Following the annual Central Societies Committee (CSC) awards, at which over 15 societies and individuals were recognised for their hard work and accomplishments, I sat down with Lily Kate Hearns, chairperson of Trinity Musical Theatre Society (TMT). TMT received eight nominations at the 2023 CSC awards and took home three, including Best Individual for member Erica O’Reilly, Best Medium Society, and the coveted award of Best Overall Society.
Hearns describes the Trinity Musical Theatre Society as “a space on Trinity campus for people to share their love for musical theatre. It’s a place to make friends, it’s a place to challenge yourself and explore your abilities in the theatre world”. She spoke of many highlights from the past year, naming the brightest as their show week for Carrie, this year’s annual musical. Hearns described it as “an amazing success” explaining they had sold out two shows for the first time ever. She also mentioned the intervarsities theatre competition TMT had just returned from and where they had taken home first place for Best Overall Show for the second year in a row.
The CSC awards were an additional highlight, with Hearns calling it an “unbelieving amazing night” as well as “exhilarating and very unexpected”. She explained the award of Best Overall Society meant “a lot to us this year”. She recalls the first few meetings of the year in which the committee set goals for themselves and the society, one of which was to win just one award at the CSC awards. “We said we’d love to win Best Event with Carrie, or go for Best Medium Society, like that would be the peak. To win Best Overall Society was such a shock”. Hearns goes on to say that winning the award was “really really rewarding” and that, as chairperson, she got “extremely lucky” with her 2023-2024 committee. She speaks with pride of their commitment to the society, telling me they worked all throughout summer and winter break, with just three weeks off. She says that it was “really rewarding to see that work be acknowledged and recognised”.
As for the society as a whole, Hearns explained that having just been established eight years ago, TMT is still a young society and one that was heavily impacted by COVID-19. She further notes: “it meant a lot to the society to see ourselves gain a big space on campus this year and to be recognised as a society beyond just the small niche group that has an interest in musical theatre.”
I ask Hearns what’s next for the society. She tells me that, with their AGM coming up on April 11th, the current committee will be “handing over the baton to the next group”. Although this past year has been highly successful in terms of awards and student goals, next year will hopefully be “TMTs time to expand and create more space in the society for people to get involved and have fun”. She continues, “I feel like we’ve had this year to really establish ourselves and I think next year is about keeping that up but having a bit of craic while you’re doing it”.
In this vein, I ask Hearns how people can get involved. She explains that there is the main show that is put on each year, which is the primary focus of the society and what brings in most of their members. She adds that this past year in particular “we wanted to find a way to include more people in TMT so we set up our separate performance team”, which is run by TMT’s Outreach Officer Hannah Roche. She says they had a few gigs around Christmas time and is hoping that this feature will continue. “It’s a lot more of a relaxed way for people to get involved”. She adds that the intervarsity shows are another great way to get involved as well sub-committees, workshops and coffee mornings.
Hearns says that TMT also introduced a newsletter this year run by one of the OCM members, Luke Reid, which she hopes will expand in years to come, with members being able to write reviews of shows they’ve seen and so on. She says, “we really want to see it grow. Not everybody wants to be on the stage. For people who just have an interest in theatre, it would be a cool way to have people send stuff in and write a little about what they’re interested in”.
We end the interview with Hearns describing Trinity Musical Theatre as a “really special society”. She says she has “never seen a group of people so passionate in my life”. She calls this “entirely” the reason behind the society’s success this year, calling it “magical” and saying she cannot recommend joining and participating in the society more.
Other big winners at the CSC awards include the Law Society, the Trinity Cancer Society, and the
Afro-Caribbean Society. In a statement to The University Times, the Law Soc called the CSC awards “a testament to the massive work put in by every single one of our committee members”. They added that “society life is one of the things that makes Trinity such a fantastic place to study and while we’re grateful for the award, I think a huge amount of credit is deserved by all the societies for their phenomenal effort this year”. Trinity Cancer Society echoed this sentiment in their own statement to UT saying “we’re absolutely delighted. A lot of work went into making this one of our busiest years yet so it’s great to get recognition for it. We also want to thank all the people that have donated this year and all the clubs and societies that volunteered as models for our Naked Calendar!”
In their own statement to UT, the CSC noted, “regardless of taking home specific awards, societies have had a really strong year and have been putting in amazing work in making Trinity a fun and welcoming student experience, and the Society of the Year Awards are a way to recognise that…The executive was very impressed by the standard of presentation which was extremely high, and thankful to all students that presented their ideas and showed passion and dedication to society life in Trinity”.
