Glunch 2013

We’re excited to announce Gúna Nua’s third annual Glunch fundraiser! This year’s Glunch, celebrating our 15th year, will be held on Friday the 6th of September in the gorgeous surroundings of the Banking Hall in Dublin’s Westin Hotel. Each table at the lunch will be hosted by a well-known figure from the world of the Arts and media and our MC for the evening will be author, filmmaker and comic genius Gerard Stembridge.

Thanks to our supporters last year, we have been able to secure funding for our 2014 play Faith, to facilitate the Sligo/Tyrone Community Project and to plan a top-secret production for this September. Your support this year will allow us to realise all the wonderful ideas we have for 2014.

Glunch begins with a drinks reception at 12:30PM and lunch commences at 1PM with music and entertainment throughout.

You can buy tickets now using the button on our website (at the left), or just send a check for €100 to us at Gúna Nua, 29–30 Dame St., Dublin 2, Ireland. For more information, contact admin@gunanua.com.

A Midsummer Night’s Táin

For the past couple of months Gúna Nua has been working with amateur drama groups in the Sligo/Tyrone area passing on skills and devising a new show. The culmination of this project is A Midsummer Night’s Táin written by Artistic Director Paul Meade.

On a midsummer night, the local drama group has gathered for the first read-through of its new play. It’s a modern retelling of the famous Irish mythical story of the Táin Bó Cúailgne. Through a barrage of bickering, egos, tweets and texting, the Director tries to impose his will on the cast. Gradually, the play begins to take shape and it’s a fantastical mash-up of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Playboy of the Western World and The Táin.

The admission is free, and there will be two performances of this play:

• Cliffoney Hall, Sligo on Wednesday, 3rd July at 8PM
• Strule Arts Centre, Omagh on Thursday,  4th July at 8PM

If you find yourself in Sligo or Tyrone this week, do come out and join us on one of these special nights!

This project has been funded by the PEACE III Programme managed for the Special European Union Progreammes Body by Co. Sligo Peace and Reconciliation Partnership Committee.

Faith

Coming up in 2014, we have a new play, Faith, written by our own Artistic Director Paul Meade. The play was devised in 2011 with Cathy Belton, Gerry McCann, Jennifer O’Dea and Michael Glenn Murphy, was commissioned by the Civic Theatre under the Artist in Residency scheme and received further script development support from Origin Theatre Company in New York City.

Faith tells the story of a marriage under pressure as a result of the current recession. Michael is unemployed and depressed when he meets a charismatic friend who gives him new hope and a new job. The two men guard an empty office block in the IFSC and while away the hours with daredevil tricks, impromptu games of football and musings upon the meaning of life. When his new-found optimism and low-paid employment fail to convince his wife, Michael finds himself close to despair. Cleverly playing on Michael’s instability to question human perception, Faith invites us to look again and see differently.

This new production will open at the Civic Theatre in February/March 2014, directed by David Horan (the Artistic Director of Bewley’s Café Theatre), and will tour nationwide. Faith has received a project grant from the Arts Council and will be co-produced by the Civic Theatre.

The Goddess of Liberty

In the last newsletter, we noted that Karen Ardiff had been nominated for the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild Awards (the Zebbies) for The Goddess of Liberty. We are pleased to announce that in May Karen won Best New Play at the Zebbies! Congratulations to Karen on this success to go with winning the BBC/Stewart Parker Radio Drama Award and being shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.