Writers

Mark Collins who played Joseph in Joseph and his Amazing Techni-coloured Dreamcoat, produced by Mrs. McDonagh in the year 2000. Mark studied A-Level Music and took his degree in Music Technology.

Daniel Curran who played Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady" in 1996. He crafted the lyrics for "Temptation." He studied A-Level Music and took his degree in and Masters in Politics.

And of course our very own Mrs McDonagh.

An Interview with the writers of 'Temptation'

An interview was held during the rehearsal weekend who told us what inspired them to write this magnificent musical. Thank you Miss King for the text and pictures.

St Louis are proud to be producing a musical written by two ex-pupils.  During rehearsals we managed to interview Mark Collins and Daniel Curran to get more information on the project.

How did you two come up with the idea of writing a musical?

Daniel- After the Irish play competition I made a throw-away remark about writing something ourselves next time and Mrs. McDonagh encouraged me by saying if I could write it, she would put it on and so the project began to take shape.

Mark- Dearbhla and Daniel came up with the idea originally and Mrs. McDonagh asked me if I would like to be involved to compose the score for the proposed script. This was during my A Levels and I said “Why not?” I was delighted although I had no idea it would be still in the pipeline six years later and being performed on such a scale. Daniel, who was a few years older than me in school, was at university at the time, although I still knew him and was keen to get involved. 

Why this story? Surely two young men such as yourselves might have been drawn towards something more up-to-date?

Daniel-I originally got the idea from a cartoon where Yosemite Sam was pursuing Bugs Bunny in turn he was being pursued by the devil and there was one line or maybe it was even the title of the cartoon that stuck in my mind and it was “Satans waitin`.”  So I kind of got the idea from that and thought about the story that might come before and after such a line. It kind of evolved from that line. As for the idea of a musical, it was not something that I had aspired to write, it was the Irish competition itself that led me in that direction but it has been a really good experience.

Mark- Why not write this story? It has everything audiences want:  tension, emotion, involvement, passion!  The elements are timeless.

 

Did you ever think you would see your play produced on such a grand scale?

Daniel- The idea was originally supposed to be a 35 minute production in Irish.  I never even expected it to be translated into English, so to see it evolve in such a way has been really amazing.  I’ve enjoyed every minute although I have to thank the school for supporting us so much and especially Mrs. McDonagh for taking it on so enthusiastically.

Mark- Not really.  When we first put it on as an Irish play we were really happy with it but that was the year of ‘the foot and mouth outbreak’ and the festival we were entered into was cancelled so to go from that disappointment to this production in our local area has been more or less a dream come true. I have found it really rewarding. To go from finding the material, challenging yourself and hearing your ideas sound and look even better than you ever imagined is truly amazing! The ethos of challenging yourself and consistently trying to better yourself is something I learned from school and it seems appropriate that we are returning to St Louis to realise this dream.