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Please feel free to comment and react to the latest World Preimere of The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien, directed by Mikel Murfi.

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Radio Interview with Pat Kenny & Edna O'Brien

                      

 Part 1 of 2 Edna O'Brien on Today with Pat Kenny 17/10/11

 Part 2 of 2 Edna O'Brien on Today with Pat Kenny 17/10/11

The Country Girls Cast Profile 9 - Michael Power in Multiple roles

Waterford native Michael Power worked in the financial sector for seventeen years and turned to acting “in order to avert a possible mid-life crisis and created an ongoing crisis”.

Michael completed a year-long post graduate drama course at Drama Studio London in 2010 and has recently played Billy in Eden by Eugene O Brien and Pato in Beauty Queen of Leenane, both with Theatre Royal Waterford and directed by Ben Barnes.

Previous work with Red Kettle includes Boy Soldier, Romeo and Juliet and The Pilferer.

As a director Michael’s work includes two plays by Patsy Daly: GTI and Urbs Intacta Manet.

Michael is a founder member of Bowler Hat Theatre Company.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 8 - Aileen Mythen in Multiple roles

Aileen Mythen, a native of Co. Wexford, is a graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting. She made her professional debut as Carmel in The Desert Lullaby (Druid). Other theatre credits include: Borrowed Robes (Island Theatre Co.), Playboy of the Western World (Yew Tree Theatre Co.), Alone It Stands (Lane Productions), Little Red & Skater Jack (The Civic & Guna Nua), Silly Bits of Sky (Barnstorm), Red Hot Runaways (Storytellers) The Desert Lullaby (Galloglass), Misappropriated (a one woman show written by Derek O’ Connor). Aileen performed the leading role in Eoin Colfer’s world première production of Lords of Love (Wexford Opera House / Theatre Royal Waterford). Most recently Aileen founded ‘Black Stair Productions’ and co-produced and acted in Eoin Colfer’s first play Holy Mary, which opened to critical acclaim and which will tour to Garter Lane and the Conary Community Hall, Avoca in December 2011.
Television and film credits include The Ugly Duckling and Me, Niko and The Way to The Stars I and II (Magma Films), Grabby Bag, Teenology, Crap Rap (Brown Bag Films), Ballybraddan (Monster Animation).  She is currently working on Jo & Jack, an animation series for Dancing Girl Productions and Man and Ink.
As a singer Aileen has performed in a range of different styles, and is a founder member of the roots / rock band B & The Honeyboy, currently working on their second album.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 7 - Georgina Miller in Multiple roles

Georgina trained at the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin. Theatre credits include: The Big House (Abbey Theatre), The Well of the Saints (Big Telly), Unravelling the Ribbon (Guna Nua/Plan B Productions), The Snow Queen (Graffiti), Lovers, Where He Lies (Island), Action (Locus), One Last White Horse, At the Black Pigs Dyke, Wild Harvest (MIDAS).
Television work includes: The Clinic (Parallel Films), Pure Mule (Eden Films), Trouble in Paradise (Great Western Films). Radio drama credits for RTE include Jumping for Joy (Bernard Farrell), Danny’s Girl (Rebecca Bartlett), Infidel (Roger Gregg), The Strange Case of the Great Crested Canary (Pat Mc Cabe) and also a number of series with Crazydog Audio Theatre for RTE radio.
Georgina is delighted to be making her Red Kettle debut with The Country Girls.

Radio Advert for The Country Girls

The Country Girls Crew Profile 6 - Conleth White Lighting Designer

Conleth has toured to Belgrade, Taiwan, Denmark and the UK with Big Telly's swimming-pool production of The Little Mermaid and lit, among others, their recent production of Puckoon which played in the Leicester Square Theare in 2011. For Green Shoot / GBL productions he lit The Chronicles Of Long Kesh (Waterfront Studio & Tricycle Theatre, London), The Interrogation of Ambrose Fogarty, HRT and Lay Up Your Ends in Grand Opera House Belfast and A Night In November in the Olympia, Dublin and Trafalgar Studio One, London. For Axis-Ballymun has designed lighting for five plays by Dermot Bolger: From These Green Heights, The Townlands of Brazil (also in Teatr Polksi, Wroclaw), The Consequences of Lightning, Walking the Road (also in Ieper, Belgium), and The Parting Glass. He also lit their production When Jolie Met Christy currently on tour.

Recent site-specific credits include This is What We Sang (Kabosh); Macbeth in Crumlin Road Gaol (Replay) and War of the Roses III, Spartacus: Highway to Hell, Danse Macabre & Red Line:Deadline  (Whiplashfights).

