About Cillian Murphy (Thomas Magill)
Cillian Murphy made his mark on stage with a stunning performance in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs. After receiving commendations for Best Fringe Show at the 1996 Dublin Theatre Festival and the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1997, Disco Pigs went on to tour extensively in Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia. He later starred in the film version directed by Kirsten Sheridan. In 2006, he made his West End debut at the New Ambassador Theatre in John Kolvenbach's Love Song, directed by John Crowley.
Additional stage work includes several collaborations with Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes: The Country Boy, Juno and the Paycock and The Playboy of the Western World at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. He also starred as Konstantin in the Edinburgh Festival production of The Seagull directed by Peter Stein, as Adam in Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things at the Gate Theatre in Dublin and as Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing at Kilkenny Castle.
About Landmark Productions (Co-Producer)
Landmark Productions (producer) is one of Ireland's leading theatre producers, founded in 2003 by Anne Clarke. Its most recent productions include the world premiere of Testament, a new play by Colm Tóibín, directed by Garry Hynes, in a co-production with the Dublin Theatre Festival. Forthcoming productions include the world premiere of a new play by Emma Donoghue, author of the international bestseller Room. For more information: www.landmarkproductions.ie.
About Galway Arts Festival (Co-Producer)
Galway Arts Festival was established in 1978 and is Ireland's leading annual international arts festival presenting a programme of the performance and visual arts. As a producer and curator the Festival has toured work to the Perth International Arts Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Adelaide Festival, London and the USA. For more information: www.galwayartsfestival.com.
About Imagine Ireland (Co-Presenter)
Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland's year of Irish arts in America, will see over 1,200 artists present more than 500 events across 45 states during 2011. The program is a celebration of the Irish imagination, presenting renowned artists and ensembles alongside some of the country's most exciting emerging voices. Irish and American artists share a strong cultural connection, going back many centuries. The Fall/Winter program of Imagine Ireland is full of highlights and special events, across theatre, visual arts, music, film, literature and dance. Full details are available at www. imagineireland.ie.
About St. Ann's Warehouse (Co-Presenter)
For over 30 years, St. Ann's has commissioned, produced and presented an eclectic body of innovative theater and concert presentations that meet at the intersection of theater and rock and roll. Since 2001, the organization has helped vitalize the emerging Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood, DUMBO, where St. Ann's Warehouse at 38 Water Street has become one of New York City's most important and compelling live performance destinations.
Through its signature multi-artist concerts and groundbreaking music/theater collaborations, St. Ann's Warehouse has become the artistic home for the American avant-garde, international companies of stature and award-winning emerging artists. Highly acclaimed landmark productions include Lou Reed's and John Cale's Songs for ‘Drella; Marianne Faithfull's Seven Deadly Sins; Artistic Director Susan Feldman's Band in Berlin; Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers' Theater of the New Ear; The Royal Court Theater's 4:48 Psychosis; The Wooster Group's La Didone, Hamlet, The Emperor Jones, House/Lights, Brace Up! and To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre); The Globe Theatre of London's Measure for Measure; Druid Company's The Walworth Farce, The New Electric Ballroom and Penelope; Lou Reed's Berlin; and the National Theater of Scotland's acclaimed Black Watch. In 2009, St.
Ann's presented the New York premiere of Kneehigh Theatre's production of Noel Coward's Brief Encounter. The play topped Brantley's Best of 2009 list in The New York Times and completed a Broadway run at Roundabout's Studio 54 in 2010.
Other upcoming highlights of St. Ann's 2011-12 season include the return of Daniel Kitson with It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later; and Elephant Room, directed by Paul Lazar and written by Steve Cuiffo with Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle, in collaboration with the magicians/performers Dennis Diamond, Louie Magic, and Daryl Hannah.
In 2004, Susan Feldman and St. Ann's Warehouse were awarded the Ross Wetzsteon OBIE Award for the development of new work. The OBIE Award Committee honored St. Ann's for "inviting artists to treat their cavernous DUMBO space as both an inspiring laboratory and a sleek venue where its super-informed audience charges the atmosphere with hip vitality." New York Magazine recently proclaimed Feldman "The Saint of Experimental Theater." Recently, three productions were awarded OBIE Awards: The New Electric Ballroom (playwright Enda Walsh); Brief Encounter (Design Team); Coraline (composer and lyricist Stephin Merritt).
