Preview by Brad Balfour
The Scéal Nua Inaugural New Play Festival will take place June 16–18 at the New York City based Irish Arts Center (IAC). Founded by Sarah Street in collaboration with Origin Theatre Company (through Artistic Director Michael Mellamphy) and the IAC, Scéal Nua (New Story) has become a community of playwrights within the Irish diaspora that meets weekly to develop and share new work.
The Irish Arts Center is renowned for presenting dynamic, inspiring, collaborative experiences of the evolving arts and culture of Ireland and Irish America in an environment of warm Irish hospitality. Founded in 1972 and based in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, IAC is a home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds and orientations.
The Scéal Nua New Play Festival 2025 showcases full-length play readings and excerpts from seven up-and-coming members of this year’s cohort. This includes Molly Babos, Barbara Cassidy, Don Creedon, Leo McGann, Nicola Murphy Dubey, Colm Summers, and Ciara Van Buren.
Born in Cork, writer/actor Sarah Street, who resides in New York, teamed with Origin Theatre Company — the organization founded to bring the new and unseen voices of Ireland and Europe’s theater community to New York stage. With IAC she created Scéal Nua “to create a space for the “tons of new Irish writers [in New York] to work together and give it the push that it needs to be produced.”
Street has worked with such notables as Enda Walsh, Amy Schumer, and Academy Award Winner F.Murray Abraham. She is currently playing the title role in the World Premiere of “The Baroness” by Jaques Lamarre, directed by Michael Schiralli at Playhouse on Park. Also a published writer, Street has worked as a writing mentor for an on-campus theater development program at Quinnipiac University as well.
Since its inception in 2002, Origin has been devoted to discovering, nurturing, and introducing new exciting voices from Europe, whose work provides unique perspectives on national identity, cross-cultural relations, and global understanding.
As opportunities for emerging playwrights dwindle with the contraction of the industry, IAC doubles down as a multifaceted home for both development and presentation of various creative works. It offers both, for weekly sessions, a hub where writers can join around a classroom table, and now, with this festival, a dynamic theater where their works-in-progress can be given voice and an audience.
Following is Scéal Nua’s New Play Festival Schedule:
Maria
By Nicola Murphy Dubey
(approx. 20 min excerpt)
Maria follows a group of young girls in their final year of secondary school as they navigate
relationships, drinking, friendships and an unexpected surprise.
Monday, June 16 – 6pm
The Edit
By Molly Babos
(approx. 75 mins)
Ivy, a wayward recent college graduate, gets more than she bargained for when she strikes
up an unlikely friendship with the professor whose child she babysits.
Monday, June 16 – 8:15pm
Falls
By Colm Summers
(approx. 80 mins)
A coming-of-age comedy about Parkinson’s disease, queerness and caregiving.
Tuesday, June 17 – 7pm
Their Own Thing
By Ciara Van Buren
(approx. 20 min excerpt)
A young woman with Down syndrome spends her day in a program for adults with
disabilities, making plans and counting down the seconds until her life begins.
Collared
By Don Creedon
(approx. 65 mins)
A woman with a colorful past visits her ex-boyfriend, now a priest, to confess all her sins. But
she’s got more than salvation on her mind.
Tuesday, June 17 – 7PM
A Question of Loveliness
By Barbara Cassidy
(approx. 75 mins)
Sometime in the near future, something terrible has happened…
Wednesday, June 18 – 3pm
Off the Books
By Leo McGann
(approx. 1 hour 50mins)
When Padraig, an Irish bartender in New York, encounters corruption, he’s faced with a
decision: break the rules to secure his future or lose everything.
Wednesday, June 18 – 7pm
For tickets go to: https://tickets.irishartscenter.org/events