Irish Rep Announces THEATRE @ HOME WINTER FESTIVAL Featuring Melissa Errico, Max von Essen, Ali Ewoldt and More

Irish Repertory Theatre has announced their Theatre @ Home Winter Festival, a four-week repertory retrospective of all of the original digital productions created by Irish Repertory Theatre during the COVID-19 shut-down. From January 26 - February 21, 2021, audiences will be able to revisit or experience for the first time each of Irish Rep's nine Performances on Screen, including works by Brian Friel, James Joyce, Conor McPherson, Eugene O'Neill and more. Additional exclusive online events, discussions and behind-the-scenes videos will be announced at a later date. For tickets, performance dates and more, visit IrishRep.org.

The Theatre @ Home Winter Festival will include Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney; Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom, adapted from the novel Ulysses by James Joyce by Aedín Moloney and Colum McCann; Conor McPherson's The Weir; Love, Noël: The Songs and Letters of Noël Coward, written and devised by Barry Day; Belfast Blues, written and performed by Geraldine Hughes; Give Me Your Hand with poems by Paul Durcan performed by Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy; Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet; On Beckett / In Screen, an exploration of the works of Samuel Beckett conceived and performed by Bill Irwin; and Meet Me in St. Louis, adapted from the 1989 Broadway production and directed by Charlotte Moore.

Each production will be screened once per week during the festival at scheduled times. Reservations for the screenings are free but required in order to access the dedicated screening links and can be made at IrishRep.org. Donations of $25 per show, or $100 for the festival, are suggested for each viewer who can afford to give. A link will be sent to all registrants two hours before each performance begins.

For the first week of the festival (January 26-31), productions will be screened in the order they were released by Irish Rep. The schedule will then change each week, allowing audiences to select a weekly show-time and stick to it - seeing 4 unique productions over the course of the festival if they tune in each week. The full production schedule can be viewed here.

All performances will be open captioned in the 2nd and 4th week of the festival (February 2-7 and February 15-21).

MOLLY SWEENEY

By Brian Friel

Directed by Charlotte Moore

Molly Sweeney has lived in happy, capable and independent darkness since she was ten months old. When Frank, her restless, unemployed and enthusiastic husband, makes her blindness his latest cause, he recruits Mr. Rice, a once famous surgeon who, despite being half-drowned in Irish whiskey, agrees to attempt to restore Molly's sight. When the bandages come off, Molly, Frank and Mr. Rice discover the differences between seeing and understanding as they face the terrible consequences of a medical miracle.

Reprising their roles from the acclaimed 2011 Irish Rep production are Geraldine Hughes (Rocky Balboa) as Molly Sweeney and Ciarán O'Reilly (Juno and the Paycock) as Frank Sweeney, joined by Paul O'Brien (Six Degrees of Separation) as Mr. Rice.

Irish Rep's inaugural Performance on Screen, Molly Sweeney, premiered on May 12, 2020. This production was edited by Sarah Nichols, with sound design by Zachary Williamson.

Brian Friel (1929-2015) is widely recognized as one of Ireland's greatest dramatists. A prolific writer, his best-known works include Philadelphia, Here I Come!; Translations; Faith Healer and Dancing at Lughnasa. Molly Sweeney premiered at The Gate Theatre, Dublin in 1994 and received its Off-Broadway debut at Roundabout Theatre in 1996. It was first performed at Irish Repertory Theatre in 2011.

Irish Repertory Theatre would like to thank Geraldine Hughes, Paul O'Brien, Leah Schmidt of The Agency UK and The Howard Gilman Foundation for their support of this special event.

Performances will take place on Tuesday January 26 at 7pm, Saturday February 6 at 3pm*, Saturday February 13 at 8pm, and Thursday February 18 at 4pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

YES! REFLECTIONS OF MOLLY BLOOM

From the novel Ulysses by James Joyce

Adapted for the stage by Aedín Moloney and Colum McCann

Music by Paddy Moloney

Starring Aedín Moloney

It is Ireland in the early hours of June 17th, 1904. Molly Bloom's husband-the wandering philandering Leopold "Poldy" Bloom-has just come home & fallen asleep in their Dublin row house. Molly-a daughter, a mother, a lover and a long-suffering wife-patrols the pathways of her wild and leaping consciousness. She is lustful. Scared. Exuberant. Heartbreakingly lonely. Vivaciously reckless. And profoundly funny.

