Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney
Directed by: Avital Shira
Venue: Northwest Children’s Theater, 1819 NW Everett St, Portland
Dates: Jan 12 – Feb 4, 2018
Thu – Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2pm
Talkback after the show Sunday Jan 21: Designers and actors
Talkback after the show Sunday Jan 28: Dramaturg Charlotte Headrick and actors
with Britt Harris and Kayla Lian
Lighting Design: Sarah Hughey, Set Design: Kim Williams, Sound Design: Amir Shirazi, Costume Design: Gina Piva
Lifeboat is the extraordinary true story of Bess Walder and Beth Cummings, teenagers whose ship was torpedoed while they were escaping the relentless bombing of Britain during World War II. It is a story of courage, survival and enduring friendship. A co-production with Northwest Children’s Theater. Suitable for adults and children age 10 and up.
Watch video clips from Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney:
Reviews for Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney:
Dennis Sparks Reviews: “… outstanding acting and … inventive writing …”
Broadway World Portland: “(Director) Avital Shira brings a wonderful imagination to this work, constructing a sort of intricate dance between the two actors …”
OregonLive: “Log onto Facebook, go to your best friend’s page and remind them of a moment — terrible or terrific — that strengthened your relationship. And then invite them to ‘Lifeboat.'”
Oregon ArtsWatch: “There is humor, and sentiment, and heartache, and adventure in this tale.”
Previews for Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney:
Oregon ArtsWatch’s DramaWatch Weekly
OregonLive’s 7 Must-See Portland Theatre Shows This Winter
Lifeboat was originally produced in 2002 by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, Scotland, directed by Gill Robertson.
Show Sponsor – Ellyn Bye.
Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick
Directed by: Gemma Whelan
Venue: Shaking the Tree Theatre
Dates: Nov 17 – Dec 10, 2017
“…the whole cast is first-rate, one of the best ensembles I’ve seen!” —Dennis Sparks Reviews
“Corrib Theatre’s resonant staging of a play about women escaping the Irish Famine rings true amid today’s sea change of women’s rights.” —Oregon ArtsWatch
“If you like plays that use individual lives to illuminate a piece of history, you’ll like this one.” —BroadwayWorld
“Fantastic…abounds with growth and hope and spirit in the face of adversity.” —Judy Nedry’s Play Reviews
“A study in human behavior like “Lord of the Flies,” “Belfast Girls” trains a magnifying glass on women’s history, using the additional lens of Irish diaspora.” —EDGE Media Network
with Anya Pearson, Brenan Dwyer, Summer Olsson, Hannah Edelson, and Tiffany Groben
Lighting Design: Anthony Arnista, Set Design: Lara Klingeman, Sound Design: Sharath Patel, Costume Design: Summer Olsson, Props Design: Chanell Magee
Five young women depart Belfast during the Irish Famine with the hope of a better life in their hearts. Set aboard the Inchinnan, a ship sails in 1850 from famine-stricken Ireland bound for Australia under a British government scheme to purportedly help “orphan” girls find a better life. En route, these strong and high-spirited women discover that they have been conveniently gotten rid of. Together, they must confront the demons of the life they’ve left behind, survive the endless voyage and take strength in each other to face what lies ahead. Based on true accounts, it is a play about emigration and the female experience of the Famine, and of the powers-that-be that scapegoat and victimize their most vulnerable during a crisis.
Show Sponsors – Hugh and Mair Lewis.
Chapatti by Christian O’Reilly
With: Allen Nause & Jacklyn Maddux
Directed by: Gemma Whelan
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre
Dates: April 3 – 16, 2017
A remount of our successful 2016 Northwest Premiere production. Chapatti is a love story between two people who have given up on the possibility of love. Dan lives alone in a Dublin flat and spends his time with his dog, Chapatti. Betty also lives alone – with her nineteen cats. Chapatti is a tender, funny, compassionate, and unsentimental play about second chances that relies on the power of the spoken word, the challenge of communication, and the complexity of lived and shared experience.
Show Sponsor: Hugh & Mair Lewis
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
Directed by: Gemma Whelan
With: Jacklyn Maddux
Venue: New Expressive Works
Dates: Feb 16 – March 5, 2017
Written by the author of Brooklyn. A daring exploration of the psyche of Mary, mother of Jesus, as she lives out her final days.
Show Sponsors: Christine Dover & Robert Hamm, Mary & Don Blair, Bill & Sharon Bourque
Hurl by Charlie O’Neill (reading)
Directed by Tracy Cameron Francis
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre
Dates: Monday January 23, 2017 (part of Fertile Ground, in association with Hand2Mouth)
A non-traditional hurling team made up of members originally from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cuba, Bosnia, Vietnam, Argentina, and inner-city Dublin – an unexpected picture of rural Ireland and the GAA led by an alcoholic priest and a washed up trainer as it overcomes impossible barriers despite discrimination and bureaucratic obstacles.