Other recent theatre includes Sweeney Todd (Mossley Mill); Rock Doves (Rathmore Productions) and The Miser (Lyric, Belfast).

Conleth co-produced and designed Four Last Things for Lisa Tierney-Keogh in Dublin Fringe 2009 at Smock Alley. For Garret Keogh he has lit Dogshow in the Galway and Kilkenny Arts Festivals in 2006 and designed set & lighting for both Fido (Dublin Fringe ‘07) & Setanta Murphy (New Theatre & tour 2009 - 10, Gap Arts Festival 2011).

Recent dance work includes: lighting and co-production of, with Anne Gilpin and Ian Wilson (Triptych) Tundra for Dublin Fringe ‘08 in The Empty Space, Dublin. He lit The Nutcracker Suite in the Helix for RTE’s Ballet Chancers and The Four Quartets for Maiden Voyage.

Previously for Red Kettle, Conleth has designed the lighting for: On The Razzle, Talbot's Box, The Glass Menagerie, Equus, What The Butler Saw, Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme, Man Beast And Virtue, Bent, Deathtrap, Boy Soldier, Riddley Walt, Climb, and Happy Like A Fool.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 6 - Rachael Dowling in Multiple roles

Rachael trained at The Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Ohio, USA, and began her acting career with Jim Sheridan in New York’s Irish Arts Centre. She studied film at Hunter College NYC, and completed the MA in Film and Television Studies at Dublin City University (DCU).

Rachael has worked in theatre and film in Ireland, the USA and the UK. She played Lily in John Huston’s classic film adaptation of James Joyce’s The Dead. Favorite film roles include Mary-Anne in David Yates’ The Tichbourne Claimant , the leading role Maureen in Tom Collins’ Bogwoman, and Mary in PJ Dillon’s recently released Rewind (2011). She wrote and directed her internationally screened short film, Stealth, and directed Peter McKenna’s award winning play Missing Football for the Dublin Fringe Festival (2004).

Rachael has lectured in film at The National College of Art and Design (NCAD). She has recently been part of a collaborative research and performance project In These Troubled Times with digital video artist Jesse Jones. She is editing and performing writer Sue Hassett’s novel in progress Acquittances 123, and is also developing a new work with playwright Helen Adams. She has recently worked on The Trees on The Quays architectural project with her husband Paschal Mahoney.

Rachael is delighted to be working with Red Kettle again.

The Country Girls Crew Profile 5 - Ben Hennessey Set Designer

Ben is a Founder Member and Artistic Director of Red Kettle. He works as a director, designer, writer and painter.
Most recently, Ben directed and designed Martin Sherman’s Rose which played at the Grahamstown Arts Festival in South Africa, wrote and designed The Girl That Turned into a Deer for Little Red Kettle and worked as a painter on Animated State Dance Theatre’s production of Crossing, all in 2011.
Other recent work directing and designing includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a circus tent, Romeo and Juliet at Garter Lane, Climb (with Eoin Lynch), and Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, also in a Big Top. Ben directed Happy like a Fool by Paul O Brien (in 2010) and Boy Soldier (touring production) in 2008.
Ben has designed over fifty shows for Red Kettle including the world première of Catalpa by Donal O Kelly, Kings of the Kilburn Highroad and The Castlecomer Jukebox, both by Jimmy Murphy, The Salvage Shop and Moonshine, both by Jim Nolan, Happy Birthday Dear Alice and Forty Four Sycamore, both by Bernard Farrell and The Stomping Ground and The Queen and Peacock, both by Loughlin Deegan.
Ben has also designed shows for Siamsa Tíre, Corca Dorca, Meridian, Archlainn de Hide, Team and many Musical Theatre companies, including Sweeney Todd for Bowler Hat. Recent designs include Tearmann for Siamsa Tíre, I, Keano for Lane Productions and Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart for Animated State Dance Theatre Company.
He has written thirteen plays for children, many of them with Liam Meagher including The Four Euclids of Squid and the Festival of Imagination and Wild Fancy which represented Ireland at the World Festival of Children’s Theatre in Toyama, Japan. Other recent children’s plays include Time Quest, There Might be Zombies, A Big Loada Stuff and The Alizar Tree.
Ben also wrote and designed Boy Soldier for Red Kettle which toured Ireland in 2008 and, also in 2008, co-wrote Climb with Eoin Lynch.
Ben also wrote the book and Libretto of Lily’s Labyrinth (an opera for children) with composer Marion Ingoldsby, performed in Garter Lane and at the National Concert Hall.
Ben also continues to work as a painter and his work is included in many private and public collections. He has exhibited throughout Ireland and in London, New York and San Francisco.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 5 - Simon Boyle in Multiple roles