With an empty nest, an unfulfilling affair and a marriage long past its prime, Molly must find a way back to the rock-bed of love that she and Bloom once shared. Her unsentimental stream of consciousness is a song of songs that reaches backwards and forwards across the centuries. Written one hundred years ago, Joyce's words seem carved not just for today, but tomorrow too. Time ticks within time, dreams are upended, and life is thrown off balance. Molly seeks to reanimate love and ends up discovering herself. Dublin becomes Gibraltar, age becomes youth and a small room in Dublin becomes the world.

The 2019 Irish Rep World Premiere production of Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom was awarded the Outer Critics Circle Award and nominated for the Off Broadway Alliance Award for Solo Performance.

The Performance on Screen of Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom was filmed in Miami, Florida by Fernando Garcia, edited by Rory Duffy, with sound editing by M. Florian Staab. It premiered on June 7, 2020.

Performances will take place on Wednesday January 27 at 3pm, Tuesday February 2 at 7pm* (James Joyce's birthday), Sunday February 14 at 2pm, and Wednesday February 17 at 8pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

THE WEIR

Written by Conor McPherson

Directed by Ciarán O'Reilly

Starring Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Amanda Quaid and Tim Ruddy

In a remote country pub in Ireland, newcomer Valerie arrives and becomes spellbound by an evening of ghostly stories told by the local bachelors who drink there. With a whiff of sexual tension in the air and the wind whistling outside, what starts out as blarney soon turns dark as the tales drift into the realm of the supernatural. Then, Valerie reveals a startling story of her own.... Conor McPherson's The Weir is a haunting, evocative evening in the theatre you will never forget.

The 2013 Irish Rep production of The Weir was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival.

The Weir: A Performance on Screen premiered on July 21, 2020. It was Irish Rep's first green screen production and was edited by Sarah Nichols, with set design by Charlie Corcoran and sound design by M. Florian Staab. Jeff Davolt was Assistant Director.

Performances will take place on Wednesday January 27 at 8pm, Saturday February 6 at 8pm*, Tuesday February 9 at 7pm, and Friday, February 19 at 8pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

LOVE, NOËL: THE SONGS AND LETTERS OF NOËL COWARD

Written and Devised by Barry Day

Directed by Charlotte Moore

Filmed at The Players

Starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan

Get to know the life and times of one of the 20th century's most dynamic creative icons - Noël Coward - through this intimate performance in which Steve Ross and KT Sullivan transform into some of the many characters that made up Coward's unique life...Gertrude Lawrence, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Elaine Stritch, Lynn Fontanne, Virginia Woolf, Edna Ferber, the Queen Mother and, of course, The Master himself, Noël Coward. Through Coward's songs, stories and personal letters, cabaret legends Ross and Sullivan will summon up timeless memories of an era that may be gone but is never to be forgotten.

The Performance on Screen of Love, Noël was filmed in-person, with COVID-19 precautions, at The Players on Gramercy Park; it premiered on August 11, 2020. It was filmed and edited by Brian Petchers with sound design by M. Florian Staab. Jeff Davolt was Assistant Director.

Performances will take place on Thursday January 28 at 7pm, Wednesday February 3 at 3pm*, Sunday February 14 at 7pm, and Saturday February 20 at 3pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

BELFAST BLUES

Written & Performed by Geraldine Hughes

Stage Production Directed by Emmy Award winner Carol Kane

Filmed at Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Passionate, riveting and often humorous, Belfast Blues is a tapestry of autobiographical stories told from Geraldine Hughes's perspective as a little girl coming of age in the war-torn Belfast of the 1980s. These stories bear insightful witness to the many faces of "trying to live a normal life" amidst the violence born of the longstanding conflict between Catholics and Protestants. At thirteen, Hughes temporarily left "The Troubles" to star in a TV movie, "Children in the Crossfire," directed by George Schaefer, only to return home to a different kind of confusion and pain.

Belfast Blues, a play written and performed by Geraldine Hughes, was developed in collaboration with Kim Terrell and The Virtual Theatre Project in 2003, and produced by Steven Klein and Matt Shakman, as the first play in Black Dahlia's 2003 season in Los Angeles. It was originally directed by Charles Haid. Its New York premiere took place at The Culture Project in 2005 under the direction of Carol Kane.

In 2019, after over fifteen years of touring Belfast Blues to worldwide acclaim, Hughes staged her final performances of Belfast Blues at The Lyric Theatre in a co-production presented by herself, Brassneck Theatre Company and the Lyric Theatre as part of West Belfast's Féile an Phobail. Irish Repertory Theatre opened its 2020 digital fall season with the never-before-seen video captured during those final performances of this powerful autobiographical play.