Hurl is a part of Corrib’s Intercultural Ireland Initiative.
Eclipsed by Patricia Burke Brogan
Directed by Gemma Whelan
Venue: Kells Irish Pub
Dates: Oct 25, Oct 26, Nov 2, 2016 – Eclipsed – a reading
Thurs Nov 3, 2016 – Documentary film Sex in a Cold Climate and panel discussion
Reading (Oct 25, 26, Nov 2): Eclipsed exposes the scandal of the Magdalene Laundries. The playwright Patricia Burke Brogan, herself a former nun, worked in an institutional laundry when she was a novice. Eclipsed was inspired by the practice of making pregnant and unwed Irish mothers work as ‘penitents’ in church-run laundries. Supervised by nuns who regarded these women as mindless vessels of evil, the women were treated as slaves and their infants were forcibly put up for adoption. The year 2016, the centenary of the 1916 Rising, is also the 20-year anniversary of the closure of the last Magdalene Laundry in Ireland.
Film and Panel (Nov 3):
A showing of the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate about the Magdalene Laundries, followed by a panel discussion with:
Charlotte Headrick, Professor Theatre (Emeritus), Oregon State University. Expert on Eclipsed and the work of Patricia Burke Brogan
Kryn Freehling-Burton, Senior Instructor, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University
Karin Magaldi, Professor, Head of Theater, Portland State University
Ellen Margolis, Professor, Theatre & Dance Department Chair, Pacific University
Jane Vogel, PhD, President, Age and Gender Equity in the Arts
Our New Girl by Nancy Harris
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
Northwest Premiere
Venue: Portland Actors Conservatory Theatre
Dates: June 10 – 26, 2016
A startling psychological drama about the darker side of modern parenthood. With Nikki Weaver*, Paige A. McKinney, Todd Van Voris*, and Atticus Salmon.
Chapatti by Christian O’Reilly
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
Northwest Premiere
Venue: CoHo Theatre
Dates: February 20 – March 13, 2016
A love story between two people in their late 60s, who have given up on the possibility of love. A tender, funny, and compassionate play about second chances. With Allen Nause* and Jacklyn Maddux*.
Orpheus Road by Ursula Rani Sarma – a reading
Directed by Avital Shira
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre
Dates: November 2 & 9, 2015
A Romeo and Juliet tale of star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of a divided Northern Ireland. With Emma Bridges and Murri Lazaroff-Babin.
Broken Promise Land by Mirjana Rendulic – a reading
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre
Dates: November 2 & 9, 2015
A semi-fictionalized account of the playwright’s journey from Zagreb to Japan to Dublin, through the world of exotic dancing. With Dainichia Noreault.
Little Gem by Elaine Murphy
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
Venue: CoHo Theatre
Dates: September 24 – October 4, 2015
One extraordinary year in the life of three generations of ordinary Irish women. A play about love, sex, death, birth, salsa and sambucas. A co-production with CoHo Theatre and revival of our popular show which ran at Kells Irish Pub in February 2015. With Michele M. Mariana*, Lauren Mitchell, and Deanna Wells.
Our New Girl (a reading)
by Nancy Harris, directed by Gemma Whelan**
Monday evenings at 7:30, April 27, May 4 & 11 (2015)
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St, Portland
with Harper Lea, Paige A. McKinney, Michael O’Connell*, Nikki Weaver*, Deanna Wells
Our New Girl is a startling psychological drama about the darker side of modern parenthood. Behind the shiny door of Hazel Robinson’s immaculate London home, things aren’t as good as they look. Her plastic surgeon husband, Richard, has embarked on his latest charitable mission to Haiti, leaving the heavily pregnant Hazel to cope with a failing business and a problem son. When an Irish nanny arrives unannounced on her doorstep, Hazel finds her home under the shadow of a seemingly perfect stranger, and one who has an agenda of her own. Our New Girl had its US premiere at New York’s Atlantic Theater in May 2014 following a sold out, extended run at London’s Bush Theatre in 2012.
Nancy Harris, a Dublin playwright, now living in London, was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn award and Best New Drama at the Irish Theatre Awards in 2012 for her play No Romance. She was also awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature along with the Stewart Parker New Playwright Bursary Award in 2012.
Little Gem
by Elaine Murphy, directed by Gemma Whelan**
February 9 – 26 2015, Mon – Thurs at 7:30 pm
Venue: Kells Irish Pub (Banquet Hall), 112 SW 2nd Ave, Portland
with Sara Hennessy*, Michele M. Mariana*, Lauren Mitchell
One extraordinary year in the life of three generations of ordinary Irish women. A play about love, sex, death, birth, salsa and sambucas.
