Hello to all our friends!

Following its sell out runs in Edinburgh, New York and The Peacock our award-winning co-production with Civic Theatre, LITTLE GEM by Elaine Murphy is going on tour.  Below are the dates and venues:

George Bernard Shaw Theatre Carlow: 3rd-6th March
Belltable Limerick: 8th-13th March
Draoicht Blanchardstown: 16th-20th March
Axis Ballymun: 23rd-27th March
Civic Theatre: 29th March – 3rd April

Everyman Palace Cork: 7th -19th June

During the Irish tour LITTLE GEM will be heading off to London where we have been invited to perform at the Bush Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush.  Dates: 16th April – 22nd May at 7.30pm.  Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.

Then LITTLE GEM will cross the channel to Paris to play the Centre Culturel Irlandais.  We are very proud to be invited to play in London and Paris with this very special show.

We hope you get a chance to see this hilarious and moving play when it comes to a theatre near you.

LITTLE GEM IN NEW YORK, THE PEACOCK AND ON TOUR…

Happy New Year to all our friends!

Hilda Fay as Lorraine

The cast of LITTLE GEM  have returned from their sold out and critically acclaimed run at New Yorks’ Flea Theatre.

The show has now opened at The Peacock for a six week run.  Gúna Nua and Civic Theatre are delighted to bring their award-winning work to one of the most prestigious venues in the world. Early booking is advisable and you can book your tickets from the Abbey box-office on +353 (0)1 87 87 222.
or online here.

Following its run in the Peacock LITTLE GEM will tour to 5 venues around Ireland, The George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow, The Belltable in Limerick, Draíocht in Blanchardstown, Axis; Ballymun and Civic Theatre Tallaght.

We hope you get a chance to see this hilarious and moving show when it comes to a theatre near you. LITTLE GEM recently picked up an award for Best Theatre Script at the Zebbies (The Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild awards). Elaine is running out of space on her mantlepiece as she adds this to the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh award, The BBC Northern Ireland/Stewart Parker Trust Drama Award and The Fishamble Best New Irish Play Award.

GÚNA NUA AND FOCUS IRELAND DEVELOP FORUM THEATRE PIECE.

Gúna Nua in association with Focus Ireland are developing a Forum Theatre piece for the customers of Focus Ireland. With writers Gerry McCann and Jennifer O’Dea who have both trained with Cardboard Citizens Theatre company in England Gúna Nua will create two short plays that reflect issues of homelessness. Funded by CREATE this project is the beginning of a dialogue with people who are homeless. Inspired by their lives these Forum Theatre pieces will give them an opportunity to challenge and change the stories and myths surrounding homelessness. Gúna Nua will continue to share its expertise with agencies like Focus Ireland in 2010.

THE BALLAD OF FRANKIE AND MAY

Actor andWriter Karen Ardiff

Gúna Nua has commissioned actor and novelist Karen Ardiff to write a new play for the company. Karen is a regular perfomer with Gúna Nua, The Abbey, The Gate and many other theatres around Ireland. She is also one of the finest new voices in Irish writing. Her debut novel The Secret of My Face was acclaimed by the critics. As Hugh Leonard put it writing in the Sunday Independent, ‘Karen Ardiff’s book is an astonishing debut. It is unpredictable and – towards the end shocking. I put it down in tears.’
Karen’s playwill tell the story of 2 Irish women and their
experiences of emigration in America in the 19th Century. As related by 3 performers The Ballad of
Frankie and May is the picaresque journey of the women from a famine ship,
through the American civil war to the Gold Rush and the Klondike.

CHICANE
In December Gúna Nua presented a public reading of a new play by another Gúna Nua actor , Anthony Brophy, in the new laboratory space at the Gate Theatre. In a classic noir thriller set-up, Chicane mixes a big secret and a desperate cover-up, and is served up with kidnap, torture, murder and heartbreak. With Owen Roe, Michael MacElhatton and Kate Brennan, Brophy’s new play is an explosive examination of our social divides and the corruption and chicanery that keeps them in place. This is a play that does exactly what it says on the tin and takes you on a journey with so many twists you’ll never find your way home again.

Gúna Nua is delighted to help with the development of two of the most promising voices in Irish Theatre.

BEGOTTEN NOT MADE

In June of this year Artistic Director of Gúna Nua Paul Meade(pictured here with Michelle McNaughton and President McAleese) was awarded the Jim McNaughton/Tilestyle Bursary of €10,000 for his play Begotten Not Made. Originally commissioned by the Irish Council
for BioEthics (in association with Fishamble Theatre Company) to write this play dealing with the
issues and problems of bioethics. Gúna Nua are working to produce this play with its partners in 2010. The latest draft of the script received public readings at Farmleigh, The Irish Law Society and in the houses of The Oirechtas in 2009.

You can read more about this here

THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

In order to do what we do we need your support. Like all arts

Enda Kilroy in Meltdown

organisations we are a registered charity and receive a public subsidy from the Arts Council that covers roughly one third of the cost of our work. For us to continue to develop, create and produce the range of work that we do, we need to match that funding euro for euro.

So, let’s be friends.

Your support will make a real difference to the quality and quantity of the shows we produce and to our ability to present those shows nationally and internationally, and in return you get to enjoy a range of special benefits.

You can become a Friend yourself or you can give membership of our Friends scheme as a gift. You can join now, on our
website. So click here to check out the full details

Remember becoming a friend is tax deductible and everything you donate will go toward the cost of our productions.

SCENES FROM A WATERCOOLER AND OTHER TALES

As part of our 10th Anniversary Celebrations, we offically launched Gúna Nua’s Collected Plays. The collection, published by Liberties Press, was given a momentous and very funny baptism by the incorrigible Gerry Stembridge. As he put it, “if you want to know what it felt like to live through the years of The Cetic Tiger, then this collection has it all”.

SCENES FROM A WATERCOOLER AND OTHER TALES is a great Gift for that theatre loving friend and is available from our website.