Moyraverty Arts and Drama Society in Craigavon is celebrating its 25th anniversary with sell out concert in Armagh

Founding member of the society Kieran Corr said: “It’s really difficult to comprehend that a period of 25 years has passed since I first came up with the idea of forming a musical theatre society for Craigavon.

"We had over 50 children register with us in September 1997 and in December of that year we performed Snow White and the 14 Dwarfs. The rest after that is history.

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"It has been an honour to have produced so many musicals. No words of thank you from me could or ever will do justice to the contribution of so many people over so many years. We could have sold the concert out a few times but for those who did not get a ticket we will have a DVD available.”

Kieran added: "The Society has been extremely fortunate to have had so many wonderful actors and musicians who were ready and willing to help. Their professionalism and dedication have helped to make MADS! one of the big success stories in the history of Craigavon.

"The Society has put on so many great shows over the years such as Joseph, Grease, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Les Miserables, Annie and The Phantom of the Opera to name just a few. All of these will feature in our 25th Anniversary Concert.

"We have over 100 performers taking to the stage in Armagh and we are honoured to have John Mitchell and members of The South Ulster Community Band perform live for us.

"We have so many MADS stalwarts returning to perform in this concert such as Daniel May, Eimear O Neill, Amy Jane McConville, Adam Gracey, Ruairi McAlinden, Nathan Reilly, Patrick Moore, Ethan Lawlor, Erin McCormac, Jonathan McGuinness and my daughter Caitriona Corr who is flying in from England to perform. We will have all our present juniors, teenagers and seniors performing including all the star performers from our recent production of Matilda.

"It truly will be a special occasion. The production team of John Corry, Claire Louise Mooney, Jonny McGuinness, Raymond Murray and Jane Donnelly have worked so hard to make sure the concert is up to the high levels associated with the society.

"I am excited about seeing Jonny McGuinness and Caitriona Corr back performing songs from The Phantom of the Opera, which was such a big success for us in 2013. Jonny will also perform as Captain Von Trapp a part he performed in 2006 and 2012 and he will be joined on stage with his daughter Anna who will be Gretl Von Trapp.

"Daniel May will be back performing songs from Joseph and Les Miserables. Leading performers from our Christmas film last year Sophie Doyle, Jake Watters, Erin Tennyson, Michaela McConville, Ellen Gracey, Ellen Creaney, Dairine McCaughley, Rheanna McKinley, Chrissy Corry, Charlotte Corry, Eve Drumm, Fionnuala Lennon and Krisi Hamill will be performing.”

Mr Corr concluded: “We would like to thank everyone for their support over the last 25 years and we intend to carry on and produce musicals with big plans for 2023.”