Performance and drama teacher wins top Mighty Women award

Performance and drama teacher wins top Mighty Women award

5 July 2023

A LOCAL drama teacher was honoured at a recent awards ceremony in Newcastle.

Clare McAvoy was one of the winners at the Mighty Women Awards at the Slieve Donard Hotel.

The awards are designed to recognise the achievements of women in a number of fields.

Clare is the founder of Mourne Stars Speech, Drama and Performing Arts School, which provides opportunities for children and young people aged 5-18 to express themselves in a fun environment. 

Mourne Stars students were at the Slieve Donard Hotel to salute Clare and were also invited to perform.

Clare started her classes in Newcastle five years ago. They have been such a success that Clare now has further classes in Annalong, Castlewellan, Ballynahinch and Downpatrick.

She has an amazing team around her which makes the classes so worthwhile for each and every child who attends.

The children are taught speech, drama and dance, through fun activities but at the foundation of this is confidence.

Clare said: “Every parent wants their child to have good self-esteem and to grow and develop into a confident young person.

“It is so wonderful to hear such fantastic feedback from parents saying how their child has grown and developed in confidence having attended these classes.”

Clare has also started to cast for film and TV roles for her young stars. Her pupils have lots of other opportunities to perform for example at local competitions such as the feis and local public events as well as take graded examinations in speech and drama and acting.

Among the Mourne Stars at the Slieve Donard Hotel were the juniors from the Newcastle classes, who performed the ‘Revolting Children’ routine from the musical Matilda.

Joe Cunningham performed a monologue from the Willy Russell hit, Blood Brothers, and other performers included award-winning dancer Aisling Vaughan, musical theatre student Emily Nicholls and dance teacher Keeva Lehane.