COVER STORY
later, I got the call to come in and start the rehearsals in the do it, I’d end up regretting it for the rest of my life. I didn’t really
Cambridge Theatre.” know anyone here. It’s a lonely city when you don’t have friends.
The first year I didn’t like it at all, but once you’ve a good
Love of music network of friends and a bit of money, you can really enjoy it.
This one-time Galway Rose in the Rose of Tralee Festival (2003) “I now live in Islington in north London. It’s where my friends
went on to play the part of sultry murderess Roxie for eight are and I really like it. It’s very funky. I just love the vibe of
performances a week for four months, which was a big leap for London and how you can go out and see a show and that there’s
the girl who was too shy to audition for college plays while always something on, things that you just can’t get at home.
studying music and sociology in UCD. Even walking around Soho, there’s such a buzz all the time.”
“Bizarrely, I never joined Dramsoc,” she laughs. “I actually went With nice symmetry, the producers of The Sound of Music
for an audition one day, but when I walked in, everyone was so contacted Aoife early last year and asked her to take over the
loud and boisterous. I’m quite introverted, so I got scared, walked lead role in the production on Monday evenings and
out and never went back! Wednesday afternoons. This leaves her with time to teach, play
“I remember being so scared on my first day at UCD. At the some jazz gigs and pursue other projects, such as her
time, there were about 17,000 students and I thought it terrifying forthcoming role in the sold-out concert version of Chess in
coming from a small Galway town to this. But I loved it. I had no Concert in the Royal Albert Hall (12-13 May), where she will sing
career plan; I just knew I wanted to do something in music. That’s alongside international music stars such as Josh Groban and
the reason I went to UCD, because you couldn’t study music Idina Menzel.
in Galway. “I can’t wait to work with those guys,” Aoife says excitedly.
“The music course was a lot of theory and history, whereas I was “The preparations are going to be gruelling because we only
more interested in performance. But the qualification was have 10 days of rehearsals. There will also be a lot of close
important because we were taught to write in the style of Bach, harmonies, but it’s going to be great.
which is the basic foundation for writing music. I write music now, “I’m also organising my own concerts back home. I’ve got three
so it was really helpful, as was learning about harmony. The nights booked in Galway from 3-5 July. It’s just going to be a show
theory is always going to stand to me.” outlining the journey I’ve taken from when I landed in London to
Aoife also has good memories of her college days, though now, singing stuff from The Sound of Music and Chicago. I also
perhaps not so much of the various digs she lived in while hope to bring my concert to the National Concert Hall in Dublin.”
studying at Belfield. “Accommodation was such a nightmare!” Aside from those projects, Aoife’s biggest ambition for the
she remembers, laughing. “I lived in Rathmines, Ranelagh and future is to make it onto the silver screen. “I’m constantly on to
Clonskeagh, all the usual places. But I have great memories of my agent about doing some straight acting,” Aoife reveals. “I’d
all the society balls basically and just hanging around the like to do TV or film. It’s just a different craft entirely to theatre.”
college bar playing pool.” And as for the defining moment of her impressive career so
After graduating in 1999, Aoife stayed in Dublin and sang in a far, Aoife doesn’t have to think too long about the answer.
band named Fruitcake, which brought her to Australia on a mini- “Getting that call to do Chicago,” she replies. “In that instance
tour. When she returned home, the wannabe star studied for a it wasn’t a competition or anything that was driving me through
diploma in business studies in Galway and worked in an insurance – it was just me. It helped remove any doubts that I couldn’t do
company for 18 months. Aoife continued to do local musicals on this. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get any further on Maria, because
the side, until she decided to try her luck in London, and got I was constantly doubting myself and was scared of getting up
accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama to study there. But with that call, I could allow myself to think: ‘These
for an MA in Musical Theatre Performance. people believe in me. I can do this after all’.”
London lights Declan Cashin (MA European Studies, Dublin European Institute,
“Coming to London was frightening, but the minute I decided UCD ‘04) works as a freelance journalist, writer and sub-editor
to do it all my fears went away,” Aoife states. “I knew if I didn’t and is based in Dublin.
UCD CONNECTIONS PAGE NINE
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