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Ever wonder what the letters were like that informed you that you had made it to the next round of the Tops? Here is one from 1981 from Niall O’Flynn to Waterford Glass group leader Dando Kelly. Click below to have a read. 1981 – Tops Letter – Waterford Glass

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A Jim Nolan play in Waterford is a red letter day. This is the show programme from the 2007 Theatre Royal produced ‘Sky Road’, directed by Ben Barnes. Click below to have a browse. 2007 – Sky Road – Show Programme

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Have a glance at the programme for the 2016 production of the Glass. This is the Dungarvan production – it had minor cast differences from the Waterford production that will be streamed tonight (Sunday June 6th). What’s really clever about it is one side is the list of people involvedContinue Reading

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Here is the epic opening to Bryan Flynns world premier of his first musical – Pentimenti. This recording is from the opening night.

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Yep – half a million people have viewed videos, listened to audio, browsed show programmes and looked at photos over the last 2 and a half years. I always knew that a certain interest level would be there for the archive site and eventually it might clock up to aContinue Reading

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Way way back to almost 50 years ago today and Des Keogh was the national Tops adjudicator. I have come across a number of these adjudications – and they are always interesting. This is a countrywide report. In the course of it he discusses the ACEC show, singling out theContinue Reading

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Happy Bank Holiday Weekend! Heres another one of the lovely vintage videos taken backstage and around the Theatre during the John Player Tops. I’m not 100% on it’s origin, but there’s loads of familiar young faces in there. Have a look!

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Back 58 years to 1961 and the show programme from the De La Salle Musical Society production of Die Fledermaus. 1961 – Die Fledermaus – Show Programme

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Today I’m adding in the 1995 WIFLO Season Brochure to the archive. In 1995 the Waterford entry was ‘Oliver’ by Stage Fright under the direction of Bryan Flynn. It was to finish as runner up in the festival as well as scooping a number of individual awards. Added to theContinue Reading

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To round off the weekend 25th Anniversary here is a special episode I put together with the help of Bill Stafford, Paul Browne, Karen Hearne, Ben Hennessy, Richie Hayes and Seneiva Magill , with thanks to David Flynn for a special appearance. Enjoy!

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For the weekend that was in it back in 1994 the RTE Guide ran a feature for ‘Tops’. Here it is to peruse. 1994 – Tops Feature – RTE Guide

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Way back 50 years today to the spring of 1969 and a production of South Pacific from De La Salle Musical Society. Here is the show programme from that show that featured many well known stars from yester year. South Pacific has remained a favourite – since being produced byContinue Reading

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Back to 1985 today and the Presentation Secondary School produced ‘Calamity Jane’. Here’s the show programme to peruse. 1985 – Calamity Jane – Show Programme

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This time of the year has become Waterford Musical Society’s time of year and with their production of ‘South Pacific’ approaching here is a throwback to their last Rogers & Hammerstein production – the classic ‘Oklahoma’. Here’s the show programme (which is always a well produced treat from WMS). 2016Continue Reading

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Back a short hop today to 2017 and Ignite Productions were once again producing an original piece of theatre that was challenging. This time it was the recent Broadway / London Lin Manuel Miranda masterpiece ‘In The Heights’. 2017 – In The Heights – Show Programme

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The first Schools production of Les Mis in Waterford was performed by De La Salle College in 2006 in the Theatre Royal. Here is the show programme from that very performance. 2006 – Les Miserables – Show Programme

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By request here is the final WIFLO Brochure from 2012 – the festival that saw the South Eastern Theatre Group sweep the boards with Les Miserables. The Festival had fallen from 18 shows at its peak to just 5 competitive shows and a School music festival. Despite this, the FestivalsContinue Reading

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I love these old Tops Magazines – this one from 1985. The other 2 in the archive are here and here. As usual, there are loads of photos from around the country as well as Waterford and interesting articles including a Waterford section. Enjoy! 1985 – Tops Magazine

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Back to 2012 tonight and some more class video from the lens of Colin Shanahan of Digicol media. It’s the intro sequence and some clips from ‘The Sound Of Music’ all over the live recording of ‘Doe A Deer’ as performed by the cast with Gabrielle Holden on main vocalContinue Reading

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It’s great to have a copy of the original 1959 WIFLO season Brochure from the very first Festival of Light Opera. 60 years ago this year, this rare programme is worth it’s weight in gold! Have a look – even the ads are priceless! Added to the WIFLO archive here.Continue Reading

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Today we have the season brochure from WIFLO 2005 when Flaggy Lane Productions became the first Waterford Society to win the Festival with ‘Singing In The Rain’.. a feat they were to repeat in 2006 before South Eastern Theatre Group became the third and final winners of the Festival. AddedContinue Reading

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In 2004 Variety made a return to the Waterford Stage in the guise of the Variety Club of Waterford spearheaded by Michael Grant and Padraig O’Griofa. This was the first ‘variety show’ in years and featured a host of local stars. Also in this show brochure are some nice articlesContinue Reading

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For me this was – and always will be – the first real ‘game-changer’ in Waterford Theatre. Before Grease there were two societies performing tried and trusted standards. After Grease the floodgates opened and young people – and in fact anybody – who wanted to try and put on aContinue Reading

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In 1993 Tramore Players Anonymous were ‘Making the Perfect Man’, based on the Chris DeBurgh song of the same name. The scene was lead by Liam Molumby and the entire show was produced by Bryan Flynn. It’s a great scene and a brilliant example of making a scene out ofContinue Reading

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In 2010 WIFLO turned 50. It was hard to believe that just 2 short years later it would all be gone, and in my opinion is one of the greatest tragedies in Waterford Theatre that it died out. Here is the season brochure for that 50th festival – some greatContinue Reading

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The Edmund Rice Choral and Musical Society was on of the 2 main musical societies in Waterford from the late 1970’s until the early 90’s.  A multi-award winning society, it is still in existence right up to today although at the moment it focuses of choral singing with it’s coreContinue Reading