Sligo Events

Hawk’s Well’s 30th Birthday Party on Saturday 21st January

The Hawk’s Well Theatre turned 30 on the 12th of January 2012! The Hawk’s is celebrating 30 years of fantastic performances from professional and local theatre companies, bands, musicians, comedians and performers throughout 2012. The birthday party took place on Saturday 21st following the final performance of Druid’s Big Maggie. Druid were the first theatre company to perform at the Hawk’s Well when the theatre opened in 1982 with their production of Much Ado About Nothing and all at the Hawk’s Well were delighted to have them back to help celebrate the 30th birthday. Garry Hynes, Artistic Director of Druid was the special guest for the evening along with the cast and crew of Big Maggie, Sinead McPhillips, Marketing & Development Manager from Druid and the actress Marie Mullen attended the event along with members of her family and her mother Peig.

On Saturday 21st January at 6.30pm the exhibition ’30 years at the Hawk’s Well’ was opened. The staff of the theatre have been busy travelling down memory lane and compiling this exhibition of photographs, old programmes and memorabilia from the performances which the theatre has hosted over the decades. The exhibition opened on Saturday 21st and will be on display in the foyer of the theatre throughout the year.

Garry Hynes, Artistic Director of Druid was the special guest of the theatre on Saturday night and marked the occasion with a few words at 7pm along with speeches from the Mayor Rosaleen O’Grady, Gerry McCanny, Chairperson of the Hawk’s Well Theatre, Marie O’Byrne, Director of the theatre and Val Balance, Head of Venues from the Arts Council.

Following the sold out performance of Big Maggie the Hawk’s Well opened its doors to the public to celebrate 30 years of performance with music from Sligo band Anything Goes in the foyer from 10.30 til late.

As part of the celebrations the Hawk’s Well as been rebranded and the new logo was redesigned by Sligo designer Daragh Stewart whose Mother Pauline Stewart designed the original logo 30 years ago. The theatre’s new website www.hawkswell.com was also launched on the night.

Celebrations will continue throughout the year with a special Birthday gig every month. The Birthday gig for January was Big Maggie followed by Sligo Musical Society’s production of The Wizard of Oz in February, Millennium Forum Productions Carthaginians by Frank McGuinness in March and the Kilfenora Céilí Band in April.