From theater, to music and dance – a panel of experts will choose the best from this extraordinary Irish community.
On February 9, in New York City, after almost a decade spotlighting the extraordinary achievements of the Irish creative community in the country, America’s largest Irish website will instead be honoring the cream of the crop at the first IrishCentral Creativity and Arts Awards.
Tickets for this event are now SOLD OUT but you can join us on Facebook Feb 9 to watch it live with TG4.
The IrishCentral Creativity and Arts Awards sponsors include TG4, Feile 30, Irish American Writers & Artists, Slane Irish Whiskey, American Irish Historical Society, and Irish Network USA.
Forty nominees have been selected across eight categories: Media & Innovation, Voice of Today, The Stage, The Written Word, The Screen, Visual Arts, Fashion & Design, and Irish American Centers and Festivals. While the public can vote for several of the winners in these categories this category's winner will be chosen by a panel of experts in the field.
VOTE – Have your say in the IrishCentral Creativity and Arts awards results here
Here’s a run down of the nominees in the category “The Stage”, a section sponsored by Slane Irish Whiskey.
Crackskull Row – Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival
Crackskull Row – Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival.
Though raised from the age of eight in in Allentown, Pennslyvania, playwright Honor Molloy’s earlier years in Dublin, the city of her birth, inspires much of her literary output. This is certainly true of her breakout hit, “Crackskull Row,” for the world’s only festival – now in its 10th year – dedicated to the work of Irish playwrights.
Set in Dublin in 1999 Molloy’s play attacks the senses. As the Irish Rep Theatre’s synopsis puts it “Rasher Moorigan has a secret that only his mother knows. Tonight – for the first time in over thirty years – mother and son spend May Eve together in a wreck of a house down the back lanes of Dublin. Melding reality and myth, 'Crackskull Row' is the story of an Irish family’s desperate actions and forbidden loves, 'exploring rage, dissolution, sexual perversity and family history with a bleak and penetrating acuity.'”
The Home Place – Irish Repertory Theatre
The Homeplace – Irish Repertory Theatre.
This venerable Irish institution, the Irish Repertory Theatre, has been recently renovated and is at the very heart of the New York theater scene.
Brian Friel’s last play, “The Homeplace,” is set in the mythical Ballybeg against the backdrop of real events in 1878 Ireland – the rise of the Home Rule movement and a popular revolt against the land-owning gentry. Brian Friel explores the aftermath of Dr. Gore’s experiment as deep animosity is dangerously ignited amongst the suspicious villagers of Ballybeg.
Puttin’ on Her Shorts – Poor Mouth Theatre Company, Bronx
Puttin’ on Her Shorts – Poor Mouth Theatre Company, Bronx.
The dynamic, Bronx-based theater company, directed by Don Creedon, responded early in 2017 to the 'Waking the Feminists' movement of the previous year with a highly enjoyable festival of six original short plays by New York-based playwrights Brona Crehan, Honor Molloy, Maeve Price, Olivia Reevell, Allison Sylvia and Amy E. Witting.
The 2016 'Waking the Feminists' movement in Ireland, which helped raise awareness of women’s under-representation in theateR.
Celtic Jazz Tryst – Darrah Carr Dance
Celtic Jazz Tryst – Darrah Carr Dance.
Darrah Carr’s championship Irish dancers married their trademark style with that of jazz vocalist Tara O’Grady and her Black Velvet Band for an exuberant show at the Irish Arts Center that drew on a number of genres and musical influences.
Guest choreographer Seán Curran was involved in the fun, too, recalling the romance of the Big Band Era. The show’s jaunty sound spans Celtic, folk, funk, blues, jazz, and swing.
Beckett Women: Ceremonies of Departure – The Poets' Theatre
Beckett Women: Ceremonies of Departure – The Poets' Theatre.
Four powerful short plays, by the 1969 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Samuel Beckett, were performed in a program at Farkas Hall, Harvard University, in 2015. In recent months, as part of the Boston-Belfast Sister Cities Agreement, the four were brought across the Atlantic – specifically to The MAC in Belfast, which visiting director Bob Scanlan has described as a “magical facility.”
For more information about the awards click here
Tickets for this event are now SOLD OUT but you can join us on Facebook Feb 9 to watch it live with TG4.
VOTE NOW – Vote for your favorites in the IrishCentral Creativity and Arts Awards here
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