History of the Pantaloons.
The genesis of Pantaloons came from a meeting in 2001 between Kay Gaynor, Mary Smyth and Maeve Fox. The subject of Pantomime was frequently raised and it was felt that the town of Ennis was large enough to justify having its own Pantomime production company.
Having secured a venue, a show director and auditioned a cast, the Pantaloons’ first performance “Mother Goose” was held at the Holy Family School Hall in December 2001 with the help of the children from The School of Performing Arts.
Mr Leonard Anderson from Scarva, Co. Down, was our director for this production and has been with us ever since, as has our pianist, Mr Gerry McLaughlin from Belfast.
The following year we performed under the auspices of the Ennis Musical Society with a production of “Sleeping Beauty”.
With two successful productions to our credit it was decided that the time was right to strike out on our own, and so the Pantaloons story began in earnest. We moved our next production to the new Glór theatre in Ennis, a venue which has since become our second home during the Christmas season. In all, the Pantaloons have staged seven productions in Glór:
- Cinderella
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Aladdin
- Hansel and Gretel
- Mother Goose
- Cinderella
- Sleeping Beauty
For our 10th Anniversary the Pantaloons will be staging Aladdin.
Cast & Crew
Over the years we have been joined onstage by various actresses and
actors but we have held onto our own core group which includes:
Ken O Shaughnessy … Dame
Geraldine Saunders… Fairy Godmother
Tina O Neill…. Prince, Witch,
Maeve Fox… Evil Queen/Witch
Paul Cusack… King/Evil /Comedy
Sarah Griffen… Princess/Comedy role
Caitilín Fitzgerald… Junior role
Emet Walsh… comedy role
This year we are joined by onstage by two new males, Michael Daffy (Wishee Washee) and Jonathan Hooper (Aladdin), and we are very much looking for really looking to working with both of them.
With Aladdin, our 10th Anniversary show, we are reaching out again to the local community. This year we will be joined onstage by Laura-Jane Allis and her Breakthrough Dance Company from Ennis.
BreakThrough Dance Company is a professionally run dance school based in Ennis, Co Clare. Disciplines range from Jazz, Tap and Musical Theatre to Hip Hop, Commercial and Contemporary. Classes take place throughout the week in BreakThroughs’ own purpose built dance studio on the Quin Road in Ennis and caters for all ages and abilites. (For more info contact Laura-Jane on 0857771328)
Our sets are designed built by Tony Martin and his crew. Tony also acts as stage manager for the duration of each show.
He is ably assisted by:
Brian Smith
Pakie Sheehan and
Teresa Larkin
A special thanks to our prompter Brian Phillips without whom we would be lost at times onstage.
Charity
Pantaloons support “The Building of Hope” Charity and each year we have a raffle during the shows and the money from the raffle goes toward the next Building of Hope Project in Africa.