After many successful local productions at venues ranging from one-act supper theatre in local hotels to full length plays in Galway's Town Hall (with a Biblical drama in the local church along the way!), KATS took to the road on the competitive Festival Circuit for the first time in 2003.
Indeed, KATS won the All-Ireland at the first time of asking when Paddy Henry directed Rashomon by Fay and Michael Kanin.
Usually the summer period is quiet, but in July 2006 Project '06 was showcased alongside Galway's famous international Arts Festival to promote amateur Arts in the city. KATS presented two one-act plays in Project '06: After Miss Julie by Patrick Marber and Overtones by Alice Gerstenberry. This was followed by a sell-out production in Galway's Town Hall Studio of Lennox Robinson's Drama At Inish at the end of November. (And that doesn't even include the usual autumn workshop activity for members, where new ideas are explored and sometimes even put into practice!)
2007 saw the unprecedented success of All My Sons by Arthur Miller. Having completed a successful Galway run, All My Sons went on to qualify for the ADCI Finals in Athlone in May 2007 with 6 festival wins and 35 awards. 2007 was soon to bring much sadness too, however, with the untimely death on July 8th of KATS founder and spiritual leader, Paddy Henry.
Paddy Henry's legacy is being honoured, however. At the end of 2007 The Country Boy was performed to full houses, and kicking off 2008, KATS 10th anniversary year, we took another festival production on the road from the portfolio of the great American playwrights: The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Menagerie qualified for the Athlone finals in May with 27 awards, and Miriam Pettit won a coveted Best Supporting Actress award from adjudicator Walker Ewart.