Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival Will Run From January 7 to February 3, 2020

The month-long Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival, the world's only festival devoted to producing the plays of contemporary Irish playwrights from around the world, runs four weeks from January 7 to February 3, 2020. A total 15 events, including seven mainstage productions from Belfast, Dublin, Wexford, and Manhattan and Queens, will be seen in- and out-of-competition. Among the productions, three are American premieres; two are world premieres. 15 contemporary Irish writers are represented with work in the Festival.

Origin 1st Irish 2020 takes place in a number of distinguished venues across New York City, including the 59E59 Theaters, Irish Repertory Theatre (two theatres), The American Irish Historical Society, Scandinavia House, The NY Irish Center, A.R.T. New York, The Secret Theatre, The National Arts Club, The Cutting Room, Symphony Space, Swift Hibernian Lounge, The Alchemical Studios, The Irish Consulate, and NYU's Glucksman Ireland House. (For tickets on sale now and festival schedule visit www.origintheatre.org )

Produced by Origin Theatre Company, now in its 17th season, Origin 1st Irish is a highly curated festival that mixes brand new and recently acclaimed productions and special projects from both sides of the Atlantic. Since its founding in 2008, the Festival has been recognized for its focused size, and emphasis on audience engagement through mainstage productions, events, panels and workshops. Its Next Generation and Breaking Ground series have proven to be launch-pads for new projects developed collaboratively by artists from different cities, that have gone on to further success and acclaim. In 2015 The NY Times called Origin's 1st Irish "an important event that offers New York theatergoers the chance to see fascinating new work."

A competitive festival, this year's Origin 1st Irish culminates in a Closing Night Ceremony on Monday February 3, 2020. Here the Best of Festival Awards, chosen by the festival's blue-ribbon panel of judges (whose names will be announced soon), will be handed out.

Origin 1st Irish 2020 kicks off on Wednesday January 8 at 6:30pm at its Official Launch Party welcoming Festival participants and partners at The Irish Consulate. By invitation only.

The Productions

1:

The American premiere of Eva O'Connor's acclaimed comedy-drama "Maz and Bricks," about the unlikely friendship of a man and woman set against the backdrop of a pro-choice march. Produced at 59E59 by the Olivier Award-winning, Dublin-based Fishamble: The New Play Company, which returns to the Festival for its sixth visit. Directed by Jim Culleton, with Ciaran O'Brien and Eva O'Connor. The Sunday Independent calls this timely hit "marvelous theatre... perfect and unmissable piece of deeply moving drama!" The Irish Independent adds, "excruciatingly funny and powerful."
At 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, Jan 7 to February 2.

2:

Origin 1st Irish brings us a revival of the comedy "A Couple of Blaguards," Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt's deeply personal stage memoir, starring Eoin Cannon and Peter Halpin. Directed by George C. Heslin and produced by Siobhan McCourt (with the participation of Malachy McCourt, who survives his brother), the show was created by the brothers before their literary fame, and tells of their growing up in Ireland and their escape to America as enterprising immigrants. Filled with Irish songs, accounts of seminal events both personal and public, and a gallery of relatives, rogues, fools and petty tyrants, this is vintage McCourt.
Swift Hibernian Lounge, 34 East 4th Street, 3 performances from Jan 19 to 21.

3:

Dublin's Gúna Nua presents Sarah-Jane Scott's acclaimed comedy "Appropriate," in its American premiere. Directed by Paul Meade, who earned the award for Best Director in last year's festival ("The Morning After the Life Before"), "Appropriate" is a darkly-comic story of a GAA bride's hot heart and cold feet on the eve of her marriage. Love and sports in rural Ireland are a perfect match in every way, except in this case! A hilarious one-header of a show by the gifted Scott, in her New York debut. The show has already nabbed the Summerhall Lustrum Award for Excellence at Edinburgh Fringe 2019, and was nominated for Bewley's Little Gem Award at the 2018 Dublin Fringe.
The NY Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Avenue, in Long Island City, 6 performances from Jan 27 to February 1

4:

The world premiere of "The 8th," a new play written and directed by Seanie Sugre. Produced in New York by Locked in the Attic Productions with Five Ohm Productions, "The 8th" stars Julia Nightingale ("The Ferryman" on Broadway), Una Clancy, and Gerard McNamee. In "The 8th" (shorthand for Ireland's 8th Amendment outlawing abortion, which was repealed in 2018), a family's tensions in the home collide unexpectedly with the very public fracas caused by the country's epic referendum vote to legalize abortion.
The Secret Theater, 4492 23rd Street, in Long Island City, Jan 7 to 18

5:

The Wexford Arts Centre, in association with The Irish Repertory Theatre, presents the American premiere of "The Scourge," written and performed by Wexford native Michelle Dooley Mahon. Adapted from her critically acclaimed autobiographical novel in which she relives the slow, downward path of her mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease, "The Scourge" is directed by notable Irish director Ben Barnes (former artistic director of The Abbey). As Mahon relates that often absurd, silly, heart-breaking slow-motion slide, we witness a beautiful dedication of a daughter in small-town Ireland giving voice to a mother sadly silenced before her time.
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, 13 performances Jan 22 to Feb 2

6:

Also at The Irish Repertory Theatre, running from December 6 through January 26, The Irish Rep's production of Dion Boucicault's high-spirited farce, "London Assurance," directed by Charlotte Moore. With Craig Wesley Divino, Meg Hennessy, Ian Holcomb, Elliot Joseph, Brian Keane, Colin McPhillamy, Rachel Pickup, Caroline Strang, Evan Zes and Robert Zukerman. A parade of eccentric characters populate this classic comedy of manners that catapulted the then 20-year-old Boucicault to fame when it premiered at London's Covent Garden in March of 1841. What does this comedy from a young actor/playwright considered one of the most successful and influential theatrical figures of the 19th Century have to say to audiences today? Plenty!
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, 8 weeks, Dec 6 to January 26.