Theatre credits: Moment (Tall Tales, National Tour), From the Heart (Louise White & Kate Nic Chonaonaigh), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme (Livin’ Dred, Nomad Tour), La Chanson qui durait 200 ans (Le Pari, Tarbes, France), Christ Deliver Us!, The Comedy of Errors and La Dispute (Abbey Theatre) Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World (Druid, US tour), Prince Mychkine in L’Idiot – Dernière Nuit (Co. de la Yole, Avignon Festival and Paris), Les Enchanteurs (Théâtre Alchimique, Théâtre du Soleil, Paris), Qu’est ce qu’il reste? (Co. de la Yole), Dracula (AFTP, French tour), Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Ireland), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Adrian Mole (ACT, French tour).

Film and television credits include : La Femme Tranquille (France 3), King Guillaume (Canal +/ France 3 Cinéma), Les Femmes de l’Ombre / Female Agents (TF1), Fields of Honour (Casus Filmi) and The English Method (Stellaire Productions).  He trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin and continued in Paris with Zygmunt Molik from Jerzy Grotowski’s Theatre Laboratory and Nicolaï Karpov from GITIS, Moscow.

Press Cutting - Irish Times The Gloss magazine

Kate (Holly Browne) & Baba (Caoimhe O'Malley)

The Country Girls Crew Profile 4 - Leonore McDonagh Costume Designer

Léonore is a freelance costume designer. She studied fashion design at Limerick School of Art and Design and has a Masters in History of Art and Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
She has designed costumes for over a hundred shows including theatre, dance, opera, pantomime and street theatre both here in Ireland, the West End and UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and Poland.
Design work includes Emma, Esther Waters, Wuthering Heights, The Mayor of Casterbridge (Storytellers Theatre Company) for which she was awarded the Irish Times / ESB Award for Best Costume Designer, The Ash Fire, Jack Ketch, The Flesh Addict, Buffalo Bill, The Y2K Festival, The Buddhist of Castleknock, Pilgrims in the Park, Handel’s Crossing (Pigsback/Fishamble Theatre Company); D’Unbelivevables “I Doubt it” says Pauline, One Hell of a Do (Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt); Sam an Fado, Clann Lir, Oisin, Oilean (Siamsa Tire) Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin (Gaiety Theatre); Goldfish in the Sun, Dublin Carol, Stone Mad, Rita Dunne  (Everyman Palace), The School for Scandal (Abbey Theatre) which was nominated for Best Costume Design, Buck Jones and the Body Snatchers (Joan Sheehy Productions), Boss Grady’s Boys (Woodpecker Productions), two productions of Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Julie,; three productions of both The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth, A Doll’s House, and Dancing at Lughnasa (Second Age), The Deep Blue Sea, American Buffalo; Ohio Impromptu, Rockaby, Come and Go (nominated for Best Costume Design), Footfalls, Catastrophe, Play and Eh Joe for the Beckett Centenary Festival in Dublin and London. A View From The Bridge, Many Happy Returns, and Alan Stanford’s adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop and Jane Eyre in 2003 and 2010 (Gate Theatre).

The Country Girls Cast Profile 4 - Charlie Bonner in Multiple roles

Work with Red Kettle includes: The Dignity Programme, The Last Cowboy In The East, Happy Nights, The Queen & Peacock, Choke My Heart and The Stomping Ground. Also in 2007 Charlie featured in Jim Nolan's Sky Road in the Theatre Royal Waterford.

Other credits include: Macbeth, The Comedy Of Errors, The Shaughraun, Living Quarters, Observatory, Toupees & Snare Drums, Portia Coughlan, Good Evening Mr Collins, Monkey and Philadelphia Here I Come for the Abbey and Peacock theatres, A View From The Bridge and The London Assurance in the Gate; and most recently Dancing At Lughnasa with Second Age and Someone Who'll Watch Over Me with Blackwater.
Television and film work includes: The Crush (Nominated for Best Short Film at this year's Academy Awards), The Race, Joyriders, Ulysses, Omagh, Badly Drawn Roy, This Is Nightlive, The Tudors, Proof, Fair City and Starfish.

