CRACKSKULL ROW Tops Origin's 2016 1st Irish Festival Nominees; Awards Held Tonight!

The 9th annual Origin's 1st Irish Festival is announcing today that New York's the cell has earned the most nominations (five in all), for its critically acclaimed production of "Crackskull Row." Two productions from Ireland -- "Bears in Space" (closing today at 59E59 Theaters) and "Quietly" (just closed at the Irish Repertory Theatre) -- each are collecting four nominations for the festival's top honors.

The awards will be handed out tonight, Monday, October 3, at 7pm, at the closing night ceremony co-hosted by the actress Carey Van Driest at The American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Avenue (bet 80 & 81 Streets). To RSVP visit www.origintheatre.org.

A total of 8 productions from Dublin, Toronto and New York were seen in competition (5 US premieres, 2 world premieres) during the month-long festival that began on September 6. Five special productions were seen out-of-competition.

The mainstage productions from abroad include the Dublin-based Collapsing Horse's NY Times Critics' Pick "Bears in Space" by Eoghan Quinn; The NY and Toronto-based Birdland Theatre's NY premiere of Conor McPherson's "The Birds;" Dublin's Rough Magic Theatre's "How to Keep and Alien," Sonya Kelly's comedy; and the Abbey Theatre's acclaimed production of Owen McCafferty's "Quietly," which The Irish Repertory Theatre presented in association with The Public Theater in its American premiere.

Locally grown are the cell's world premiere of Honor Molloy's NY Times Critics' Pick "Crackskull Row;" Irish Rep's production of Brian Friel's "Afterplay," directed by Joe Dowling, which opens tonight; and Origin's Next Generation Series' entrants -- "Dorothy of Nowhere" by newcomer Thomas Burns Scully (winner of last year's Origin's WB Yeats Emerging Playwright Competition) and "Appendage," Derek Murphy's sharp-edged comedy. (Next Generation is a development series in which carefully selected plays are seen for the first time in small workshop productions.)

The list of nominees is as follows: Best actress - Sonya Kelly ("How to Keep an Alien"); Antoinette Lavecchia ("The Birds"); Helen McMillan ("Dorothy of Nowhere"), and Dearbhla Molloy ("Afterplay"). Best actor - Dermot Crowley ("Afterplay"); Colin Lane ("Crackskull Row"); Patrick O'Kane ("Quietly"); Tim Ruddy ("Appendage"). Best Director - Dan Colley ("Bears in Space"); Stefan Dzeparoski ("The Birds"); Jimmy Fay ("Quietly"), and Kira Simring ("Crackskull Row"). Best Playwright - Sonya Kelly ("How to Keep an Alien"); Honor Molloy ("Crackskull Row"); Owen McCafferty ("Quietly"), and Eoghan Quinn ("Bears in Space"). Best Design -- "Bears in Space;" "The Birds," and "Crackskull Row." Best Production -- "Bears in Space," "Crackskull Row," "How to Keep an Alien," and "Quietly."

In addition to its creative awards in six categories, a special jury prize will also be handed out on Monday, and Origin Theatre's Special Appreciation Award for noteworthy and often unsung contributions to the Festival.

This year's blue-ribbon panel of judges includes Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch cultural observer Quentin Fottrell; Irish America Magazine editor and co-founder Patricia Harty; TheaterMania.com editor-in-chief Andy Lefkowitz; prominent fashion executive Laurianne Listo, and Doug Reside, curator of the Theater Division at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Curated and coordinated by the New York-based Origin Theatre Company (George C. Heslin artistic director), the 2016 edition of Origin's 1st Irish took place throughout New York at: the Irish Arts Center, 59E59 Theaters, The Irish Repertory Theatre, the cell, the Workshop Theater, the New York Irish Center (in Queens), The Sheen Center, the American Irish Historical Society, Pier A, The National Arts Club, NYU's Glucksman Ireland House, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts which presented the highly praised immersive staging of "Wilde at Home," brought in from Northern Ireland by Queens University Belfast and the Happy Days Festival of Enniskillen. Five special productions were seen out-of-competition; they were the sold-out performances of "How the Nuns of New York Tamed the Gangs of New York," "Shining Mosaic," "ShakesBEER," "WexFour," and "Wilde at Home."

The Awards Ceremony is a free event and open to the public. For Festival details visit www.1stIrish.org. To RSVP visit www.origintheatre.org.

Funding support for Origin's 1st Irish 2016 is generously provided by the Festival Sponsors Mutual of America; McVicker & Higginbotham; the Northern Ireland Bureau; Tourism Ireland; the American Ireland Fund; the Irish Consulate, New York, the NY State Council for the Arts, NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs, and NYC Council. The newest sponsors are The Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the British Council -- Northern Ireland, Goldman Sachs and Lash Star Beauty.

Curated and coordinated by Festival founder George C. Heslin, Origin's 1st Irish is the only festival of its kind to focus exclusively on the work of Irish playwrights, and is the city's only all-Irish theatre festival. Origin Theatre Company is a year-round theatre company based in New York devoted to presenting the American premieres of new works by Europe's brightest contemporary playwrights. Over the past 14 years, Origin has introduced works by 162 playwrights to US audiences, from such countries as Sweden, Romania, Macedonia, Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdom. For information and to RSVP visit www.origintheatre.org.

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