7:

Next Generation Series - Far From the Land Productions presents a new play in development, Honor Molloy's "Round Room." This open studio production with music by the Grammy Award-winning Irish singer/songwriter Susan McKeown, is directed by Britt Berke and features this distinguished New York-based cast: Gina Costigan, Brenda Meaney, Rachel Pickup, Maeve Prive, ZOE WATKINS, and Aoife Williamson. Molloy wrote the 2016 1st Irish sensation "Crackskull Row," which won for Best Production; transferred to the Irish Repertory Theatre; and was a New York Times Critics Pick. In "Round Room," two centuries of women from widely divergent backgrounds come to life in the corridors, back staircases and cavernous wards of the Dublin's infamous Rotunda Hospital, and begin to share a cascade of "once upon a time" stories never told.
The Alchemical Studios, 104 West 14th Street, three performances, Mon Jan 27 at 7pm, and Tue Jan 28 at 6pm & 9pm

8:

Next Generation Series - "Belfast 2050" (OUT OF COMPETITION) written and performed by five women playwrights from Northern Ireland, and directed by Belfast native Rhiann Jeffrey. Five new monologues inspired by the arresting premise: "Belfast 2050, under Albert Clock, the beloved Belfast landmark..."
A.R.T. Studios, 520 Eight Avenue (36th Street), Sat Jan 18 at 3pm.

Special Events

9:

MUSIC -- The New York concert debut of Irish mega star Nathan Carter in "Celtic Country," with special guest and Celtic Woman star Chloë Agnew. This action-packed live show blending Celtic, country and pop performs one-night only at the Cutting Room. The Cutting Room, 44 East 32nd Street, Sat Jan 11 at 7:30pm.

10:

FILM -- The New York premiere of the acclaimed documentary "Nuala," about the life and death of the New York Times best-selling memoirist Nuala O'Faolain ("Are You Somebody?"). In this award-winning documentary directed by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan, O'Faolain's friend -- the prominent Irish broadcaster, Marian Finucane -- goes behind the turbulent episodes of O'Faolain's life to paint a personal picture of a woman struggling without a road map and with only her own fierce intelligence to guide her. A stunning portrait of an anguished, brilliant Irishwoman, pushing off the cloak of church and male-dominated Ireland, whose story includes, as it does with so many writers, a relocation to New York. Never screened in New York, the 2012 film won the Best Irish Film Award at the Dublin Film Festival; the Audience Award at Vancouver Film Festival, and Best of the Fest at the Palm Springs Film Festival.
Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, Mon Jan 20, at 7pm

11:

BOOK EVENT -- Presented by the WB Yeats Society, a reading from CS Farrelly's debut novel, "The Shepherd's Calculus." This fast-paced political thriller centered on election meddling by a foreign power examines what happens when the cornerstones of American identity - capitalism and religion - clash with its principles of justice. Both a playwright and author, Farrelly's varied career spans investment banking, NYC education and diplomacy.
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park S., Thur Jan 16, at 6:30pm. FREE EVENT

12:

Origin 1st Irish presents "Scór on Broadway," a unique community cross-over event in which members of New York's Irish community of all ages and backgrounds come together to showcase and celebrate their unique performance skills in a cultural cabaret that will light up a Broadway stage, not to mention your heart. This is the fourth year in a row that Origin has hosted the festive family event during the Festival. Produced by Jane McCarter O'Dowd. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, Fri, Jan 24 at 7pm

13:

LYRIC THEATRE EVENT Presented by The Lyric Theatre of Belfast, in a partnership with Origin Theatre Company, "Vital Voices" is a series that builds a new cultural bridge between New York and Northern Ireland.
American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Avenue (at 80th Street), Date TBA

14:

Best of Festival Awards Night. The 12th annual Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival culminates in a stunning evening of fanfare and fun. Previous festival award winners have included: Niall Buggy, Peter Maloney, Jack Gleeson, Ciaran O'Reilly, Hayley Mills, Conor McPherson, and Pat Shortt.
Location TBA. Monday Feb 3, 7pm

Festival Schedule still in formation... other events to be announced soon.

Under the artistic direction of George C. Heslin, and now in its 17th season, Origin Theatre Company is devoted to introducing New York audiences to the stunning array of work and perspectives produced in Europe today. In new productions with New York-based artists, it produces the American premieres of impactful plays by contemporary writers that reflect the diversity of viewpoints and cultural perspectives emanating from the EU's 28 member countries. Origin also produces the "European Month of Culture NYC," in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, every May.

Since its founding in 2002, Origin has introduced works by 250 playwrights to US audiences, from such countries as the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Macedonia, Norway, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

For Festival details and tickets visit www.origintheatre.org

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