Origin Theatre Company to Announce 2021-22 Season at Upcoming Gala Dinner
Details for the three-week Origin 1st Irish Festival will also be made public at the Gala Dinner.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Nov. 15, 2021
Origin Theatre Company will announce the bulk of its current 19th season at a gala dinner at the Manhattan Penthouse, 80 Fifth Avenue (at 14th Street), on Tuesday December 7, at 6:30pm. The evening will honor Origin's founder George C. Heslin and board member Andrea Haughian, vice president of business development for Invest Northern Ireland.
The 2021-22 season, the first under the leadership of the actor and producer Michael Mellamphy, will continue with the 14th annual Origin 1st Irish Festival, running January 9 to 31, and, in May, the American premiere of "A Kid Like Rishi," by Dutch playwright Kees Roorda. This will be Origin's first Mainstage production since 2018. The season got underway in September with a monthly new-play reading series, which continues through December.
"Everyone at Origin is excited about the resumption of live theatre," says Mellamphy, who co-curated last year's all-virtual Origin 1st Irish with fellow Cork native and actor Sarah Street. "We are looking forward to incorporating in smart ways some of the lessons learned during the pandemic, that keep our New York audience connected with the broader world, as we continue to build on the international relationships our founder George Heslin started."
Details for the three-week Origin 1st Irish Festival, which, in 13 years has introduced to New York audiences the work of close to 200 Irish playwrights from around the world, will be made public at the Gala Dinner. The Festival will present a mix of digital and live events in both New York and on the Island of Ireland, including premieres of new plays and works in process, films and, like last year, a series of trans-Atlantic panels. Street returns to curate 1st Irish for the second year in a row.
Plans for "A Kid Like Rishi," by Kees Roorda, one of The Netherlands' leading playwrights, will also be announced. The morally intense drama, based on true events, that uses the words and testimony of real people involved in the deadly police shooting of Rishi Chandrikasing in The Hague, will be directed by Erwin Maas, and its US premiere will close out Origin's 2021-22 season. "In presenting 'A Kid Like Rishi' we are sharing a similar story known only too well to American audiences, but through a foreign perspective. My hope is that by doing so we can advance meaningful conversation in our own communities." A free reading of "A Kid Like Rishi" takes place on Wed Nov 17 at 7pm at 3 Dollar Bill, 260 Meserole Street, Brooklyn. For details visit www.origintheatre.org
Andrea Haughian, who has served as an Origin Theatre board member since 2014, will receive the Tom Moran Business to Arts Leadership Award, named in memory of the much-admired longtime leader of Mutual of America, who passed away in 2018. The first Tom Moran Business to Arts Leadership Award was presented to Loretta Brennan Glucksman at Origin's last in-person gala, in the spring of 2019. Haughian has received the 2019 Digital DNA "Global Recognition Award" for her contributions to Northern Ireland's digital and technology sector on a global scale. She also has been recognized by The Irish Echo's "Top 40 under 40" and as "Irish America's Most Influential Women" by The Irish Voice. She is also the recipient of Belfast's Homecoming Ambassador Medal.
George C. Heslin will be presented with Origin's new Artistic Leadership Award. As Origin's founding artistic director from 2002 to 2020, Heslin introduced the works of countless writers from all over Europe to New York audiences. Through his visionary Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival, he also forged international partnerships with over 80 Irish organizations, giving them entrée to New York's network of Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theatres, as well as its sizable diaspora theater community. Adding to this curatorial and producing mandate, George founded Origin's European Month of Culture in 2018, further solidifying Origin's pan-European mission. He became the executive director of the New York Irish Center in October 2020.
For details on how to purchase tickets for Origin's Gala Dinner on Tue Dec 7 at the Manhattan Penthouse, 80 Fifth Avenue, visit www.origintheatre.org
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