“The production’s simplicity puts the attention squarely on the performers, who meet the challenge with dash, humor, and sometimes shattering impact.” “Director Gemma Whelan keeps the action clear and swift, paying close attention to the emotional ebb and flow. What emerges is a small wonder about ordinary people’s large lives.” Oregon Arts Watch
Winner of the 2008 Fishamble New Writing Award at Dublin Fringe Festival, the 2009 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, and nominated for Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards. Ms. Murphy is the winner of the Stewart Parker BBC Northern Ireland Radio Drama Award for 2009.
A Night In November
by Marie Jones, directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Damon Kupper
November 12, 13, 14, 15 (2014) at 7:30 pm, Nov 16 at 2 pm
Venue: CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St, Portland
Revival of our popular one-man show on cultural identity and sectarianism, and one’s man’s journey to bridge the gap. Set during a World Cup qualifying match between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
2014 Drammy award winner for Best Solo Performer, nominee for Best Director
“…this play isn’t really about politics as much as it’s about personhood: what gives us our humanity, and how we can thoughtlessly and reflexively deny that humanity in others. It’s in that realm that Jones’ script and Corrib’s thoughtful production succeed ably, reminding us of the failure of imagination and the dehumanizing force that is prejudice.” Portland Monthly
“…Kupper has an ebullient, winning presence….light on his feet, his face red and beaded with sweat, (he) singlehandedly captures the conviviality of a mildly tipsy Aer Lingus flight and an utterly sloshed New York City bar…” “bloody good craic.” Willamette Week
Supported by the Government of Ireland’s Cultural Relations Programme
Spokesong (a reading)
by Stewart Parker, directed by Gemma Whelan**
Mondays, October 6, 13, & 20 (2014) at 7:30pm
Venue: Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St, Portland
with Joey Copsey, Foss Curtis, Joe Healy, Sara Hennessy*, Heath Koerschgen, Summer Olsson, and Kathleen Worley*
Spokesong is about the hopes and dreams of a Belfast bicycle shop owner, Frank Stock, who runs the store as something like a shrine to the past, present and future of the bicycle. Living alone and approaching middle age, Frank consoles himself with his dreams of the past and his vision of a glorious cycling future for his native city.
Corrib Theatre offers grateful acknowledgement to this production’s sponsors
Ronnie Lacroute / WillaKenzie Estates
THE HEN NIGHT EPIPHANY by Jimmy Murphy | June 7 – 29 2014
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Jacklyn Maddux*, Dana Millican, Jamie M. Rea, Luisa Sermol*, Amanda Soden*
“A subtle Irish comedy and thoughtful, poignant drama… Provide(s) each of the fine actors making up the ensemble with occasions to take center stage.” – The Oregonian
“Under the smart direction of Gemma Whelan, the performances in this Corrib Theatre production (are) first rate.” – Willamette Week
“For those who’ve been following Corrib’s season, Hen Night falls squarely between the bawdy, elated energy of A Night in November and the poetic hopelessness of Tales of Ballycumber. Like the milk and liquor that combine to make “bitch whiskey,” it’s a heady mix.” – Oregon Artswatch
Jimmy Murphy
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Jimmy Murphy is one of Ireland’s leading playwrights with a national and international reputation. Plays include ‘Brother’s of the Brush’ (winner of the Dublin Theatre Festival 1993 Best New Play Award); ‘A Picture of Paradise’ (The Peacock, 1997); ‘Aceldama’ (1998); ‘The Muesli Belt’ (The Abbey Theatre, 2000); ‘The Kings of the Kilburn High Road’ (2000); ‘The Castlecomer Jukebox’ (Red Kettle Theatre Company, 2004). His play ‘The Kings of the Kilburn High Road’ was adapted by Tom Collins as the Irish language film Kings (film), and was selected as Ireland’s entry for best foreign-language film for the Academy Awards. His recent play ‘What’s Left of the Flag’ (Theatre Upstairs at The Plough, 2010) was nominated for Best New Play, 2010 Irish Theatre Awards.
A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER by Marie Jones | February 17 – March 5 2014 at Kells Irish Pub
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Damon Kupper
“I am free of it, I am a free man…I am a Protestant Man, I’m an Irish Man.”