The Country Girls Crew Profile 3 - Trevor Knight Sound Composer

Trevor was keyboard player in the early 1970’s with various Irish bands, including jazz-rockers Naima and Metropolis. In 1980 in Holland he formed Auto da Fe with singer Gay Woods and between 1981 and 1990 they wrote and recorded three albums: Tatitum, Five Singles and One Smoked Cod, and Gazett;, and toured Ireland and the UK extensively. In 2001 a live BBC session Songs for Echo was released.  He has also recorded and performed with many artists such as Paul Brady, Philip Lynott, Mary Coughlan, Fleadh Cowboys, Luka Bloom, Leo O’Kelly, Juliet Turner, Camille O 'Sullivan, The Mighty Stef, Roger Doyle and Donovan.
Trevor has written more than 60 scores for theatre, including, for Red Kettle, Catalpa by Donal O’Kelly, which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has toured the world; The Crucible, Juno and the Paycock for The Abbey, and Circus for Barabbas (touring to USA).
As director and composer, shows include: Bleeding Poets by Daniel Reardon, The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde and two shows in which the poems of Dorothy Parker were set to music: Just a Little One –A Dorothy Parker Cocktail for Kilkenny Arts Festival and The Whistling Girl for Dublin Fringe.
He composed the music, conceived and directed Slat featuring Japanese Butoh dancer Maki Watanabe for the Galway Arts Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival and Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. In 2009, The Music of Things, a filmed-drawing collaboration with artist Alice Maher took place at the Green on Red Gallery in Dublin, and then opened in 2010 at Kinsale Arts Week. In  2010 a further collaboration with Alice Maher, Godchildren of Enantios opened at the Galway Arts Centre as part of the Arts Festival, then travelling on to London and New York in early 2011.
Film soundtracks include Double Carpet (Channel 4) and What am I Doing here, a documentary by Trish MacAdam.
Most recently Trevor directed and composed music for a new multi-disciplinary work, The Devil’s Spine Band, performed at Galway Arts Festival 2011.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 3 - Mr. Gentleman aka Peter Hanly

Peter has previously worked with Red Kettle on Translations and Bent.
He was a member of Dublin Youth Theatre before joining Theatre Unlimited where he worked as a company member for two years.  Other theatre credits include: Molly Sweeney, Hedda Gabler, The Seagull, The Breadman (Gate Theatre); The Passing, Arragh na Pogue, The Plough and the Stars, Christ Deliver Us, Marble, The Burial at Thebes, The Recruiting Officer, The Crucible, Julius Caesar, A Month in the Country, The Bacchae of Baghdad, Aristocrats, Communion, Big Maggie and Sive (Abbey Theatre); Benefactors (b*spoke); A Doll’s House (Second Age); Improbable Frequency, Shiver, Three Days of Rain, The School for Scandal, Down Onto Blue, The Way of the World, Digging for Fire (Rough Magic); Dinner with Friends, Taste (Gúna Nua); Kvetch (Kilkenny Arts Festival); The Promise, The Lonesome West (Liverpool Everyman); Making Noise Quietly (Oxford Stage); Love Me?!/Car Show (The Corn Exchange); The Gay Detective (Project Arts Centre, Tricycle, London); Lovechild (Project Arts Centre); The Ash Fire (Pigsback); The Conquest of the South Pole (Theatre Demo); A Life (Olympia Theatre) and Saint Oscar (Field Day).
Film and television work includes Primeval, My Boy Jack (ITV); The Clinic, Black Day at Blackrock; The Truth about Claire (RTE); Betrayal of Trust, Roy, Ballykissangel, First Communion Day, Jumpers (BBC); Guiltrip (Temple Films) and Braveheart (Icon Productions).
Peter has also recorded many radio plays with RTE and BBC.

The Country Girls Crew Profile 2 - Mikel Murfi Director

Mikel Murfi is from Sligo. He has played in The Playboy of the Western World, The Morning After Optimism, The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors at the Abbey Theatre. Other acting credits include The New Electric Ballroom, Lyndie's Got a Gun, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Druid), The Chairs (Blue Raincoat, Sligo), The Cure (Half Moon Theatre, Cork), The Clerk and The Clown, Playing A Round (Galway Arts Festival), Stokehauling, SickDyingDeadBuriedOut, Half Eight Mass of a Tuesday, Come Down from the Mountain John Clown John Clown, Macbeth, God’s Gift, The White Headed Boy (Barabbas), Studs, Melting Penguins (The Passion Machine), Lady Windermere’s Fan (Rough Magic) and The Tender Trap (Pigsback). He directed Arrah Na Pogue and B for Baby for the Abbey. For Druid he has directed Penelope and The Walworth Farce. Other directing credits include Diamonds in the Soil, The Lost Days of Ollie Deasy (Macnas), The Mysteries (Co-director, Macnas), Falling out of Love (Yew Tree Productions) Trad (Galway Arts Festival) and The Lonesome West (Lyric Theatre, Belfast). Performance credits on film and television include Ella Enchanted, The Last September, Sweety Barrett, The Butcher Boy, Love and Rage, Guiltrip, Words Upon the Window Pane, The Three Joes, The Commitments and The Ballad of Kid Kanturk.  He directed Druma (a short film for Macnas) and John Duffy’s Brother (for Parkfilms based on the Flann O’Brien short story, screenplay by Eoghan Nolan). Mikel trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 2 - Baba aka Caoimhe O'Malley

