1st Irish 2011 Announces NOMINATIONS for Monday Awards

Nominations for the top awards of 1st Irish 2011 are being announced today as five of the eight plays in competition wrap up month-long runs on Sunday. The fourth annual edition of 1st Irish, the first and only festival in the world dedicated to Irish playwrights, concludes on Monday October 3 at 7pm, with an Awards Ceremony hosted by Papillon Bistro & Bar, 22 East 54th Street.

Acting, directing, and production design awards, and a special jury prize, will be handed out by the festival's jury, a panel of five distinguished writers and theatre professionals. The festival's audience members are choosing the Best Play, in online voting on www.1stirish.org that goes on through Sunday.

Coordinated by the New York-based Origin Theatre Company, the festival features four productions from Ireland and four from America, with six American premieres and one New York premiere. Two of the eight full productions - "Bogboy" at the Irish Arts Centre and "Lucia's Chapters of Coming Forth by Day" from Mabou Mines - have already ended their runs. The Mint's hit production "Temporal Powers" has been extended to October 9.

The list of nominees is as follows: Best actress - Ruth Maleczech ("Lucia's Chapters"); Sorcha Fox ("Bogboy"); Donna O'Connor ("A Night With George"). Best actor - Steve Blount ("Bogboy"), Aidan Redmond ("Temporal Powers"); Darren Healy ("Noah and the Tower Flower"). Best Director - Jo Mangan ("Bogboy"); Jim Culleton ("Noah and the Tower Flower"); Jonathan Bank ("Temporal Powers"). Best Design - "Temporal Powers;" "Lucia's Chapters of Coming Forth by Day;" "Dublin by Lamplight." Best production - "Temporal Powers;" "Bogboy;" "Noah and the Tower Flower." The winners of the Jury Prize and Best Play will be announced at the ceremony.

Serving on the 1st Irish 2011 jury are Jacqueline Davis, the executive director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; Playbill's Harry Haun; film and theatre critic and historian Bernard Carragher; the Irish theatre columnist Kate Kennon, and Sean Noonan, an executive at Mutual of America, where he serves as liaison to New York's professional theatre. The Awards Ceremony is coordinated by Ciaran Grant.

Among the 18 Irish and American theatres and arts organizations which presented or produced events at the festival this year are the prominent local non-profits 59E59 Theaters; The Mint; The Irish Arts Centre; PS 122; the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center; NYU's Glucksman Ireland House; the American Irish Historical Society, and the New York Irish Center in Queens. The four American premieres from Ireland ("Noah..." from Fishamble in Dublin, "A Night with George" from Brassneck Theatre Co. in West Belfast, "Cirque de Légume" from Sligo, and "Bogboy" from Tall Tales of Navan) are part of Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland's year of Irish arts in America.

This year 1st Irish welcomed it newest title sponsor, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which joins these other vital festival sponsors: the Irish Government, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the Northern Ireland Bureau; the Irish Consulate NY; Tourism Ireland; the Irish Arts Council - An Chomhairle Ealaíon; Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland's year of Irish arts in America; the American Ireland Fund; Mutual of America; The Irish Examiner; McVicker & Higginbotham; NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the NY State Council for the Arts.

1st Irish, powered by Origin Theatre Company (artistic director George Heslin), began on September 5. For festival information and to learn how to vote for this year's Audience Choice Award for Best Play, visit www.1stIrish.org

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