Our Team
Hollie Cornally - Show Director/Drama Facilitator
Hollie is no stranger to the stage having taken part in Spotlight Youth Theatre by Rufina Recks, from the young age of 6, whom she worked alongside with from 2017-2023. Hollie has choreographed the Spotlight Youth Theatre`s past few shows. Back in 2019, she was choreographer for the Clara Ladies `Eurovision` fundraiser. She has been a member of Clara musical society since 2014. Hollie is used to being onstage as a chorus member/dance captain with CMS, but swapped roles for the first time last year, when she was asked to choreograph their production of ‘First Dates’ in March 2023, which she felt very fortunate and grateful to be entrusted with.
She has a qualification for Drama Facilitating and loves everything there is about teaching youth theatre and currently teaches with Funhouse Factory youth theatre in Clara.
She joined Clara’s Pic players drama group in 2019, and has been in several of their productions since then.
She has loved every minute of working with Speak Out Drama alongside some of the most creative and talented group of kids.
Katelyn Dempsey - Tots Teacher/Singing Teacher
Katelyn is no stranger to the stage. She is a graduate of American College Dublin. Katelyn holds a first class honours BFA in Musical Theatre alongside a Diploma in Musical Theatre.
She has been in various shows in Portlaoise throughout the years such as Beauty and The Beast Panto, Cinderella the Panto and Rock of Ages, Little Women (Musical).
Her love for musical theatre started at a young age performing on the stage, her true passion is teaching, with nearly 10 years of experience teaching. Katelyn is extremely excited to be back on board with Speak Out Drama with all our talented, hardworking students.
GUEST TUTORS/PAST TEACHERS
Deirdre Kearns
Deirdre is a professional dancer and dance teacher from Birr. She began her dance training in Dublin, after receiving a scholarship to train in the U.S., began her career as a dancer, dance captain & choreographer.
Deirdre performed, taught & choreographed in the U.K., Greece and France, as well as on cruise ships.
Her performance career has been rewarding and exhilarating, but her passion has always been teaching dance. Deirdre believes the joy of dance can be found in all dance styles and this is why she trained to become certified in so many; including jazz, contemporary, ballet, tap, acro & street dance.
Deirdre adores seeing children’s self-esteem thrive through the practice of dance. She believes that the discipline, boost in confidence, and increase in creativity that children gain from dance training, sets them up with important skills that can be carried with them throughout their lives.
Sinéad Handy
Sinéad has been involved in drama and musical theatre for many years, performing as a leading lady or ensemble member.
Some of her favourite roles to date have been Roxie Hart in Chicago, Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and Natalie/Ed in All Shook Up with her local musical societies Clara & Tullamore. Sinéad is a Registered General Nurse and worked for the HSE for nearly twenty years.
She gained her facilitation qualification from Youth Theatre Ireland and along with her colleague Jay Origan developed FunHouse Youth Theatre, a theatre group for young teens/ adults. Sinéad gained her Associate Diploma with LSMD under Mary Whelan Fox’s guidance and was awarded the prestigious LSMD Excellence Award.
Sinéad is a great believer that the experience of drama & performance can be life changing and she is so proud of all her students for working so hard and always doing their best with smiles on their faces.
May they always have a love for the stage.
Aisling Sharkey
Aisling has been studying Musical Theatre at Phoenix Performing Arts College for the past three years. She has played roles for the screen such as Ivy in the series “Heirs of the Night” and Madison in the upcoming “Jurassic World: Dominion” movie. In addition to her professional experience, she performed as a backup dancer in the 3Arena for the Dublin leg of Jack Whitehall’s 2019 tour. She performed in the National Concert Hall’s 2016 and 2018 Festival of Musical as both pianist and soprano solo vocalist. In 2019 she won ‘Star Performer’ when performing with her college in Dublin’s Show Choir competition. She has been part of many amateur theatre productions including Once Upon A Mattress’ with ITW, ‘High School Musical’ with Phoenix and ‘Hairspray’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ with SGPA. She graduated from Phoenix Performing Arts with a distinction.
Chris Corroon
Chris is the Resident Dame Lola with the HELIX PANTO and an AIMS award-winning performer.
Having performed both on the Amateur Circuit and in the Professional Industries of Theatre, Chris is highly skilled when it comes to teaching the arts and has polished his craft to a tee. He won Best Male Singer 2019 at the AIMS Awards in Killarney. He also performed with the Irish premiere of the New Irish Musical "New fish" in Smock Alley just last year. A Mullingar native and being from the musically known town, he found his love for the stage at a very young age. He is the Founder and Chairperson of Mullingar and District musical society and has performed with many societies across the country portraying such roles as Jekyll and Hyde, Franz Liebkind (The Producers), Billy Flynn (Chicago) to name a few.
He has worked behind the scenes in many productions as both Choreographer and Director on production teams so he is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to knowing how to take a show and himself on stage.
Lea Carroll
Lea started dancing at the age of 3, training in all styles. When she was 20, she was awarded a Full Scholarship to Bird College in London, where she studied professional musical theatre for 3 years. Since graduating, Lea has worked as a Dancer and Choreographer all over Ireland. She has performed with June Rodgers for the past 7 years in her Christmas show and has had the privilege of choreographing it for the last 3 years.
She also worked for 3 years as Dance captain on board the Oscar Wilde for Irish Ferries. TV/Film credits include; Penny Dreadful season 2 and 3, Vikings, Republic of Telly, Holby City, Christmas with Daniel O Donnell, and The Man who invented Christmas.
As a choreographer, Lea has worked with numerous Musical societies and Theatre Schools throughout Ireland. Shows include Joseph and the amazing technicolour Dreamcoat, Curtains, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Chicago, All Shook Up, Ragtime, Me and my girl, The Addams Family, Jesus Christ Superstar, and 9 to 5. Lea has also been nominated for a national AIMS “Best Choreographer" award four times, winning in 2020 for Athlone musical society’s production of Joseph.
Aisling Kelly
Aisling started dancing at the age of four with the Aedeen O’Hagan School of Ballet in Portlaoise. After finding her love of Dance, she wanted to learn more and enrolled into Musical Theatre dance with the local stage school for ten years where she performed in many productions.
She has been a member of DCU dance for the past year where she was part of the ballet and jazz squads. She danced and performed in many productions such The 2019 Dance Experiment in the Helix theatre with DCU dance and played the lead role of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ with Portlaoise Pantomime group in 2019.
She has a Certificate in Intermediate Vocational Ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance and in Musical Theatre Senior 2 with the Irish Board of Speech and Drama.
She has trained and performed in the styles of tap, hip hop, musical theatre, ballet, jazz and commercial. She loves teaching students dance technique and performance in various styles.