Aula Maxima, Maynooth

Aula Maxima (Latin pronunciation: [ˈau̯la ˈmaksɪma]), officially the McMahon Hall, is a theatre building in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It was built in 1893.[2][3]

Aula Maxima
Aula Maxima
Location within Ireland
Full nameMcMahon Hall
AddressMaynooth University South Campus
LocationMaynooth, County Kildare, Republic of Ireland
Coordinates53.380342°N 6.597875°W / 53.380342; -6.597875
Public transitMaynooth railway station (1 km walk)
Maynooth University bus stop (Bus Éireann route 115)
OwnerMaynooth University
TypeTheatre
Capacity350[1]
Construction
Built1893
Renovated1940 and 1985
Construction cost£3,000 (original building)

Aula Maxima comes from Latin, meaning Great Hall.[4] The building is also known simply as "The Aula". It is situated on the South Campus of Maynooth University and St Patrick's College, Maynooth and is the main theatre for the university, college and surrounding area. It also serves as the conferring hall of the university where the annual graduations take place. The Aula was also used as a Cinema for the students in the College, with the Maynooth Students' Union screening films there.

Aula Maxima is known for its historical importance, and famed for its many ghost stories and apparent ghostly sightings.[5]

History

Right Rev. Mgr. McMahon of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC originally gifted the theatre to St Patrick's College, his alma mater,[6][7] and its construction was completed under the presidency of Bishop Robert Browne.

Aula Maxima houses a projection box, which was in regular use for 40 years.

Dramatic performances

Maynooth University's Drama Society (also known as The Roscian Players) is the resident company of Aula Maxima. A wide variety of their productions staged therein. It also regularly sees performances by St Patrick's College's dramatic society, Maynooth University Chamber Orchestra[8] and Maynooth Community Players:[9]

1997:

2001:

  • Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband
  • William Shakespeare's MacBeth

2002

  • Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

2003

  • Tom Stoppard's Arcadia
  • Bram Stoker's Dracula (adapted for stage by Paul Doran)

2005/2006:

2006/2007:

2007/2008:

  1. Berkoff's Lunch
  2. Durang's An Actor's Nightmare
  3. Chekov's The Bear
  4. Barnes's Nobody Here But Us Chickens
  5. Yeats's Purgatory
  6. Stoppard's 15 Minute Hamlet
  7. Duplicit (student-written)

2008/2009:

2009/2010:

2010/2011:

  • First Timers' Festival featuring performances of: The Bear, Riders To The Sea, Living With Secrets (Student Written), Over The Rainbow (part-student written), God Has Arrived, Cocaine, Cahoot's Macbeth, Bar And Ger
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
  • The Mercy Seat (Neil La Bute)
  • Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

2011/2012

2012/2013

2013/2014

2014/2015

  • First Timers' Festival featuring performances of: Post-its (Notes on a Marriage), Diversions, Nina in the Morning, Sober (Student Written) and Brown.
  • Black Dogs (Student Written Play, by Michael Walsh)
  • Woyzeck
  • The Stage (Student Written Play, by James Goodman)
  • The Fire Raisers (Student Adaptation)
  • Black Box Festival 2015

2015/2016:

  • Doubt: A Parable
  • Debutante's Festival (Formerly known as First Timers' Festival), featuring Non Applicable (Student Written), Residual (Student Written), Once Upon A Rewrite (Student Written) Beer Girl, Memento Mori (Student Written), Secret Service, Bury Me Not (Student Written), Seven Jewish Children, Exhaustion From Having Sex With A Minor, Chairs, A Lonely Impulse of Delight, The Crime Done in Rhyme, Hear Me, A Matter of Husbands, What Happens Behind The Bar, and Armed Robbery For Dummies
  • Blackbox Festival 2016, featuring The Accident, Best Warm Beer in Brooklyn, Gum and Goo, Yesterday, Hardy Candy, Little Duck, Captive Audience, Good Working With Hands, The Dreaming, The Memeing of Life (Student Written), Getoutofmyface.com, and Time Flies

2016/2017:

  • Debutante's Festival, featuring The Angry Doctor, Heart of Hearing, A Blind Date, Accidents Will Happen, A Night At The Movies, Fairy Trial, Adoption, Triple Negative, and For The Greater Good
  • The One Acts Festival, featuring Tom Stoppard's Darkside (radio play) (Stage Adaption), Room 68 (Student Written Play, by Kevin Johnston), Little Gem by Elaine Murphy (Student Adaption), and Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
  • Blackbox Festival, featuring You Do Love Me, Don't You?, The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From, Dance (Student Written), Chances in the Rain, The Crying Dame, Falling (Student Written), The Chatshow (Student Written by Stephen Shanley), Revolutionaries (Student Written), Family 2.0

2017/2018:

  • Debutante's Festival, featuring Only Nerds and Horses (Student Written by Brandon Farrelly), Interviews with Loneliness, No Matter (Student Written), The Wingman, Anger Management for Dogs, A.I. Guy, Rhetorical, The Goon, 101 Ways to Dump Someone in 5 Minutes, Hitting on Women 101, Duck?! and Desperate Gallery
  • Abby (Student Written Play, by James Browne)

2018/2019

2019/2020

  • Debutante's Festival
  • Mercury in Retrograde (Student Written Play, by Kelly Rennick)
  • Aisling Aisling (Student Written Play, by Helen De Burca and Muireann Corkery)

Folklore and the Aula Ghost

There are numerous stories detailing the presence of a ghost in Aula Maxima. Simply known as the Aula Ghost, he is reputed to be the spirit of a projectionist, active in Maynooth in the 1940s. The projectionist was a seminarian and member of St Patrick's College who fell to his death from the projectionist's box in Aula Maxima. Many superstitions exist regarding treatment of Aula Maxima and the Aula Ghost. One such superstition centres on the ghost's apparent turning of a chair placed over the projection box to face away from the stage if he does not like a performance, or the manner in which the staging of the performance was conducted.

See also

References
  1. https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sites/default/files/assets/document//Venues%20with%20capacities%20Dec%202016.pdf
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2010-02-13.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "County Wexford Advanced Search: Buildings of Ireland: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage". www.buildingsofireland.ie.
  4. "Latin to English Translation". www.stars21.com.
  5. "Aula Maxima - Maynooth Historical South Campus". sites.google.com.
  6. New Catholic Dictionary: Maynooth College Archived May 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Finding Aid to James McMahon Papers -- University Archives -- CUA". archives.lib.cua.edu.
  8. "Maynooth University Department of Music". music.nuim.ie.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-26. Retrieved 2010-03-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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