We reluctantly silenced the bells and lowered the curtain on ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ on Saturday, November 25th as we said au revoir to the bustling streets of Paris, to Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, Clopin de Trouillefou, Esmeralda, Phoebus de Martin, Père Dupin, Florika, Jehan Frollo, Frederic Charlus, King Louis XI and of course to Quaismodo. It was a pleasure to have all of you in town for four nights of stunning music, songs, drama and enchantment.
We, the Committee of Boyle Musical Society would like to extend a very sincere thanks to everybody from Boyle and beyond, who attended the show in such large numbers. You are the heartbeat of Boyle Musical Society and your cheers, applause and presence each night, added the final layer of enchantment to our performances. With capacity houses and standing ovations, the 1500+ audience members that came out to see the show over four cold November nights, told us that this show was a massive success. We couldn’t have asked for more.
To all the local individuals and especially the businesses that sponsored our show, you are our life blood. Thank you for responding so generously yet again, by subscribing to the funding of our show, through our GoFundMe page and by sponsoring great prizes. Thanks also to those who contributed either financially or otherwise and were too late for inclusion in our programme.
We urge everybody to love where they live, to shop local and support all our local businesses over the Christmas season and throughout the coming year.
We would of course like to thank our very talented cast of 57, especially all those who travelled to join us this year.
Thanks to Vivienne and Anne in our Production team for their brilliant talents and endless energy, not forgetting to mention the stage crew, set builders, our light and sound teams, our costume, make-up, hair and props teams, front of house team, ticket and programme sellers, the orchestra, ushers, shop staff, tea ladies and those who donated props. We are also indebted to the St. Joseph’s Hall committee and Abbey Community College for rehearsal facilities. We are also grateful to the staff, especially Anna Robertson and Eilish Canty, of Úna Bhán Tourism, for allowing us to use their premises as our booking office once again.
Publicity is vital for any production and we thank all the local publications, Roscommon Herald, Roscommon People, Sligo Champion, Leitrim Observer, Sligo Weekender, Boyle Parish Newsletter and all who made room for our posters and signs. We would also like to thank Boyletoday.com, realboyle.com, Ros FM and Charlie McGettigan at Shannonside FM. We are very grateful to Benny Morgan for the beautiful photographs he took and also to Pat Gannon for managing our billboards.
From backstage to front of house, we have a fantastic team behind us to ensure that the show runs smoothly every year. Apart from the cast of 57 and committee of 11, there were over 50 voluntary, talented and generous people, who helped out in every way possible this year.
As a voluntary organisation, it has always been our intention to showcase the abundance of talent that we have here and to bring a little love, light, magic and music to everybody during the winter. Boyle Musical Society is your Musical Society and it is heart-warming to see that the community spirit in Boyle continues to thrive.
We have to go away now and dream it all up again but we will be back, sooner than you think!! Boyle Musical Society will celebrate 40 years in 2024, so look out for some exciting news over the coming months.
In January, we will be looking at ideas for our next show. By May, we will be awaiting the results of the AIMS Award nominations and by September, rehearsals will once again be underway for our 39th production.
Wishing everybody a Peaceful Christmas and a New Year filled with health and happiness.
Brendan McGee,
PRO
Boyle Musical Society.
Photograph by Benny Morgan
