Initially, Emma O’Driscoll can’t remember exactly how many pantomimes she has been in with the Limerick Panto Society. She begins to count each of the shows aloud: Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe, Snow White, Babes in the Wood – the list goes on.In the end, Emma comes to the conclusion that her 2017 role as Princess Sukiyaki in Aladdin will be her 11th panto. Normally, the number is easy enough to tot up, she explains, as the list goes down along her arm.
Initially, Emma O’Driscoll can’t remember exactly how many pantomimes she has been in with the Limerick Panto Society. She begins to count each of the shows aloud: Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe, Snow White, Babes in the Wood – the list goes on.
In the end, Emma comes to the conclusion that her 2017 role as Princess Sukiyaki in Aladdin will be her 11th panto. Normally, the number is easy enough to tot up, she explains, as the list goes down along her arm.
“See, I usually have it all written down for me,” Emma laughs. “There’s a lovely thing the Limerick Panto Society do, we all have red fleeced hoodies and on the arm all the names of the shows you have been in are embroidered, but my jacket is actually in at the moment getting this year’s Aladdin stitched onto it, I don’t have it to look at.”
So, what keeps Limerick’s leading lady coming back to the stage each Christmas? Emma says she loves the instant feedback you get from audiences when performing live. But, most of all, the biggest draw is the comradery between cast members and the simple buzz of being on stage.
“I have always grown up on stage, I have always grown up doing shows and I would feel there was something dramatically missing if I wasn’t involved in shows. It mightn’t be possible for me to do shows all year round, but it’s lovely to look forward to doing the panto annually.”
Emma initially came to prominence on Irish reality TV show Pop Stars, going on to become a member of the band Six. She then worked as a presenter on The Den and other children’s TV shows on RTÉ. In March 2016, just months before the broadcaster announced it would be outsourcing the production of all its children’s television, Emma left.
Wanting to create her own original broadcast content was an element in Emma’s decision to leave, but she has not bid a final farewell to the national broadcaster yet. Prize Pig Productions, her newly established company, is currently producing a documentary for RTÉ. There was also another reason Emma departed: she wanted to return permanently to her native Limerick.
“Now I still get my home life, I still get to see my family, I get to live in the same place as my husband, which is a luxury that we didn’t have for the first 10 years of our relationship,” Emma explains.
“We were just up and down the road at the weekends, it was very difficult, but you make it work. For me, I have the right balance now – that I work for myself and I go up and down to Dublin as much as I need to for Prize Pig Productions, but equally I can get home when I need to.”
For most, setting up one business would be enough, but always a high achiever, Emma decided to start two. Since leaving RTÉ, she has also begun running a stage school called Gem Stars in Limerick, with her sister Georgina. The entertainer is very passionate about how performing arts can positively affect a child’s development. She believes participating in the arts can greatly increase self-confidence.
“It might just be that the kids are coming in and their confidence gets boosted, within a year or two the difference you see in their confidence can be amazing. Some kids might be on stage when they are older, but some would say: ‘right, I have enjoyed being here making friends’, and they will have taken away the confidence to do job interviews or presentations in college.
“I feel, personally, that children can be hugely underestimated at times. Children can underestimate their own intelligence and they can underestimate their talent and ability. I just think it’s fantastic to be able to show adults that children can put on phenomenal performances.”
Emma knows first-hand the positive affects performing arts can have. After all, she has been dancing since the age of three: “My older sisters were in an Irish dancing class, so I was brought along to the hall, but wasn’t allowed start until I was four. I was skipping up and down the hall and I wouldn’t stop dancing, so eventually they allowed me to join,” she remembers fondly.
Now the reigning queen of panto, Emma hasn’t looked back since and is bringing everything full circle by passing on her skills to other little kids who are just dying to join the dance class.
Limerick Panto Society’s production of Aladdin will run at the Limetree Theatre until 7 January. Tickets are available on www.limetreetheatre.ie
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