Tag Archives: wiflo

Back to 1964 and a real rarity – the season brochure from the Festival of Light Opera. There’s 156 pages of pictures, shows and even adverts from old shops to look at (sometimes the adverts are so nostalgic too!). Thanks so much to Aidan McGrath for passing this onto share with us all – much apprectiated. Added to the WIFLO …

A look back into our WIFLO heritage today and the season brochure from the 1970 Festival, when the festival was truly international and it seemed to have more societies from outside the state competing. A fascinating look back at how things used to be! Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1970 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

This is a rather unusual programme for WIFLO – it merely lists the shows and has all the usual paraphernalia with committees and lists etc… but has no actual details for the show casts etc. Worth adding to the archive though – and to the WIFLO page here. 1974 – WIFLO Season Brochure

One for all the WIFLO fans today, and the season brochure from the 1977 festival. I always feel these are so important to keep – WIFLO was a huge part of our heritage in Waterford. Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1977 – Waterford International Festival Of Light Opera – Season Brochure.

Its great to fill up the history of WIFLO with the season brochures… still a long way to go before I’m even close to it but it’s terrific to get older season brochures into the archive. This one is from 1978. Have a browse! Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1978 – Season Brochure    

Back 39 years to 1979 today and the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera season brochure – have a look! Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1979 – WIFLO Season Brochure  

Here is another one of those vintage WIFLO season Brochures – this time it’s from 1986. Have a browse below. 1986 – WIFLO – Season Brochure.

Here is the 1988 season brochure for the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera. Operettas were still dominating but a noticeable shift to the more modern show was noticeable this year. Click below to have a browse. 1988 – WIFLO Season Brochure

1989 – the year that De La Salle College represented Waterford in the Festival with ‘How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying’. Have a browse below. 1989 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

‘Sit Down’ and enjoy this really stunning performance from Ray Collins and Flaggy Lane Productions in the 2006 production of ‘Guys and Dolls’ that swept the boards in the Festival of Light Opera.

Here is the 1991 Season Brochure from the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera. No Waterford entry that particular year, but worth including for completeness. Click below to have a browse. 1991 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

1994 was the year that De La Salle entered with ‘The King And I’ after scooping the AIMS best show award. We had 2 productions of Chess – Playback Productions and eventual winners Carrick On Suir. Here is the Season brochure for a browse. 1994 – WIFLO Season Brochure

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 the WIFLO archive here. 1995 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

In 1996 Stage Fright were doing ‘Chess’, Edmund Rice Choral and Musical Society were presenting ‘The Mikado’ and Tramore Combined Schools were performing the premier of ‘Whistle Down The Wind’. It was the most Waterford societies ever to appear competitively in the same festival. Have a look at the season brochure below, or have a browse of the entire WIFLO archive …

These season brochures are so important to archive. This year our sole Waterford representative was the Edmund Rice Choral And Musical Society with Iolanthe. Mind you our near neighbours from Carrick On Suir were down with an excellent Me And My Girl. Other outstanding shows that year included Some Like It Hot – Dublin Musical Theatre Players and a brilliant …

1999 featured no Waterford Shows in the line-up – it is however always good to add in new WIFLO stuff to the archive!  Have a browse! Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1999 – WIFLO Season Brochure

This was the year when Bryan Flynn brought his Waterford production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ into the festival with a host of local and national talent. Have a browse – it’s all in here with the full listings of the 2000 festival. Click below to have a read. 2000 – WIFLO Season Brochure

Once again for archiving purposes I like to include the season brochures of WIFLO from time to time. This year – 2001 – the sole Waterford entries were De La Salle College with a production of ‘Joseph’ – but Waterford’s Bryan Flynn did direct Fiddler on the Roof and our near neighbours Carrick on Suir were also taking part with …

2002 was a quiet year for local participation, but Bowler Hat and local choir Lumen provided the final night concert. Added to the WIFLO Archive here 2002 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

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. Added to the WIFLO archive here. 2005 – Waterford International Theatre …

2006 was the year when Flaggy Lane lifted the international trophy for the second time in 2 years, and for only the second time out of 3 times in total that a Waterford show won the Festival outright. Have a browse! Added to the WIFLO archive here. 2006 – WIFLO Season Brochure

Another one of these ever popular WIFLO Season Brochures – this time from 2007. This years WIFLO saw everything from The Mikado to The Most Happy Fella… Click on the Image below to view the programme.

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 great reading in it, some old photos and some interesting articles. …

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 Festivals popularity continued, and its demise is still bemoaned all over …

From the WIFLO winning production here is a classic from ‘Singing In The Rain’ – produced by Flaggy Lane Productions in 2005.

The Waterford International Festival of Light Opera or WIFLO as it was more affectionately known was one of the main reasons (the other being The Tops) that Waterford enjoyed a status of being the ‘Mecca’ of Musical Theatre for a considerable part of the last 40 years. From it’s early days when it attracted entries from all over the UK …

Another video that was requested and very popular on our first stream was ‘Good Morning’ from ‘Singing In The Rain’, Flaggy Lane Productions 2005 WIFLO winning production. Here it is in all it’s glory featuring the wonderful Megan Cassidy, Michael Evans and Damien Douglas.

The first of a three part audio-podcast series with Des Manahan – recent winner of the Waterford News And Star Green Room Lifetime Achievement Award. I spoke to Des the day before he won the award and he didn’t have an inkling what lay around the corner the very next night. All the episodes will be in or around 30 …

Today’s update is a pretty special one. Not much remains of the show video and image wise, but this recording of a live broadcast of Oliver! that WLR put out the night it was on exists on tape. I’ve converted it to digital to preserve it, and it’s attached below. It was one of those ‘magic’ nights in the Theatre …

A clip from the ‘Singing In The Rain’ that took the WIFLO honours in 2005 from our own Flaggy Lane Productions… this is ‘Broadway Melody’ – enjoy!

Here is the finale from the WIFLO winning production of ‘Singing In The Rain’ from Flaggy Lane Productions – an award winning production under the direction of Pat McElwain. It should bring back a few memories for those getting rained on in the bright coloured raincoats!

In 2005 Flaggy Lane became the first Waterford society to win the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera with their production of ‘Singing In The Rain’.  Here is a photo gallery of some production images from that show, courtesy of David Hennessy. 2005 – Singing In The Rain – Photo Gallery

This wonderful video (thanks to Clodagh Power) tracks a day in the life of WIFLO when in 2005 the Derby Gilbert & Sullivan company under the direction of multi-award winning Andrew Nicklin allowed the cameras in to follow them during their festival visit. Credits go to Cian O’Carroll for editing and recording, Mary Roche & Kevin O’Carroll for the script …

Back in 1959 the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera was a huge deal that involved the entire city. Reading through this selection of press clippings and looking at the photos will give you some idea of how big a deal it really was! You can peruse the clippings below, and when you’re finished – have a look at the …

Here is a feature filmed and edited by John and Richie Hayes – behind the scenes at Guys and Dolls 2006 produced by Flaggy Lane Productions.

Billy McCathy featured the stunning win by the South Eastern Theatre Group on Deise AM, May 13th 2012. Also joining him is Liam Murphy of the Munster Express.

This is the specially made program celebrating the 50th year of the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera.  Produced and edited by Wayne Brown, narrated by Jamie Beamish it was first broadcast on WLRFM in 2011.