UCD Dramsoc wins three awards at Irish student drama festival

Pictured: UCD Dramsoc auditor Ailish Toal won Best Director for Escaped Alone, performed above at the ISDA festival. 

Posted April 19, 2018

UCD Dramsoc has picked up three accolades at the Irish Student Drama Association (ISDA) festival awards.

The UCD winners at the ten-day festival were Ailish Toal (Best Director, Escaped Alone), Cuán de Barra (Best Set Design, Outliers and Escaped Alone) and Kate Lynch (Best Supporting Actress, Escaped Alone).

Members of UCD Dramsoc have now won the Best Director award at the ISDAs in each of the last four years (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018).

UCD Dramsoc also received nominations in seven categories. These include Aela Flynn (Best Actress), Morgan Buckley (Best Actor), Escaped Alone (Best Ensemble), Colin Doran (Best Lighting Design), Leanne Bergin (Best Sound Design), Outliers and Escaped Alone (Best Overall Production) and Jen Keating (Best Original Writing).

The 2018 ISDA festival was hosted by the University College Cork Dramatic Society. Performances from seven Irish drama societies took place in three theatres across Cork city.

Participating societies came from University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Maynooth University, Queen’s University Belfast, University College Cork, Dublin Institute of Technology.

First held as an all-Ireland event in 1947, the ISDA festival promotes and encourages student drama. Theatrical performances are judged over the course of the festival with an awards ceremony on the final night.

UCD Dramsoc was founded in 1927. Actor Chris O’Dowd, dramatist Conor McPherson and director Jim Sheridan are all former members of the society.

By: Jonny Baxter, digital journalist, UCD University Relations