Theatre company Fishamble has announced the 30 projects selected to move to the next stage of its project, A Play For Ireland. The two-year process aims to encourage the citizens of Ireland, and non-Irish citizens living on the island of Ireland, to write plays, engaging people aged 18 and over from all communities, throughout the country.
The initiative will mentor playwrights throughout the island of Ireland, and result in the production of a very special new play.
Fishamble is seeking to find “one, big, ambitious play, that bursts with humanity and tackles a subject about which the playwright feels passionate... that captures the zeitgeist of the country, that demands to be produced.”
The 30 chosen projects include stories on political change and tension, rural communities, gap years, tourism and heritage, relationships with history, facing adulthood, Storm Ophelia, DNA testing, drunken walks home, the changing workplace and relationships within it, adoption and foster care, family crisis, alcoholic parents, health care reform, nursing homes, small business owners, humanity and community, Irish independence, republicanism and nationalism, the Irish language, rap music, donut chains, government departments, eviction, the concept of home, prophecy, broken hearts, and theatre.
A Play For Ireland is run in partnership with six venues across the country, in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Belfast. Five projects will be chosen to take part in the initiative in each venue, making a total of 30 plays, to mark Fishamble's 30th birthday this year.
The writers of the 30 chosen plays (33 playwrights involved) were announced on Thursday, five per venue, are:
BELLTABLE – LIME TREE THEATRE, Limerick
Mike Finn
Joanne Ryan
Ann Blake
Michael Hilliard Mulcahy
Brendan Griffin
DRAÍOCHT, Blanchardstown
Ian Toner
Alice Murphy
Barry McStay
Jeda De Brí & Finbarr Doyle
Caitríona Daly
EVERYMAN, Cork
Noelle Brown & Karen Cogan
Bridgid Galvin
John Doran
Margaret McAuliffe
Lisa Carroll
LYRIC THEATRE, Belfast
Michael Patrick & Oisín Kearney
Shannon Yee
Vittoria Cafolla
Seamus Collins
Clare McMahon
PAVILION THEATRE, Dún Laoghaire
David Horan
Shay Linehan
Jody O’Neill
Lee Stafford
Ciara Elizabeth Smyth
TOWN HALL THEATRE, Galway
Marina Ní Dhubháin
Neasa O’Callaghan
Hugh Travers
Janet Moran
Fionn Foley
The playwrights will gather for the first workshop in Dublin on Saturday, April 28th. They will take part in four workshops in their respective venues, with one-on-one workshops at the end of the year for final notes on their draft script. Six projects will then go through to Phase 2 in 2019.
