Dugan’s Hooligans have mini-reunion in Morristown

SEMI-REUNION: Half of Dugan's Hooligans, siblings Connor and Sharlys Leszczuk Dugan, after gig at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
SEMI-REUNION: Half of Dugan's Hooligans, siblings Connor and Sharlys Leszczuk Dugan, after gig at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
0
SEMI-REUNION: Half of Dugan's Hooligans, siblings Connor and Charlys Leszczuk Dugan, after gig at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
SEMI-REUNION: Half of Dugan’s Hooligans, siblings Connor and Sharlys Leszczuk Dugan, after gig at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

 

They did not exactly fire their parents.

“We just haven’t practiced together in a long time,” explained Sharlys Leszczuk Dugan, after a rare reunion gig on Sunday with her brother, Connor.

Up until 2011, the siblings performed with their mom and dad, Nancy and George, as Dugan’s Hooligans. 

This weekend found sister and brother onstage at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown as part of the Blarney Boys, with banjo player Dave Rimelis and pianist Dave Braham.

The step-dancing Sharlys, who plays harp and pennywhistle and formerly sang with the Harmonium Choral Society (she performed with Harmonium and the Hooligans at First Night Morris a few years ago), will be a junior this fall at Hofstra University.

Sharlys is studying public relations and marketing, with an eye towards a career in corporate communications. For the summer she is interning with the Fresh Air Fund.  She also has taken piano- and jazz voice lessons at school.

Connor Dugan, whose fiddle/violin credits include the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, graduated magna cum laude last December from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He’s living in Montclair and aiming for a career writing and producing scores for commercials and films in New York.  Connor created a majestic overture for Star Power, a video produced by my media company last year for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory; you can hear it here.

The Madison-based Hooligans were favorites at The Minstrel in Morris Township, where in 2011 they played their farewell show, as college careers beckoned to the siblings.

A Hooligans reunion tour is unlikely, Connor and Sharlys said, because of their hectic schedules.  But the Minstrel folks are pretty persistent…so who knows?

From left, Siblings Connor and Charlys Dugan perform with Dave Rimelis of the Blarney Boys at St. Peter's in Morristown. Not pictured: Dave Braham on piano. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
From left, siblings Connor and Sharlys Dugan perform with Dave Rimelis of the Blarney Boys at St. Peter’s in Morristown. Not pictured: Dave Braham on piano. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

LEAVE A REPLY