A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER is the story of Kenneth McCallister, a rather ordinary middle class Protestant bureaucrat in Belfast. He and his wife are “perfect Prods. We come in kits.” Life is not easy for Kenneth, but at least there is the satisfaction of being ethnically superior to the Catholics he serves in the city dole office. Sitting in the stands during a qualifying soccer match between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Belfast in November 1993, Kenneth finds himself repelled by his brethren’s race hatred. When the Republic side wins, he decides to risk public disgrace and ostracism and travel to the World Cup in New York with Irish (Republic) fans. In a story equal parts sad, hilarious and, according to some critics, impossibly far-fetched and improbable, Kenneth embarks on a journey not many will risk or complete. 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, Jones’s play is still relevant. It was first produced in Belfast in 1994 by DubbelJoint, starring Dan Gordon.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Marie Jones is one of (Northern) Ireland’s best known and most successful playwrights. She is from Belfast. The occasion of a new play by Jones has long been known to cause sell out crowds, raucous laughter, and joy. Such was again the case this year when her latest work, FLY ME TO THE MOON, opened at Belfast’s Grand Opera House.
Along with Eleanor Methven, Carol Moore, Brenda Winter, and Maureen McAuley, Jones was a founding member of Charabanc, an all women touring group, and one of the most important Irish companies during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Charabanc’s first show, LAY UP YOUR ENDS (1983), created in collaboration with Martin Lynch, was about Belfast working class women in the 1911 linen mill strike. The production proved an instant sensation, drawing hundreds to the theatre who had never been before. It toured to London and the Soviet Union.
Jones left Charabanc in 1990, and in 1991 she founded DubbelJoint. In 1996, she wrote STONES IN HIS POCKETS, a two person show about a Hollywood film production in rural Ireland. The show had a mixed reception at first, and at one point played to an audience of only five people on the Falls Road. However, after rewrites it headed to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999 and began to gather steam. It then moved to London’s Tricycle Theatre, and then to the West End where it played for three years. It also came to Broadway.
Photo: Owen Carey
TALES OF BALLYCUMBER by Sebastian Barry
A reading | January 13, 20, 21, 2014 at lumber room
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Annabel Cantor, Karl Hanover*, Luisa Sermol*, Todd Van Voris*, and Rolland Walsh*
In a small Protestant farming enclave in the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin, bachelor farmer Nicholas casually gives some advice to young Evans, a 17 year old neighbor. When Evans takes these remarks all too literally and acts on them the next day, a tragic turn of events shatters the lives of two families and leaves Nicholas grappling with the mysterious and relentless hold the past has on him. Simultaneously current and timeless, Barry’s ghostly, jet black tale is just the thing for a dark January night.
ST. NICHOLAS by Conor McPherson | March 25 – April 16, 2013 at Kells Irish Pub
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Ted Roisum*
“When I was a boy, I was afraid of the dark.”
A jaded Irish theater critic falls hopelessly in love with a young actress and follows her to London. He is drawn into a world of vampires, with a difference, and finally comes face to face with his own debasement. It is a witty Irish tale, leading us finally to a place of hope.
In the 1990′s and early 2000′s, Conor McPherson wrote a series of plays that went from Dublin to London and New York and beyond. THE WEIR and THE SEAFARER are two of his best known works.
“Vampires, according to the various lore about them, live forever or at least are hard to kill. That seems to hold true, too, for plays about vampires, at least the Corrib Theatre production of Conor McPherson’s ST. NICHOLAS, which the brilliant actor Ted Roisum has been sinking his teeth into at Kells Irish Pub. Originally scheduled for six performances, the show has been such a hit that it’s been extended twice.” The Oregonian
“The terrific but too-seldom-seen Portland actor Ted Roisum carves marvelous psychological contours into the already fascinating twists and turns of McPherson’s monologue, which zips along on the rails between stark realism and dark fantasy. As bare-boned (per the writer’s wish) as the production is — just Roisum standing before you in the second-floor banquet room at Kells Irish Pub — the words conjure so many vivid places and so many tricky emotional and philosophical considerations that scenery would only conceal the wonders.” OregonLive
“ST. NICHOLAS is hilarious, in a dark way…” Oregon Arts Watch
“That’s some bloody good craic…an impeccable theatrical reflection on what it means to be human.” Willamette Week
SHIVER by Declan Hughes | A reading | February 25 and March 4, 2013 at BodyVox Dance Center
Directed by Gemma Whelan**
with Leif Norby, Amanda Soden*, Valerie Stevens*, Todd Van Voris*
“Once they were happy, suddenly they never would be again, The End.”
A look at the Irish dot com bubble just before the collapse, SHIVER follows the story of two (partially) power couples living side by side in a posh neighborhood near The Metals, an old quarry where stone to build the enormous Dun Laoghaire harbor walls on Dublin’s south side was cut. One couple has just returned from America (where they stayed perhaps a little too long) to start a new dot com biz named “The 51st State”. The other two wonder if somehow their own lives have maybe been a bit too unambitious in comparison. Meanwhile that old church up above the quarry is giving off some strange signals.
Hughes is known for not really giving a toss about the hallowed Irish theatre tradition, and his plays always deal with the current moment – real life as it is actually lived in Ireland today.
* Member of Actors Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
** Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
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