A Renaissance of Irish Arts in NYC

THESE are exciting times for Irish arts in Manhattan. On the heels of the recent announcement of a new master's program in Irish American studies at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House comes word of a series of new play readings and two main stage productions by one of the most accomplished New York-based Irish theater companies, Origin Theatre.

The group was founded by Trinity College Dublin graduate George Heslin, the actor and director who first made a name for himself here starring in the Broadway national tour of hit shows like Stones in His Pockets and The Colleen Bawn at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Currently Heslin's company is staging weekly dramatic readings of emerging new Irish playwrights at Ireland House, where their ward winning work is being introduced for the first time to receptive American audiences.

Founded by Heslin and boasting artistic patrons that include theatrical luminaries like Niall Toibin, Origin Theatre is no amateur proposition. Heslin is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Center and has worked with every noted Irish theater company, including the Abbey, Druid Theatre Company, the Gate, the Olympia, Passion Machine and the Lyric Theatre Belfast.

"I set up the company in 2002 with the mission to present American premieres of European plays. We have focused on new writing and launching Irish writers in North America," Heslin says.

"What we've done is create links with preeminent Irish theater companies and we gather up scripts from award winning new playwrights. Then we produce their premieres here."

True to their word, each year Origin Theatre produces two major main stage productions in New York City. During the month of May they produce a popular and well-attended reading series at Ireland House.

"I've worked with a lot of contemporary playwrights and I realized their work wasn't really being staged here. Out of my personal connection with a lot of these writers I began to realize that I could stage their work here myself. That was the vision behind the company, to build a gateway to America for new Irish writing," Heslin says.

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Nster.com