A graduate in Drama Studies from UCD, Caoimhe is from Dublin, graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in June 2011 and was awarded the Gaiety School Theatre Bursary in 2010.
While at the Gaiety School she appeared in Macbeth, Twelfth Night, directed by Liam Halligan, and Little Gem directed by Paul Brennan.
On screen, Caoimhe has appeared in Whatever Turns You On and most recently in Rent a Friend for Kite Entertainment as part of RTE’s Storyland competition.

Photo from Rehearsal

Kate & Mr. Gentleman (aka Holly Browne & Peter Hanly)

Press Cuttings - My Waterford Magazine - October 2011 Edition

The Country Girls Crew Profile 1 - Edna O'Brien Author & Scriptwriter

Edna O’Brien was born in County Clare, educated by the Sisters of Mercy in Galway and graduated as a pharmacist before going on to write her first controversial novel, The Country Girls, in 1960. Since then she has written over twenty-five books, including Wild Decembers, In the Forest, a biography of James Joyce and most recently, Byron in Love. Her plays include A Pagan Place (Royal Court, London), Virginia (on the life and writings of Virginia Woolf, Haymarket, London), Iphigenia (Crucible, Sheffield), Our Father (Almeida, London), Family Butchers (Magic Theatre, San Francisco), Triptych (Southwark Playhouse, London) and Haunted (Royal Exchange, Manchester). Awards include Yorkshire Post, Los Angeles Times, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Irish PEN, the European Prize for Literature, Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin and the American National Arts Gold Medal. In 2011, Edna has been awarded the Frank O’ Connor International Short Story Award for Saints and Sinners.

The Country Girls Cast Profile 1 - Kate aka Holly Browne

Theatrical work includes: But Not Gagged as part of Red Kettle’s Festival of New Plays (2011), Sleeping Beauty for the Theatre Royal Waterford (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Red Kettle’s Play in the Park (2009), Juliet in Red Kettle’s Romeo and Juliet (2008), Jack and the Beanstalk, Waterford Pantomime Society (2007), Michael Collins, Theatre Royal Waterford (2007), High School Musical, Flaggy Lane Productions (2007), Into The Woods, Imagine Theatre Company (2007), Whistle Down the Wind Flaggy Lane Productions (2006). Holly began her acting career with Little Red Kettle on productions such as The True Story of Urcú (2001) and The Gráinne Stone (1999). Recent television work includes The Tudors.
Holly is very pleased to be working with Red Kettle again.

Reknowned UK publishing company Faber & Faber to publish souvenir script and programme

We're delighted to be able to announce that Faber & Faber reknowned publishing company in the UK are going to be printing limited edition souvenir scripts which will include the stageplays programme during the run of the shows, and this special memory piece will be launched on our Opening Night in Waterford at the World Premiere of The Country Girls.
The cover of this special piece will feature the familiar image of Kate (Holly Browne) & Baba (Caoimhe O'Malley) which is designed by Steve O'Connell as seen below.

Very Successful end to our Fundit Campaign

"How wonderful that someone would be so generous and so modest" Edna O'Brien

Thank you everyone that gave so generously to our Fundit Campaign and I now declare it offically Finished.
The total raised shows how much people love and adore the work of Edna O'Brien and Mikel Murfi, aswell as Red Kettle Theatre Company.

So on behalf of everyone in Red Kettle, we thank and applaude you fantastic support and know that you'll thoroughly enjoy the amazing World Premier in Garter Lane Waterford & The Gaiety Dublin of the stage play beginning in October.

All rewards and pledges will be processed over the next 3 weeks and Red Kettle will be in touch with everyone that has purchased a reward to sort out details and issue ticket details.

For Ticket booking and details

Waterford
http://www.garterlane.ie/

Dublin
http://www.gaietytheatre.ie/

Heartfelt Thanks 

Steve McCarthy

Fundit Co-Ordinator on behalf of Red Kettle Waterford

Edna O'Brien wins Frank O'Connor Award -Irish Examiner Extract-

The veteran Irish writer Edna O’Brien has been named the winner of the 2011 Frank O’Connor Short Story Award for her collection, 'Saints and Sinners'.

O’Brien received the prize in person at 8pm this evening, at the Metropole Hotel, in Cork. She is the first Irish writer to win.

