Gov't Promises Abbey Theatre Will Be Completed

In honor of St. Patty's Day, here's a little news about the new Abbey Theatre project. Martin Cullen, the Irish arts minister, promised that, despite the terrible economy, completion of the new Abbey Theatre is a top government priority. The project, which received the official go-ahead back in 2006, has yet to be launched. Cullen was challenged in parliament last week about its lack of progress, and he promised plans would move ahead. Read more here.

Dublin Fringe Festival's Call for Submissions

The 15th Dublin Fringe Festival is now inviting submissions for the September festival. This year, they want to present works which confronts, embraces and defies this period of remarkable change and challenges. From celebrating the fresh re-emergence of DIY culture, reclaiming more of Dublin's empty spaces, experimenting with theatre and performance and delving into experiential arts on a grand and minute scale, to encountering home grown and international arts on the street and in even more unexpected places, the Fringe's 2009 program won't shy away from exploration of where we are and how we got here; as a city, nation and international community of makers, doers, seers and thinkers.

Dublin Fringe Festival has long served as a spring-board for fresh new Irish and international artistic voices, as well as a home for risk-taking and cutting edge performance from more established artists. This year they are looking for artists across all disciplines to imagine Dublin with a new vision for the time we live in; to be brave, bold and uncompromising in their engagement with the cultural, social and physical landscape of the city and to once again invigorate, investigate, challenge, defy, excite and inspire its audience.

The Fringe will once again present a series of pre-application talks open to all interested parties on Tuesday 17 February. Topics that will be covered include: Online application process, supporting material requirements, financial deals offered by the festival and fundraising. Closing Deadline for applications is Friday 3 April at 6pm. More information and the link to our online application system can be found here or on their blog.

MAKE: Theatre Forum Ireland: 22-29 March 2009

MAKE is a collaborative initiative by Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre and Theatre Forum, committed to the generation of new performance work. It will take the form of a residential laboratory open to Irish and international artists, whereby ideas for new performance works will be developed with the assistance of renowned international theatre artists Florian Malzacher, Richard Gregory and Gerardo Naumann. Over the course of one week, 15 practitioners will come together at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annnaghmakerrig. Their purpose there will have an expressed emphasis on creating new work with assistance, mentoring and support, rather than learning specific skills or techniques. The week long laboratory will culminate in a short showing of the work they have developed over the course of the week. The emphasis of this workshop will be on the generation of new performance work outside of the traditional writer-led model. Click here for more information about the program and how to apply.

Irish Arts Council Slashes Funding

And the global theatre funding cuts continue. This time it’s The Abbey, Ireland’s national theatre. The Arts Council has cut 16% of its annual grant to the theatre from €10 million to €8.35 million. In addition to the Abbey, the highest profile recipient of Arts Council funding, the average grant cut to Irish theatre in 2009 will be just over 8% including major companies like the Gate and the Druid. Unfortunately, companies like the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin and the Galloglass Theatre Company in Tipperary have lost all Arts Council funding in the cutbacks. The council is also taking some of its own medicine, promising to cut its administration costs next year by €1.5 million. Happy New Year indeed.

The Irish New Wave in New York

Belinda McKeon has written a great article for the ‘Irish Times’ about the new wave of Irish theatre that hit New York in 2008, and it sure wasn’t the Yeatsian vision that many traditional theatregoers and critics were expecting, including Rough Magic's Improbable Frequency at 59E59. Read it here.

“It's not such a bad thing to bring to New York a piece of theatre which belongs clearly neither in one box or in another…Preconceptions about Irish theatre - let alone Irish musical comedy - won't have been much help to them. Again, not such a bad thing. Because, in fact, it has been the year of living variously for Irish theatre in New York. Improbable Frequency is far from being the first Irish show which critics have found difficult to pin down.”

NY's First Irish Theatre Festival

Hard to believe it hasn't happened yet, but so was George C. Heslin, artistic director of Origin Theater Company, who organized the first ever Irish Theatere Festival in NY. With such notable Broadway names as Conor McPherson and Martin McDonagh, it's shocking to think this is the first stab at it, but, hey, stranger things have happened here in the Big Apple. Running now until 28 September, nine companies will present the plays of 13 writers at five locations, including Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs (which again is surprising that it's having it's NY premiere, since I saw it in Edinburgh last century and up at Williamstown at least five years ago). Check out the NYTimes article here.

Enda Walsh

Jason Zinoman has written a fantastic article on Irish playwright, Enda Walsh. Produced by the Druid Theater Co. of Galway, Walsh’s The Walworth Farce will open at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn on April 15. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing 2 of his plays in the past, Disco Pigs (Edinburgh-1998) and Bedbound (Dublin-2000), and they were outstanding.