History, Love, & Strife at the 2024 1st Irish Festival

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Theater

Published on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 20:00

Written by Brad Balfour

Embodying the tradition of Irish theatrical performance, the Origin Theatre 1st Irish Festival returns March 23 to April 28, 2024. Held at performance spaces across NYC, the 1st Irish Festival features fifteen new plays, ten of which are in competition, with productions from NYC and Ireland.1st Irish embodies the pain, the passion, and the hope of Irish and Irish American history.

The festival opens with The Informer by Larry Kirwan, a reimagining of the Liam O’Flaherty classic - set on the last day of the Irish Civil War. Peace and Love in Brooklyn is a new musical by Eamon O'Tuama that charts the journey of a young musician who searches for his "colorful rock n' roll roadie" father. Last Call For Babe Reilly by Marianne Driscoll presents a kind barfly with a precarious situation; how to get through the Pearly Gates after being struck by a bus, and it’s going to take a young girl with a Ouija to get through. King, by Pat Kinevane produced by Fishamble, is about Luther, a troubled lonely man living in Cork. While he prepares for a big night out as an Elvis impersonator he reflects on his past and dares to dream of the future, as the ups and downs of his life mirrors Ireland’s own history. 

The NY Irish Center in Long Island City features the New York premiere of Bumbled, a new play by the Boston-based Bernard McMullan and Colin Hamell, and starring Colin Hamell, which tells the story of a loveable (and busy) bee named Pascal.

To learn more, go to: https://www.origintheatre.org/1st-irish-festival

1st Irish Festival
March 23 - April 28, 2024

Various Venues in NYC

The International Fringe Encore Series Brings Back the Best of Off-Broadway

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Theater

Published on Tuesday, 02 January 2024 15:23

Written by Brad Balfour

Running at the Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street), The International Fringe Encore Series showcases extraordinary off-Broadway shows in NYC. Many of the previous productions featured in the series have gone on to extensive Off-Broadway runs and international success.

The slate of shows includes the new play Bacon, written by Sophie Swithinbank and directed by Matthew Iliffe. Bacon is an unflinching and unexpectedly humorous look at masculinity, sexuality and power, through the dizzying lens of youth. Following a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the multi-award-winning play comes to New York for 24 performances only.

It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, from the disability led theater company FlawBored, is a look at assumptions and questions around disabilities. Usually disabled people just want to do the right thing. But what if they don’t?  What if they were out to make as much money as possible from the guilt of non-disabled, anxious people (like you)?

Jekyll & Hyde reinvents Stevenson's classic science-horror story, with award-winning performer Heather-Rose Andrews in the titular role. Class, terror, and hypocrisy in Victorian London, as the search for self collides with the lure of the sensuous, taking its toll on all around Jekyll & Hyde. A new vision of terror from award-winning writer/director JD Henshaw.

Esther’s Revenge, produced by Tope Sanni, is an experiential play inspired by true life events of Esther who was reported to have murdered her white lover in 1953. The sentence is death by hanging. This very participatory play as devised, explores themes around race, colonization, sexual abuse, violence against women, and political and social injustice. Esther takes us on a journey through time into the events leading up to the death of Mark. The Jury is given the responsibility to vote in favor or against a stay of execution.

This is just a sampling of the performances taking place during The International Fringe Encore Series

To learn more, go to: https://fringeencoreseries.com/ & https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/

The International Fringe Encore Series
January 4 - February 11, 2024

Soho Playhouse
15 Vandam Street
New York, NY 10013

International Puppet Fringe Festival Brings Halloween to August

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Theater

Published on Thursday, 06 July 2023 14:26

Written by Brad Balfour

A strange festival is coming to NYC with strings attached. The 3rd Annual International Puppet Fringe Festival runs from August 9 – 13, 2023, in the Lower East Side. A truly idiosyncratic festival, the IPFF is the only international festival dedicated to puppetry, and features performances by leading puppet makers and troupes from around the world. The theme for this year’s festival is "Halloween in August", honoring New York City’s most renowned puppet master and founder of the Village Halloween Parade, the late Ralph Lee. 

A truly international festival, participating troupes include:

• Teatro SEA (USA)
• Yael Rasooly (Israel)
• Puppet Beings Theater (Taiwan)
• Maskhunt/Deborah Hunt (Puerto Rico/New Zealand)
• Scapegoat Carnivale (Canada)
• Lumiato Teatro de Formas Animades (Brazil)
• Treasure Chest Theatre (Hong Kong/USA)
• Fernán Cardama (Argentina)
• Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre (India)
• Junktown Duende (Puerto Rico/USA)
• Boxcutter Collective (USA)
• Wonderspark Puppets (USA)
• Swedish Cottage Theatre Mobile (USA)
• Nappy’s Puppets (Jim Napolitano) (USA)

There will also be presentations from Cuba, Colombia, Chile among others.

The festival kicks off on August 9th at the Clemente Soto Vélez Center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (107 Suffolk Street, NYC) as puppeteers create their own mini version of the famous Halloween Parade. Also included are art exhibitions, films, cabaret nights, and Guerilla-style micro-theater performances in unorthodox venues.

The festival is organized by Teatro SEA, Grupo Morán (The Morán Group) and The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Education Center.

To learn more, go to: https://puppetfringenyc.com/

International Puppet Fringe Festival
August 9 - 13, 2023

Various Venues in the Lower East Side