By Niamh Byrne
Photos: Morgan and members of the Watersedge Drama Group on stage.
The Watersedge Drama Group who get together every week in the Ringsend Community Centre from Tuesday to Thursday are at present focusing on putting together a play based on actual events and written by their very own performer/ teacher Morgan Kiernan.
Morgan who joined the group in 2018 always had a passion for acting and even took part in well-known Irish shows such as Red Rock and Fair City. He has drawn inspiration from Irish actor/playwright Stephen Jones who is also a friend of his, and whose work he goes to see often. Morgan’s love for drama started back in 2013 when he chanced his arm stopping into St Andrews Community Centre to ask if there were any drama groups around. Luckily, there was one just around the corner from him where he took part for a little while. He spent some time in various drama groups, particularly The Ranelagh Players. Here he took part in a production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which happens to be his favourite play. The Crucible, a 1953 play is a dramatisation of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay colony during 1692-93.
Taking a break for a while for personal reasons, Morgan got back into acting in 2017 in a play based on the legendary Ouzel Galley. The famous ship had set sail from Ringsend in 1695, and after not returning was presumed missing at sea. It was thought she perished with all hands. Then when it made an unexpected appearance up the River Liffey with her full complement of crew, and a valuable cargo of spices and exotic goods to boot, rumours started circulating around Dublin that the trading mission to Smyrna had been a blind all along and that the crew had been engaged with piracy on the High Seas.
Morgan has now written a new play, The Fish Mongerers which is based around characters such as Catherine Boyle (Nanny) and Margaret Price (Aunty), two sisters who sell fish at a stall on Moore Street. Nanny is your old ‘prim and proper’ type who can’t really take a joke but is the salt of the earth all the same. Auntie had a very rough time growing up and had a terrible incident happen to her when she was fifteen. The play is full of twists and turns and will leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more.
Morgan told NewsFour:
“My name is Morgan Kiernan and I have been with the Watersedge Drama Group since 2018 and absolutely love it. The majority of our members range between fifty to eighty years, but we have younger members too. I wrote a play in 2018 called The Fish Mongerers (that’s not misspelt, it’s just phonetics). Over the past year the group has been having a bit of trouble finding a teacher since our previous teacher quit last year. So when asked to step into the breach I was happy to do so. So for now I have taken over as the team leader, setting up all the logistics for rehearsals, exercises, improvs, directions and so on. I basically overnight became the teacher / director and I love it, and I can now see the confidence coming back to the group slowly but surely. My education went as far as the Group Cert. I left school when I was fifteen and have no formal education in this field but I always had a talent for writing and storytelling.”
Morgan is determined not to let either age or so-called lack of education get in his way or prevent the drama group from going on to do great things, which undoubtedly they will. The Watersedge Drama Group are at present busily rehearsing and hope to stage The Fish Mongerers in the RICC later this year, in May. So definitely one to watch out for.
You can visit the group on their Facebook page, The Watersedge Drama Group.