The award, worth €35,000 and now in its seventh year, is the richest in the world for a collection of short stories. It is sponsored by Cork City Council and organised by Munster Literature Centre as part of its annual Cork International Short Story Festival.

In announcing O’Brien as the winner, Munster Literature Centre director Patrick Cotter praised the standard of this year’s entries, which he said was uniformly high.

The decision to award O’Brien the prize was, he said, a majority one, and not unanimous, and there had been some heated debate among the judges, who included the poet Thomas McCarthy, novelist and journalist Alannah Hopkin, music and book critic Chris Power.

The other shortlisted authors were Yiyun Li, Alexander McLeod, Suzanne Rivecca, Valerie Trueblood, and the Irish writer Colm Toibin.

Frank O’Connor’s daughter, LIadin, was on hand to present O’Brien with a copy of O’Connor’s book, 'The Habit of Getting It Down Right'.

O’Brien, who had read from her collection in the same venue on Saturday evening, seemed genuinely thrilled to have won the award.

“This is lovely, wonderful,” she said. “When Maureen Stapleton won an Academy Award, she said she’d like to thank everyone she’d ever met. I should probably limit that to Munster… I’d like to thank this wonderful festival for doing so much to stimulate the dying flower called literature.

“I can’t be blamed for the judges getting hot-tempered,” she added. “I haven’t won that many prizes in the past, so I have no qualms about accepting one on this occasion.”

O’Brien was born in Tuamgraney, Co Clare in December 1930. She first began writing short stories in Dublin, where she had moved to study pharmacy.

O’Brien recalled that her literary heroes were Frank O’Connor, Sean O Faolain and Peadar O’Donnell, who published her first stories in the literary magazine 'The Bell'.

“I didn’t know much about seduction in those days. I still don’t. But Peadar O’Donnell would buy me sweets rather than ply me with drink, and he told me that I needed to read a lot more.

“I’m still grateful to Peadar for that, that he encouraged me to educate myself.”

O’Brien’s earliest books were the novels 'The Country Girls', 'The Girl With Green Eyes' and 'Girls in Their Wedded Bliss'. For many years, her books were banned in Ireland.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/edna-obrien-wins-frank-oconnor-award-521077.html#ixzz1YfGzuZN4

End to a great week of rehearsals

Exciting first week of rehearsals done and dusted, the talented cast are really enjoying working alongside Edna O'Brien and Mikel Murfi.
Roll on next week as the pace steps up a notch, and each character further develops on the rehearsal floor. Watch this space for any further updates.

Off to a flying start

We had an excellent first day of rehearsals yesterday for The Country Girls. We’ve a really great team on board, and we were delighted to have Edna O’ Brien in the room with us. The first read-through went really well. This is going to be a great production…

Half way to the deadline

With just 14days left on our fundit Campaign, please help us get the funding this project deserves and you can help us, its as simple as 1,2,3,

1. Click on the link

http://www.fundit.ie/project/world-premiere-of-the-country-girls

2. Read about our project + the rewards Red Kettle is offering.

3. If you like it, click on the 'Fund It' button under the video, follow the onscreen instructions to pledge your money.

We must raise a total TARGET of €8,500 or we receive none of the Funding. So please give what you can to make this project the success it deserves.

Thank you so much to all who have already given generously.

Red Kettle Fundit Campaign Team

The Clock is ticking...............

Only one week to go until rehearsals begin now, with great excitement building. We’re all extra thrilled that Edna O’ Brien will be joining us in the rehearsal room for our first day. 

Here are some fantastic photos of Kate (Holly Browne) & Baba (Caoimhe O'Malley) for our poster design by Steve O'Connell.

Great rewards for your generous support, the choice is yours.

What is Fundit.ie?

• Fund it is a new crowdfunding platform to help raise money for creative ideas and projects from Ireland.

• It’s based on the premise that a creative idea can attract small amounts of money from a large number of people, whether they are family, friends, supporters, or simply members of the general public who would like to see a great idea realised in return for rewards.

 What is All or Nothing funding?

• Every Fund it project or idea must reach or exceed its target amount before the time expires, otherwise the project does not receive funding and Funders do not get charged. 

• If people want to see an idea brought to life, they will help make it happen.

 The Country Girls Rewards

€10
FATHER'S FAVOUR The personal satisfaction of having helped bring this classic to the stage. Give yourself a round of applause. A special listing in the event programme and on the website.

€20 +

MOTHER'S BLESSING Contains all thats in the €10 reward plus a free copy of the limited-edition programme and a personalised Thank you letter.