The stage production of Belfast Blues featured set and lighting design by Jonathan Christman and sound design by Jonathan Snipes. The Performance on Screen was edited by Jude Lynch of Mashmob in Belfast and premiered on Irish Rep Online on September 22, 2020.

Performances will take place on Friday January 29 at 8pm, Sunday February 7 at 7pm*, Saturday February 13 at 3pm, and Wednesday February 17 at 3pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

GIVE ME YOUR HAND

A Poetical Stroll through The National Gallery of London

Poems by Paul Durcan

Starring Dermot Crowley & Tony Award nominee Dearbhla Molloy

Directed by Jamie Beamish

Filmed at The Coronet Theatre, London

In this special virtual reimagining of Give Me Your Hand, two of Ireland's finest actors, Dermot Crowley and Dearbhla Molloy, take audiences on a virtual stroll through London's National Gallery, discovering afresh the Museum's masterpieces from Van Gogh and Van Eyck, to Rubens and Gainsborough. With humor and grace, Crowley and Molloy breathe fresh life into each painting's subjects with poetic stories from renowned Irish poet Paul Durcan.

Give Me Your Hand premiered in London in 2010 and received its US Premiere in 2012 in Irish Rep's W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre. The Performance on Screen of Give Me Your Hand premiered on October 13, 2020. It features original music and technical direction by Jamie Beamish and was filmed and edited by Daniel Grixti. Featured artwork is from the collection of The National Gallery, London and shared with permission.

Performances will take place on Saturday January 30 at 3pm, Sunday February 7 at 2pm*, Friday February 12 at 8pm, and Sunday February 21 at 7pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

A TOUCH OF THE POET

By Eugene O'Neill

Directed by Ciarán O'Reilly

In A Touch of the Poet, proud and tempestuous Cornelius Melody (Con) owns a run-down inn and tavern near Boston in 1828. Laden with debt, Con clings to his tenuous identity as a landed gentleman and war hero and chastises his wife and daughter for actions that expose the family's humble Irish origins. When his daughter Sara falls in love with a wealthy American guest at their inn, Con's pride drives him to an explosive reckoning with his true place in the New World.

The team behind Irish Rep's acclaimed The Weir: A Performance on Screen returned to create a digital production of A Touch of the Poet, Eugene O'Neill's tragic tale about the immigrant experience and generational aspiration. The cast and creative team from Irish Rep's planned Spring 2020 production, which was postponed due to COVID-19, reconvened remotely to reimagine the play for digital presentation.

A Touch of the Poet was the first work written for the Eugene O'Neill's famously unfinished cycle about the Irish in America. Completed in 1942, A Touch of the Poet has received four Broadway productions. It premiered in October of 1958 at the Helen Hayes Theatre, nearly five years after the playwright's death.

The cast of A Touch of the Poet includes Belle Aykroyd (A Christmas Carol) as Sara Melody, Ciaran Byrne (The Dead, 1904) as Dan Roche, Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde) as Cornelius "Con" Melody, Kate Forbes (Sight Unseen) as Nora Melody, Mary McCann (The Weir) as Deborah, Andy Murray (The Seafarer) as Cregan, David O'Hara (Three Small Irish Masterpieces) as Paddy O'Dowd, Tim Ruddy (The Seafarer) as Mickey Maloy, David Sitler (Donnybrook) as Patch Riley and John C. Vennema (Linda) as Nicholas Gadsby.

A Touch of the Poet premiered on October 27, 2020 and features scenic design by Charlie Corcoran (Dublin Carol), costume design by Alejo Vietti (Smokey Joe's Cafe), lighting design by Michael Gottlieb (London Assurance), sound design by M. Florian Staab (London Assurance), original music by Ryan Rumery (London Assurance), hair and wig design by Robert Charles Vallance (The Dead, 1904) and make-up design by Joe Dulude II (Beetlejuice). April Ann Kline (The Plough and the Stars) served as Production Manager, with video editing by Sarah Nichols (The Weir) and Staab.

