The 8th annual Origin's 1st Irish Festival is announcing today that two productions from Ireland -- "Pondling" and "Little Thing, Big Thing" (both at 59E59 Theaters), and one from New York -- "Stoopdreamer" at the cell -- each attracted five nominations for the festival's top honors, which will be handed out an Awards Ceremony co-hosted by the Broadway actress Geraldine Hughes at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, on Monday September 28 at 7pm. The Festival continues through Sunday October 4.
In all, 7 mainstage plays were seen in competition during the five-week festival that began on September 2. The productions vying for the jury-voted awards are from Belfast, Dublin, Limerick, and New York. Three of the seven -- "Pondling," "The Quare Land" and "Python" -- are still performing through Sunday October 4.
The mainstage productions from Ireland include the Dublin-based Fishamble: The New Play Company's comic thriller "Little Thing Big Thing" by Donal O'Kelly; Dublin's Gúna Nua and Ramblinman's production of
Genevieve Hulme-Beaman's macabre comedy "Pondling" (a NY Times Critic's Pick); Limerick's Bottom Dog Theatre's gay-pride heart-warmer "Language UnBecoming a Lady" by Myles Breen, and the acclaimed Irish actor and comic
Pat Shortt's sketch comedy romp "Selfie," presented by the
Irish Arts Center.
Locally grown are the cell's world premiere of "Stoopdreamer," a new play by Pat Fenton; Dublin playwright Brendan Connellan's new comedy-thriller "Python," premiering in The Bronx courtesy of Poor Mouth Productions, and The Irish Rep's cantankerous comedy "The Quare Land" by
John McManus playing through November 15.
The list of nominees is as follows: Best actress - Sorcha Fox ("Little Thing, Big Thing");
Genevieve Hulme-Beaman ("Pondling");
Robin Leslie Brown ("Stoopdreamer"). Best actor - Myles Breen ("Language Unbecoming a Lady"); Jack O'Connell ("Stoopdreamer"); Donal O'Kelly ("Little Thing, Big Thing");
Pat Shortt ("Selfie"). Best Director - Ciaran O'Reilly ("The Quare Land"); Jim Culleton ("Little Thing, Big Thing");
Kira Simring ("Stoopdreamer");
Paul Meade ("Pondling"). Best Playwright - Myles Breen ("Language Unbecoming a Lady);"
Genevieve Hulme-Beaman ("Pondling"); Pat Fenton ("Stoopdreamer");
John McManus ("The Quare Land"). Best Design -- "Little Thing, Big Thing;" "Pondling," and "The Quare Land." Best Production -- "Little Thing, Big Thing;" "Pondling," "Language Unbecoming a Lady" and "Stoopdreamer."
In addition to its creative awards in six categories, a special jury prize will also be handed out on Monday, as well as two new cash prizes -- a Breaking Ground Award for playwriting sponsored by the Irish Business Organization of New York, and a Special Appreciation Award sponsored by the Irish pub Ryan's Daughter.
This year's blue-ribbon panel of judges includes former Fox News senior producer Marvin Himelfarb, TheaterMania.com editor in chief Andy Lefkowitz and Doug Reside, curator of the Theater Division at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
The Awards Ceremony is co-hosted and coordinated by Ciaran Grant. The event is free and open to the public.
The festival's productions in competition were presented at The
Irish Arts Center,
59E59 Theaters, The Irish Rep at DR2 Theatre, the cell, and An Beal Bocht Café in The Bronx for "Python." Other festival events took place at the New York Irish Center in Queens; The American Irish Historical Society, Triad Theater, NYU's Glucksman Ireland House, and ART/NY.
Funding support for 1st Irish 2015 is generously provided by the Festival Sponsors Mutual of America; McVicker & Higginbotham; the Northern Ireland Bureau; Tourism Ireland; the American Ireland Fund; the Irish Consulate, New York, and the NY State Council for the Arts. The newest sponsors are The
Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the British Council -- Northern Ireland, and Goldman Sachs.
Curated and coordinated by Festival founder George C. Heslin, Origin's 1st Irish is the only festival of its kind to focus exclusively on the work of Irish playwrights, and is the city's only all-Irish theatre festival. Origin Theatre Company (Heslin is the artistic director) is a year-round theatre company based in New York devoted to presenting the American premieres of new works by Europe's brightest contemporary playwrights. Over the past 13 years, Origin has introduced works by 150 playwrights to US audiences, from such countries as Romania, Macedonia, Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdom. For information on Origin visit
www.origintheatre.org.
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