Irish Rep's NEW WORKS Series to Present FREE Staged Reading of MIDDEN

The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street) is hosting a NEW WORKS READING SERIES to support new plays and emerging playwrights. As part of its mission statement, The Irish Repertory Theatre "encourages the development of new works focusing on the Irish and Irish American experience, as well as a range of other cultures." The next of the free staged readings is Midden by Morna Regan. The reading is on Friday, January 30th at 3 PM, tickets are free, and the event is open to the public. An RSVP to 212-727-2737 is required.

Midden will be read by Rachel Botchan (Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest), Elizabeth Canavan (Little Flower of East Orange, Our Lady of 121st Street), Terry Donnelly (Sive, Bailegangaire), Nicole Lowrance (Dividing The Estate, The Merchant of Venice) and Mary Beth Peil (Sunday in the Park with George, Celebration/The Room).

In Midden, after 15 years in the US, Ruth has finally built up a business successful enough to bring her back home to Ireland. But instead of the welcome she longs for, her arrival provokes instant strife, opening old scars and threatening to drown them all in a sea of resentment and anger. The homesick returning Yank no longer knows where home is. Midden is the story of five women from three generations. Told with humour and warmth it unpicks the tangled threads between past and present, mothers and daughters, exile and home.

Morna Regan (playwright). Morna is a Fulbright Scholar and an MFA graduate from USC, LA. She has worked as an actress for many years performing with such companies as the Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre, Rough Magic and the Gate, Dublin, London's West End, the Kennedy Centre, Washington D.C. and the Long Wharf, Connecticut. Morna's first piece of writing - The Case of Majella McGinty - a 30 minute film -was directed by Academy-Award-nominated Kirsten Sheridan and won twelve international awards including, in the US, a Silver Spire at the San Francisco Film Festival and the Gold Award at the Worldfest in Houston. It also won the Jury Prize at the Cologne Short Film Festival and Morna won Best Actress at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Midden was produced by Rough Magic Theatre Company and directed by Lynne Parker and the play was awarded an Edinburgh Fringe First, The Stewart Parker Radio Drama Award, The Jayne Snow Award at the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Heidleburg European Author's Award and was nominated for an Irish Times/ESB Best New Play Award. The show went on to play many venues around Ireland, Traverse One in Edinburgh and The Hampstead Theatre, London. It has also been translated into several different languages and played in numerous venues across Europe to huge critical acclaim. Morna is co-founder of a London based screenwriters' group called CUT2 and is currently finishing her first full length screenplay and has been awarded Writers Only Initiative funding from the Irish Film Board. Recently Morna was very proud to partake in Origin Theatre Company's hugely successful 1st Irish 2008 End of Lines Festival at the 59E59 Theatre with a one-act called The Housekeeper.

Kara Manning, Literary Manager, hopes that the reading series will "give playwrights, both emerging and more established, the invaluable opportunity to develop their new work in a supportive, safe environment and will also introduce some Irish playwrights, especially those who might not yet have the New York recognition they merit, to an American audience." The Irish Repertory Theatre's 2007 production of Stuart Carolan's Defender of the Faith was an alumnus of the 2006 New Works Reading Series. Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director, Ciarán O'Reilly, Producing Director, Jeffrey Chrzczon, General Manager

Winter 2009 readings are scheduled for February 27th and March 27th. All readings are at 3 PM unless otherwise noted and are located at The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

Tickets are free and the reading is open to the public. Seating is limited. RSVP by calling The Irish Repertory Theatre Box Office at (212) 727-2737. For more information visit www.irishrep.org.

 

 

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