Performances will take place on Saturday January 30 at 8pm, Thursday February 4 at 7pm*, Friday February 12 at 8pm, and Tuesday February 16 at 7pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

ON BECKETT / IN SCREEN

An Exploration of the Works of Samuel Beckett

Conceived and Performed by Tony Award winner Bill Irwin

Directed for Camera by M. Florian Staab and Bill Irwin

Bill Irwin can't escape Samuel Beckett. The pandemic hasn't changed this. Two years ago, Irwin took the Irish Rep stage to premiere On Beckett, his award-winning meditation on Samuel Beckett's works and language. Since then, COVID-19 has upended daily life worldwide and live theatre is on hold as venues stand empty. In this time of anxiety and loss, Irwin revisits the words of Samuel Beckett and returns alone to the Irish Rep virtual stage to bring us On Beckett / In Screen, a new meditation filmed for our current times.

In this intimate evening, Irwin mines the physical and verbal skills acquired in his years as a master clown and Tony Award-winning actor to explore a performer's relationship to Beckett in the time of COVID. Irwin's approach to the comic, the tragic, to every side of Beckett's work-including Waiting for Godot, The Unnamable and Texts for Nothing -allows audiences to experience the Nobel Prize winner's language in compelling new ways.

On Beckett / In Screen is a new play by master clown, Tony Award-winning actor, and MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Fulbright Fellow Bill Irwin, drawn from Irwin's award-winning production, On Beckett. On Beckett premiered at Irish Repertory Theatre in 2018 to wide acclaim, winning a special Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience. Previous iterations of On Beckett have been performed at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco and workshopped at Vineyard Theatre in New York and the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

On Beckett / In Screen premiered on November 17, 2020. It was filmed & edited by Brian Petchers (Love, Noël) and features set design by Charlie Corcoran (The Weir), lighting design by Michael Gottlieb (The O'Casey Cycle), sound design by M. Florian Staab (Love, Noël) and production management by Christine Lemme (Mac Beth).

Performances will take place on Sunday January 31 at 2pm, Friday February 5 at 8pm*, Wednesday February 10 at 8pm, and Saturday February 20 at 8pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.

MEET ME IN ST LOUIS

In Song and On Screen

Songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

Book by Hugh Wheeler

Based on "The Kensington Stories" by Sally Benson

And the MGM Motion Picture Meet Me in St. Louis

Adapted and Directed by Charlotte Moore

Music Direction by John Bell

Orchestrations by Josh Clayton

Produced by Ciarán O'Reilly

In this heartwarming musical, based on the beloved 1944 film of the same name, the Smith family grapples with life changes and new love in a bustling St. Louis on the brink of the 1904 World's Fair. This special digital adaptation from Charlotte Moore (Anna Smith in the original Broadway cast) includes favorite tunes, including "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," along with the romantic suitors, comedic misunderstandings and jovial pranks that make this classic musical a treat for families of all ages.

This new digital production is an abridged version of the 1989 Broadway musical, based on the 1944 film of the same name starring Judy Garland. Irish Repertory Theatre last presented Meet Me in St. Louis in 2007.

The cast of Meet Me in St. Louis includes Shereen Ahmed (My Fair Lady) as Esther Smith, William Bellamy (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) as Lon Smith, Rufus Collins (The Dead, 1904) as Alonzo Smith, Kerry Conte (Mary Poppins National Tour) as Lucille Ballard, Melissa Errico (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) as Anna Smith, Ali Ewoldt (The Phantom of the Opera) as Rose Smith, Kathy Fitzgerald (Wicked) as Katie, Ian Holcomb (London Assurance) as Warren Sheffield, Austyn Johnson (The Greatest Showman) as Agnes, Jay Aubrey Jones (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) as Grandpa, Kylie Kuioka (The King and I National Tour) as Tootie, Ashley Robinson (A Child's Christmas in Wales) as Postman and Trolley Man, and Max von Essen (An American in Paris) as John Truitt.

Meet Me in St. Louis: In Song and On Screen premiered on December 11, 2020. It features musical direction by John Bell, orchestrations by Josh Clayton, scenic design by Charlie Corcoran, video editing by Meridith Sommers, sound design and mix by M. Florian Staab, and lighting design by Michael Gottlieb. Tracy Christensen was the costume consultant, Pamela Brusoski and Rebecca C. Monroe were the production managers, and Simon Patrick Geaney was the production assistant.

Songs by Martin & Blane are published by EMI Feist Catalog, Inc. Meet Me in St. Louis was produced for the Broadway stage by Brickhill-Burke Productions, Christopher Seabrooke and EPI ProductsTM.

Performances will take place on Sunday January 31 at 7pm, Wednesday February 3 at 8pm*, Thursday February 11 at 7pm, and Sunday February 21 at 7pm*. All times are EST. *These performances will feature captions.