UCD Musical Society’s ‘Cabaret’ Wins Big at AIMS Awards
UCD Musical Society’s production of the Kander and Ebb classic ‘Cabaret’ was staged in Astra Hall from the 26th of February to the 2nd of March this year. During the almost sold out run an adjudicator from the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) was invited to attend the show to put it in competition for the AIMS Awards.
AIMS is a national organisation who promote and recognise excellence in amateur musical theatre in Ireland. The AIMS awards are the highest honour a society/individual can achieve in musical theatre in Ireland.
Every society in the country is in one of two categories ‘Gilbert’ (Higher) or ‘Sullivan’ (lower). Our production of ‘Cabaret’ was nominated for five awards in the ‘Gilbert’ section in the following categories;
Best Choreography
Best Actress – Caoilfhionn NíDhulaing as Sally Bowles
Best Choreographer – Leah Meagher
Best Director – Cian Gallagher
Best Overall Show
The Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) hosted their annual awards weekend at the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney from the 14 th – 16 th of June. For many this weekend is the highlight of the musical theatre calendar. Over 1250 members of musical societies across the country made the journey down to Killarney to celebrate another fantastic year for amateur musical theatre in Ireland and to find out which societies would be recognised for their excellent productions.
In recent years we have done extremely well at the AIMS awards, receiving 5 nominations in 2017 in the ‘Sullivan’ section for our productions of ‘In the Heights’ and ‘Parade’ as well as 4 nominations in 2018 in the ‘Gilbert’ section for ‘Spring Awakening’. Each year we have somehow surpassed our own achievements and this year was no exception. ‘Cabaret’ won each of the following;
Best Choreography
Best Actress – Caoilfhionn NíDhulaing as Sally Bowles
Best Choreographer – Leah Meagher
Runner-Up Best Director – Cian Gallagher
Best Overall Show – 2 nd Place
It is a massive achievement for any society to have won so many awards, but it is a historic achievement for us as we are the first college society to have received nominations and awards in the Gilbert Section. We are already the most active musical theatre society in the country as we are the only society to stage 3 full-scale shows every year. The recognition that our production of
‘Cabaret’ received means UCD Musical Society is now quite clearly one of the top musical societies in the country. For a student society to have achieved so much without any professional help is ground-breaking. It is a true testament to the hard work and dedication put in by everyone involved in ‘Cabaret’. It is an honour for us to represent UCD on a national level and we would like to thank UCD Societies for all of their support. They allow us to pursue our passion and for that, we will always be extraordinarily grateful.