The IRISH SEMINAR 2012

11 June – 29 June 2012

Contemporary Irish Theatre

Great theater frequently emerges during periods of significant cultural shift, political disruption and social upheaval. The last 30 years in Ireland has witnessed such a remarkable period with turbulent and historic changes: The Troubles, the Peace Process, mass emigration and immigration, the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger, Ireland’s enchantment and disenchantment with the European Union, the property explosion and implosion, the Catholic Church’s ignominy, the financial crises, rapid globalization as well as triumphs on the sporting, cultural, literary and artistic stage. Ireland, as it underwent significant and substantial changes, offered insights on human frailty and vice, tragedy and triumph, loss and exclusion, survival and success. Such events afforded Irish playwrights, directors and actors abundant material. Playwrights and directors have responded with powerful plays and dramatic productions that challenge and confront audiences both at home and abroad. As a result a significant number of canonical plays have emerged from Irish playwrights that probe shifting identities, changing loyalties and emerging consciousnesses as individuals, communities, landscapes, institutions and history itself are sorted and distorted.

Beginning with Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness and Tom Murphy, and continuing with Sebastian Barry, Marina Carr, Anne Devlin, Declan Hughes, Marie Jones, Thomas Kilroy, Robert Massey, Martin McDonagh, Sean McLoughlin, Conor McPherson, Eilís Ní Dhuibhne, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Ursala Rani Sarma, Christina Reid, Alan Titley, Mark Rowe and Enda Walsh, Irish drama has produced an astonishing varied, complex and successful corpus of dramatic work. The best of which has garnered critical recognition and popular acclaim not only on stages in Ireland, London, New York but globally. Irish dramaturgy, like Irish identity, can no longer be defined in static monolithic terms: consequently there are as many theatres as there are national identities. Is Irish theatre currently undergoing a crisis drawing it away from the traditional well-wrought literary stage play toward a more visually rich abstract spectacle? How is Irish theatre responding to the recent past? How will Irish theatre function in a public and highly political global space? Among the topics to be discussed are: patterns of history and memory, use of meta-theatre, the enabling and disabling uses of myth, and the role of narrative and monologue in contemporary Irish theatre

The 2012 University of Notre Dame IRISH SEMINAR convenes a sterling cast of international experts, scholars and practitioners to explore contemporary Irish dramatic and theatrical landscapes and discern current patterns of dramaturgy in culturally and theatrically significant plays written in and about Ireland since 1980. 2012 IRISH SEMINAR faculty includes: Keelin Burke, Marina Carr, Jim Culleton, Seamus Deane, Celia de Fréine, Diarmaid Ferriter, John Gibney, Róise Goan, Hugo Hamilton, Susan Harris, Aideen Howard, Declan Kiberd, Thomas Kilroy, José Lanters, Joseph Lennon, Helen Lojek, Patrick Lonergan, Nollaig Mac Congáil, Seán Mac Mathúna, PJ Mathews, Eamon Morrissey, Eilís Ní Dhuibhne, Brian Ó Conchubhair, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Riana O’Dywer, Lionel Pilkington, Paige Reynolds, Shaun Richards, Anthony Roche, Alan Titley and Colm Tóibín. This three-week series of presentations, seminars and workshops offers participants an opportunity to partake in seminars, lectures and workshops at the world famous Abbey Theatre with world renowned academics, scholars, directors, actors, critics and reviewers.

For more information about Fellowships or Application process contact eclowry@nd.edu.

Executive Director: Brian Ó Conchubhair
Directors: Seamus Deane, Christopher Fox, Patrick Griffin, Declan Kiberd, Bríona Nic Dhiarmada