The NUI Galway Musical Society (GUMS) Intervarsities team have walked away with three awards after the Musical Theatre Intervarsities Awards over the bank holiday weekend.
The GUMS Intervarsities Team won Best Overall Show, Best Choreography and Best Visuals in Thurles with their rendition of Chicago.
Director Kate O’Dowd, a first year Arts student, said of the win; “We’re all so happy. Everyone put in so much work so to get the reward for winning was great.”
Intervarsities are slightly different to a normal theatre piece as each production is only 20 minutes long, but Kate explained that this does not mean less work goes into process.
“I really want people to know so much work was put it into it. It’s the same as a normal production, there’s so much behind the scenes that you don’t see. The cast gave up so much of their time, they were rehearsing 4 to 5 days a week at times.”
The cast had 4 to 6 weeks to prepare for the competition and faced a set of challenges in that time. Like nearly everything in the last two years, Covid-19 reared its ugly head and unfortunately many of the cast got infected during rehearsal weeks.
“There were times only 6 out of 20 of us could show to rehearsal because people had Covid,” Kate said, “That was definitely the hardest part.”
Yet this did not hold back the cast as Kate explained everyone bounced back into rehearsals.
Neal McHugh as Billy Flynn.
“They came straight back in and knew all the performances like they hadn’t even left,” Kate laughed.
The Musical Theatre Intervarsities Awards were adjudicated by three prestigious players in the theatre business: Deirdre Masterson, Reece Kerridge and Michael Scott- Freitas. Along with winning three awards, Kate was also nominated for Best Director.
However, even after winning the three awards, Kate stated the best part was the atmosphere and community of the team; “My favourite part was working with amazing people who are just as excited about the production as me. Everyone in the cast is just so amazing and talented it was an honour to work with them.”
Although this is the end of this particular production of Chicago, Kate said they are already looking forward to next year.
