeling that it didn’t go like it should have! I love embodying different characters, the traits of another personality and the more removed from myself the more I like it. It is amazing what you can feel in those couple of hours of a live show

Karen Ray

I'd love to play Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady' She has so many variations as a character, from when she's a gutter snipe to dancing with the prince. I love transformative characters such as the original 'Pygmalion' or 'Educating Rita'. I'd take those characters with open arms - Eliza just has the added music . I was actually cast as Eliza in my TY musical but it was cancelled due to a teacher's strike. Still an open wound!!

Maria Hurley

My favourite character was playing Dr Bessner in Murder on The Nile, directed & produced by Karen Ray, Jim O'Mahony and Brenda Lynch. It was a fabulous experience to work with these guys on such a professional production. It was fun to play Dr B, but challenging too. Brenda Nestor (who played French maid, (Louise) and I had a lot of laughs with the trials of mastering German and French accents… I think she did a whole lot better than I !!).

Mark Rowlands

Spencer Tracey once said "acting is not an important job in the scheme of things. Plumbing is". Amen to that (I have spent a day trying to fix a washing machine). I have always been interested in the arts, the cinema in particular, but apart from some choral singing never as a participant. Drama was not a subject taught at my school. I have a dim memory of what we would now call a drama workshop group visiting my secondary school. It was of the 'I want you to imagine you are a tree' variety and it put me off for many years. It is a trite observation, but we are all acting, pretty much all of the time. I think the older you get the more you realise that. On the stage, one at least acknowledges that a role is being played. And, lets face it, it is great fun!

Jim O'Mahony

The greatest fear is that you won’t do justice to the work, particularly when you’re entrusted with the legacy of an icon such as Agatha Christie. You have a duty to showcase the writer’s vision and present it to the audience in a way that does the work justice.

UCC Players