€55 +

THADY'S THANKS Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, and two tickets to the a special preview performance in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€80 +

HICKEY'S GIFT Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, a copy of the limited edition poster and two tickets to the performance of your choice in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€100 +

MRS BURN'S BARGAIN Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, a copy of the limited edition poster and two tickets to one performance at The Gaiety Theatre, which might be a more attractive option for our supporters in Dublin. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€150 +

KATE'S KUDOS Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, a copy of the limited edition poster, attendance at one rehearsal performance for two people, and four tickets to the performance of your choice in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€200 +

LIL'S OFFERING Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, a copy of the limited edition poster, attendance at the Dress rehearsal performance for two people, and four tickets to one performance at The Gaiety Theatre, which might be a more attractive option for our supporters in Dublin. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€250 +

BABA'S BLESSING Contains all thats in the €20 reward plus your photo on our official Wall of Supporters, a copy of the limited edition poster, attendance at one rehearsal performance for two people and two tickets to the opening night gala performance and wine reception in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€500 +

MR GENTLEMAN'S GRATITUDE Contains all thats in the €250 reward plus a copy of the script signed by Edna O' Brien and become a Silver Friend of Red Kettle for one year with all the benefits that will bring, including two tickets to all shows in that year in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

€1000 +

SISTER IMMACULATA'S GLORY Contains all thats in the €250 reward plus become a Gold Friend of Red Kettle for one year with all the benefits that will bring, including six tickets to all shows in that year in Waterford. Arrangements with ticket issuing will be made via email once the pledge is made and processed.

 Click on the image to login and begin funding this amazing project and help us reach our Target

Come on everybody, help make this happen

So far 8 days into our Fund it campaign we have had 4 very generous funders, we do have a large target of €8,500 to raise but with your help we can make it possible.

Not very often does such an exciting World Premier land on our doorstep and this is exactly what has happened with The Country Girls so if you want to see this project blossom to what it deserves then please help us transform our amount raised so far.....

to a fantastic final total of.....

CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE MORE DETAILS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS A REALITY

Munster Express September 2nd by Liam Murphy

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Billboards are up and ready to advertise

Have you seen the fantastic advertising billboards for The Country Girls yet.
If so, please comment as to where and when you spotted them.

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BREAKING NEWS - Design team list is here

Trevor Knight on Sound Composition

Léonore McDonagh on Costume Design

Set Designer Ben Hennessy

And Conleth White for Lighting Design

For any further updates watch this space.

Press cutting from "Munster Express" 31/08/11

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Press cutting from "Waterford Today" 31/08/11

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BREAKING NEWS - Cast List is here

We're really happy to announce the fantastic cast we've assembled for our production of Edna O' Brien's The Country Girls. They are:

Holly Browne as Kate
Caoimhe O'Malley as Baba
Peter Hanly as Mr. Gentleman
Charlie Bonner
Simon Boyle
Rachael Dowling
Georgina Miller
Aileen Mythen
Michael Power

We're all delighted to be working with such a talented group and looking forward to this exciting show.

Watch this space for further updates.

Mikel Murfi - Director

Mikel Murfi is an actor, writer and director from Sligo. He trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris. He was a founding member of Barabbas ... the company, with whom he performed and directed over a period of eight years. 

As an actor he most recently appeared as James in Tom Murphy's, The Morning After Optimism, and Christy Mahon, in Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, both at The Peacock Theatre. In the Abbey theatre he has performed as Stefano in The Tempest and Dromio of Syracuse, in  The Comedy of Errors.

With Barabbas ... the company, he appeared in eight shows. Most of this was devised, original work such as Sick, Dying, Dead, Buried, Out and Strokehauling.  He played multiple roles in  the company's production of Macbeth and Jupiter in a version of Von Kliest's Amphitryon adapted for the company by John Banville and entitled God's Gift. He played Martin Kriebal in The Increased Difficulty of Concentration by Vaclav Havel with Druid Theatre Company and multiple roles in the Rough Magic Theatre Company production of Oscar Wilde's  Lady Windermere's Fan.

Mikel has appeared in many film and television projects. These include Butcher Boy, The Last September  and Ella Enchanted.

For more information Click Here

FUND IT! Campaign Officially launched

Friends,

The countdown has now started and our fundraising campaign has kicked off,  it will run for 28days and the hope is to raise 8,500euro to fund this amazing project.

