Abbey Theatre - Amharclann na Mainistreach

Press Release

Wednesday, 4th May, 2011 – The Abbey Theatre is delighted to announce the participants in the New Playwrights Programme 2011. Now in its third year, this annual programme, designed to support a number of talented emerging playwrights, will be launched on Wednesday 4 May 2011. The purpose of the New Playwrights Programme is to select promising playwrights who have come to the attention of the Abbey Theatre and nurture and develop their talent through an intensive artists development programme over 18 months.

The participants in the programme are selected from among the most promising scripts submitted to the theatre. Members of the Literary Department also attend a large number of productions, play readings and workshops of works-in-progress every year and these provide another source of playwrights for the programme.

The participants in this year’s New Playwrights Programme are Neil Bristow, Amy Conroy, Clare Dwyer Hogg, Damian Kearney, Tara McKevitt and Lydia Prior.

‘The New Playwrights Programme at the Abbey Theatre is a unique opportunity for gifted playwrights to immerse themselves in the craft of playwriting. At the national theatre we are committed to developing and producing new plays and new playwrights. This annual programme is a serious and long term investment in Irish writers,’ said Aideen Howard, Literary Director at the Abbey Theatre.

The New Playwrights Programme provides the six participants with intensive artistic development in all aspects of writing for the stage. The selected playwrights will partake in a series of 20 workshops, talks and master classes with leading international theatre practitioners and Abbey writers, directors, actors, and designers. The workshops will cover all areas of playwriting including structure and form, language and dialogue, characterisation, writing the first draft, revision and rewriting, collaboration with other theatre artists and many other related areas. In taking this approach, the programme looks to cultivate and nurture a new wave of emerging playwrights for the Abbey and for Irish theatre with support from the country’s only full-time literary department.

The participants will have the opportunity to watch rehearsals, see behind-the-scenes of new plays commissioned by the national theatre and attend opening nights. In this way, they will acquire an in-depth knowledge of theatre and be exposed to the breadth of collaborative work that goes into staging a play.

As a central part of the programme, each participant will also write a new full-length play. As they work on their plays, the writers will receive regular feedback and support from the Literary Department, including a full developmental workshop of their play at the Abbey. This unique mix of elements – the frequency and variety of the workshops, the access to a wide range of leading international theatre figures and the continued dramaturgical support – makes the New Playwrights Programme the only one of its kind in Ireland.

The Abbey Theatre has a deep commitment to producing and staging new work and this Spring we have presented four new plays from new and established playwrights; NO ROMANCE by Nancy Harris, THE PASSING and THE EAST PIER by Paul Mercier and PERVE by Stacey Gregg.

The Abbey Theatre acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council.
For further information please contact:
David McCadden david.mccadden@abbeytheatre.ie / (01) 887 2229 or 086 854 4446
Maura Campbell maura.campbell@abbeytheatre.ie / (01) 879 7268