1st Irish - It's A Party!

Gwen Orel Previews The Third Annual 1st Irish Festival

One of the things that sets the 1st Irish Theatre Festival (now in its third year) apart from other Theatre Festivals: the launch party.

Held at Mutual of America, who are one of the Festival's sponsors, the part offers not a glorious sunset over Manhattan through large plate glass windows, the waiters circulating with tasty morsels, the buffet sof good food, and two open bars of top-shelf liquor.

It's the people. That's what makes the party great. Because the Festival is a constellation of theatre companies, some from Ireland, some from America, all bringing contemporary Irish theatre to New York, there are a lot of people involved.

Some know each other, some are meeting for the first time. There are actors, playwrights, directors, sponsors, publishers, theatre producers, politicians.

Some, like playwright Geraldine Arons, aren't even in the Festival this year - just attending out of support for previous work - and for the opportunity to circulate. Romanian playwright Saviana Stanescu's Lenin's Shoe will be produced by Origin this spring - she also isn't in the Festival itself.

Origin has not given up on its mission to present the best of new European theatre, although the Festival eats up a lot of man-hours these days. But Stanescu did not miss the party; she was there, dazzling in red, working the room. The party is one of those rare business events that actually feels like a celebration.

It's not just a result of good caterers. Bringing people face to face is one of the goals that drove Origin Theatre's Artistic Director George C. Heslin to launch the Festival in the first place. Much of the original support for 1st Irish came out of meetings, handshakes and enthusiasm-with paperwork coming later.

When George first came to America, he had trouble meeting people. He remembers how hard it was to break in as an Irish actor, to have his work seen. A festival of Irish plays - which is, George points out, the only one in the world (other Irish theatre festivals don't limit themselves to Irish plays) - offer that opportunity.

The Festival started out with a bang in 2008 and has kept growing.

In its first outing, the Festival included productions at 12 different venues with audiences of 17 million. It can't get much bigger than it is and be manageable - this year there are 15 venues, with 16 playwrights represented.

Some are well known writers, including Dermot Bolger and Ron Hutchinson; some are up and coming, like Gary Duggan and Belinda McKeon. Seven are U.S. premieres; two are world premieres.

But though its size is somewhat capped by the realities of New York City and audiences, more local organizations are involved than ever before, both as hosts and producers.

For the first time, the Irish Arts Center is hosting and producing one of the shows in the Festival. The Flea Theatre is one of the venues. So is PS 122.

The letters in the glossy Festival brochure come from Mary McAleese, President of Ireland; Mary Hanafin T.D., the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport; Niall Burgess, Consul General; Christine C. Quinn, New Yor City Council Speaker; Norman Houston, Director, Northern Ireland Bureau; Eugene Downes, Chief Executive, Culture Ireland; and Joe Byrne, Executive Vice President, Tourism Ireland, US and Canada. The Festival has clout.

Some of the things that catch my eye among the many offerings: the world premiere of John Paul Murphy's The Prophet of Monto, which will be at the Flea, directed by Des Kennedy, who has won the Bush Theater Director Award.

Absolution, written and performed by Owen O'Neill, produced by Ireland's Gúna Nua, a play that deals with clerical sex offenders, which was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Gary Duggan's new play, Trans-Euro Express, produced by the Irish Arts Center New Plays Partnership in association with Fundamental Theater Project. Duggan had a short piece in 1st Irish 2008.

This Is What We Sang, produced by Belfast's Kabosh, a play set in a Belfast synagogue on Yom Kippur, based on stories of Belfast's Jews.

Ron Hutchinson's Rat in the Skull, a play about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which has not been seen in New York since 1985 - how does its take on terrorism and faith speak to us now?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Though formal planning for the Festival begins in November, at some level it never stops. George has meetings with the producers of resident theatres in New York, and encourages them to participate.

So the Mint Theatre's current production, Wife to James Whelan (which I reviewed here last week, August 31), is part of the Festival. The Mint was already considering doing some work by forgotten 30s-era playwright Teresa Deevy; George encouraged Artistic Director Jonathan Bank to produce the play during the Festival.

The Festival has a big reputation in Ireland, and George gets many submissions from overseas. Of over 40, he picked just three that way this year - that's partly because he likes to make those connections in person, and partly because he wants to make sure any company that comes has a chance to succeed.

Origin doesn't produce the plays in the Festival; each company is responsible for its own costs, but George doesn't want any company to lose its shirt.

This year, the three companies coming from Ireland are Kabosh Theatre (Belfast), Tall Tales Theatre (Meath) and Gúna Nua Theatre (Dublin).

"A company coming across the world is coming at huge expense," George explains. "I wouldn't put them in a basement venue where nobody will see them."

This is also true of out of town companies from Boston or Philadelphia, who don't have a built in audience for their work.

Unlike other Festivals, Origin takes no cut from each company's box office - the companies pay a small amount for joint marketing, and that's it.

George helps them create budgets, pairs companies together to rent a space, encourages them to share designers and sets, and be realistic about what to stress in the marketing. And they are in the fab program, and at the party.

For example, Kabosh Theatre's This Is What We Sang got a lot of press in Ireland because the site-specific work performed in Belfast's only synagogue.

While performing in a synagogue is interesting, it's also, in New York, not particularly unusual in a town that has venues like the Synagogue for the Arts (where the performs).

Irish Jews may be interesting, but merely being Jewish in New York - not so much. George pointed out to the company that they would need to stress more than just the venue. These personal touch sets 1st Irish apart.

When actor Tom C. O'Leary, who starred as Dr. Brendan Daly on the Dublin soap Fair City, came to New York last year, he produced a show in the Midtown International Theatre Festival with his now New York-based company Wall Fly. The silence, as they say, was deafening. It's easy to get lost and go unnoticed in many of New York's theatre Festivals.

It's not possible in 1st Irish. The Festival produces that swell brochure, with a color for each show - Wall Fly is behind Rat in the Skull. O'Leary, who also works as a bartender at Dempsey's, stars, with his colleague bar manager Colin Stewart.

At the party, O'Leary met Irish Repertory Theatre's Producing Director Ciaran O'Reilly. As a well known Dublin actor, O'Leary had come with introductions - that led nowhere. No longer.

The party may symbolize the warmth and spirit of the Festival, but it is not the Festival itself, of course.

In the past, Origin commissioned writers to produce short works produced together in an anthology; this year George chose not to do that - the workload for the Festival is just too demanding.

The infrastructure for Origin is still very small - a tiny staff plus interns. Instead this year, George concentrated this year pairing artists. He was instrumental in placing playwright Belinda McKeon with the Sullivan Project, which will debut her new play Graham & Frost.

And one of the producers of Gary Duggan's Trans-Euro Express is Nicola Murphy - formerly an Origin Theatre Company intern.

Playwrights grow through production, George says - not by readings. He's very proud that in this Festival, there will never be more than two staged readings.

This year there's only one - a reading of Irish poet Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, produced by I Fabbristi in association with the American Irish Historical Society. An Irish Theatre Symposium, in association with The Irish Repertory Theatre, led by Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes, is one of the only other non-staged events - and it should not be missed by anyone with even a glancing interest in Irish theatre. "New Northern Lights" is another panel discussion, on Northern Irish Theatre, to be held at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

New this year will be a Festival Club, for both patrons and players, which will be in an East Village Pub (location not announced at press time). Also new: an audience choice award included in the Awards Ceremony.

If George has his way, the spirit of fun and celebration will surround the Festival. Kind of like a party.