Reading Series 2011-2012

All Readings are FREE, but reservations are requested. Please call 212-727-2737 to RSVP.
All readings are on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage, unless otherwise indicated.

Friday, March 30, 2012
3:00 pm

16 Possible Glimpses
by Marina Carr

Friday, February 24, 2012
3:00 pm

By the Bog of Cats
by Marina Carr

By the Bog of Cats is set in the mysterious landscape of the bogs of rural Ireland. The play tells the story of Hester Swane, an Irish traveller with a deep and unearthly connection to her land. Tormented by the memory of a mother who deserted her, Hester is once again betrayed, this time by the father of her child, the man she loves. On the brink of despair, she embarks on a terrible journey of vengeance as the secrets of her tangled history are revealed.

By the Bog of Cats premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1998. It was revived at Wyndham's Theatre, London in November 2004.

By The Bog of Cats will be read by Bianca Amato* (The Broken Heart, The Coast of Utopia), Mark Blum* (We Live Here, After the Revolution), Dashiell Eaves* (A Behanding in Spokane, Killers and Other Family), Michelle Hurst* (The Story, “Sherrybaby”), Mia Katigbak* (Futura, Blind Mouth Singing), Louisa Krause* (“Martha Marcy May Marlene,” In A Dark Dark House), Dan McCabe* (Sons of the Prophet, Len Asleep On Vinyl), Marissa O’Donnell* (“Peace, Love & Misunderstanding,” Shrek The Musical), Gordana Rashovich* (Road To Mecca, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore), and David Sitler* (Beyond The Horizon, An Inspector Calls) *courtesy of AEA

Marina Carr (Playwright): Born in 1964, Marina Carr was brought up in Co. Offaly. She graduated from University College, Dublin in 1987. Plays for the Abbey Theatre, Dublin include 16 Possible Glimpses, Marble, Ullaloo, The Mai, Portia Coughlan, By the Bog of Cats, Ariel, and Meat and Salt. Other plays include Phaedra Backwards (McCarter), On Raftery's Hill (Druid/Royal Court), Low in the Dark (Project Arts Centre), Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Court), The Cordelia Dream (RSC) and The Giant Blue Hand (The Ark). Marina has been awarded The Puterbaugh Fellowship for 2012 by The University of Oklahoma as part of the Puterbaugh Festival of International Literature and Culture, this year devoted to her work. Other awards include The Macaulay Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the E.M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has also held the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova. She was the 1932 fellow at Princeton for 2008. She is an honorary professor at Trinity College Dublin and has just been awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater. A member of Aosdána, Marina lives in Kerry with her husband and four children.

Friday, December 16, 2011
3:00 pm

Coleslaw and Coconut Cream Pie
by Lans Traverse

In Coleslaw and Coconut Cream Pie, two sisters, battling different kinds of addictive and destructive behavior, try to care for their ailing mother while negotiating the financial and emotional devastation of their family.

The cast for Coleslaw and Coconut Cream Pie is Lynn Cohen (Three Sisters, Chasing Manet, "Sex and the City"), Rebecca Henderson (Autumn Sonata, The Collection and A Kind of Alaska) and Heather Raffo (Nine Parts of Desire, Palace of the End).

Lans Traverse (playwright): Born in New Jersey. School years were divided between Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Studied acting in the USA at Northwestern University, followed by the American Academy in New York City. From there, won a scholarship to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Coleslaw and Coconut Cream Pie, the first of four plays, was a Finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference and a Runner-Up in the 2010 Eileen Heckart Playwriting competition in Columbus Ohio, where it was given a staged reading. It has also had a staged reading in the UK at York’s Theatre Royal and will receive its London premiere in the autumn at Theatre 503. The second play, The Kiss of the Sun for Pardon, was a Finalist for the Verity Bargate Award at London’s Soho Theatre and was work-shopped there last October. Driftwood, a Finalist at both New York’s Summer Play Festival and the Great Plains Conference, had its World Premier in April 2010 at Houston’s Main Street Theatre. A screenplay adaptation of the same received the John Muir Gold Award at the 2010 Yosemite International Film Festival. Little Bethlehem is the fourth and most recent play. Just completed.

Friday, October 21, 2011
3:00 pm

Rebel in the Soul
by Larry Kirwan

directed by Charlotte Moore

Rebel in the Soul deals with the confrontation in 1951 between Dr. Noel Browne, Minister for Health in the Irish Government, and Dr. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin over Browne’s Mother and Child Health Scheme. Browne's family had been ravaged by tuberculosis and the 35 year-old Minister had already set in motion policies that would eventually eradicate the disease from Ireland. He next planned to give free pre-natal and health care to Irish women and their children. Young, arrogant and passionate, he arrives at the Episcopal Palace for his final meeting with the Archbishop. Both men and the destiny of Ireland will be changed by the events of the evening.

Rebel in the Soul will be read by Reed Birney* (Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling, A Small Fire) and Rob Campbell* (Titus Andronicus, "Rabbit Hole"). *Courtesy AEA
 
Larry Kirwan (playwright) has written two novels, Liverpool Fantasy and Rockin’ The Bronx, a memoir Green Suede Shoes, and Mad Angels a collection of plays. He has recorded thirteen CDs for Black 47 along with two solo efforts. The band has performed almost 2500 gigs in the US, Europe and South America and appeared on all the major TV shows including "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Night with Conan O’Brien." He hosts and produces "Celtic Crush" for SiriusXM Satellite Radio and writes a weekly column for the Irish Echo.

The 2011 Reading Series is underwritten in part by Alexis Doyle and the members of our Patron's Circle.

2010-2011 Readings
2009-2010 Readings
2008-2009 Readings