A show like this, giving a world-class script based on a classic Irish novel the treatment it deserves - with a cast of nine top-notch actors, the best designers and the highest production values – would stretch the resources of a production company at the best of times. In these times of scarcity, diversifying and fundraising have become essential in order to maintain our commitment to quality. The more we raise thanks to your generosity, the more it'll allow us to see this production bloom like it deserves and honour the vision of thes extraordinary artists involved.


http://www.fundit.ie/project/world-premiere-of-the-country-girls

We’ve put together some fantastic rewards, and hope they will encourage you to support the production.
This is a great moment in the Arts, when an important modern Irish novel and theatre production at its finest come together. Thank you for being a part of it.

On behalf of Red Kettle, Thank you so much for supporting the Irish Arts!
Steve (FUND IT CO-ORDINATOR for Red Kettle)

FUND IT submittal

 







 


Steve McCarthy - FUND IT campaign Co-ordinator


Today, I recorded Holly Browne doing a voiceover for our forthcoming FUND IT campaign which you can see below. Once having edited and created the final promotional video.

John & I sat down and checked we had all elements of the FUND IT submission form covered so all it took then was to add the details requested and click SUBMIT.
I now await contact by the FUND IT, and then our fundraising Campaign begins.

Added 24/08/11 17:00
Having adjusted and edited the necessary aspects of our FUND IT campaign, I've just resubmitted it.
Fingers Crossed we go LIVE ONLINE tomorrow.

WATCH THIS SPACE!
Steve McCarthy

Press cutting from "Waterford Today" 17/08/11

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Press cutting from "Munster Express" 17/08/11

Front Page..............Click image to make larger

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Press cutting from "Dungarvan Observer" 17/08/11

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Press cutting from "Waterford News & Star" 16/08/11

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Edna O'Brien - Author & Scriptwriter

 Edna O'Brien - Author of the book The Country Girls and Author of the script of the stageplay also.

Edna O'Brien was born in Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland, in 1930, a place she would later describe as "fervid" and "enclosed." According to O'Brien, her mother was a strong, controlling woman who had emigrated temporarily to America, and worked for some time as a maid in Brooklyn, New York, for a well-off Irish-American family before returning to Ireland to raise a family. O'Brien was the only child of 'a strict, religious family.' In the years 1941-46 she was educated by the Sisters of Mercy - a circumstance which contributed to a 'suffocating' childhood. "I rebelled against the coercive and stifling religion into which I was born and bred. It was very frightening and all pervasive. I'm glad it has gone."

In 1950, she was awarded a licence as pharmacist. She married, against her parents' wishes, in the summer of 1954, the Czech/Irish writer Ernest Gébler and the couple moved to London - "We lived in SW 20. Sub-urb-ia." They raised two sons, Carlos and Sasha, but the marriage was dissolved in 1964. Gébler died in 1998. In Ireland she read such writers as Tolstoy, Thackeray, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In London, O'Brien bought Introducing James Joyce by T.S. Eliot, and has said that when she learnt Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was an autobiographical story, it made her realise, 'where she might turn, should she want to write herself: "Unhappy houses are a very good incubation for stories." In London she started work as a reader for Hutchinson where, on the basis of her reports, she was commissioned, for £25, to write a novel.

She published her first book, The Country Girls, in 1960. This was the first part of a trilogy of novels (later collected as The Country Girls Trilogy) which also included The Lonely Girl (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964). Shortly after their publication these books were banned, and in some cases burnt, in Ireland, due to their frank portrayals of the sex lives of their characters. In the 60s she was a patient of R D Laing: "I thought he might be able to help me. He couldn't do that - he was too mad himself - but he opened doors," she said later.

She has received numerous awards for her works, including a Kingsley Amis Award in 1962 (for The Country Girls), the Yorkhire Post Book Award in 1970 (for A Pagan Place), and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1990 for Lantern Slides. In 2006, Edna O' Brien was appointed adjunct professor of English Literature in University College, Dublin. In 2009, Edna O’Brien was honoured with a special lifetime achievement award - the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award - at a special ceremony for the year’s Irish Book Awards in Dublin. According to the novelist Andrew O'Hagan, her place in Irish letters is assured. " She changed the nature of Irish fiction; she brought the woman's experience and sex and internal lives of those people on to the page, and she did it with style, and she made those concerns international." And in the words of the novelist Colum McCann she has been "the advance scout for the Irish imagination" for over fifty years.

 Ben Hennessy - Artistic Director of Red Kettle

We are just delighted to have been chosen by Edna O’Brien.  This is a very difficult time for any theatre company with the economy, arts cuts and all the other bad news and so this is just such an uplift and endorsement of what we have achieved.  It has really lifted the spirits of everyone and we’re working on it already. We’re delighted to have Mikel Murfi – arguably Ireland’s finest theatrical director - on board, and the cast includes many well known Irish actors.  

You’ll be hearing lots more about that in the weeks to come.