PAST EVENT — The Beacon

Irish Repertory Theatre’s New Play Development Program includes table reads, staged readings, workshops and commissions from voices that fulfill Irish Rep’s mission and tell stories of Irish and Irish-American people of all ethnicities, genders, abilities, and orientations. The program will provide opportunities for playwrights to further develop their work and enable us to discover new plays and musicals for future production.

Script Club is our internal table read series, which allows new work in development to be heard aloud with actors, followed by a discussion led by Nicola Murphy Dubey, Irish Rep’s Director of New Play Development.

Our Seasonal New Work Festivals enable us to hear a play aloud in a staged reading format with an audience, following a full rehearsal day with actors and a director.

Additionally, workshops allow us time to work closely with writers to implement feedback, and commissions ensure new stories are being heard on our stages.

“We are committed to this journey and believe this is the best path to showcase the incredible new work being created by Irish and Irish-American playwrights. At the same time, we must continue to focus on change and equity on our stages and behind the scenes. We’ve spent 18 months evaluating all aspects of our organization, and while there is always more work to be done, we are confident this new play-development program will be a good next step. We are eager to work with young artists to develop exciting new work. As we continue to broaden our understanding of what it is to be Irish, you will see more diversity in our casts, creative teams, staff, and playwrights. We are proud to announce the launch of our play-development program, and we hope you will join us.“ – Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly, Fall 2021

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Previous New Work Development at Irish Rep 

2024 Transatlantic Commissions Residency in collaboration with Fishamble: The New Play Company, featuring full length work by Felispeaks, Kwaku Fortune, Jade Jordan, and CN Smith

2024 Script Clubs: Mad Swift by James Marion, Certain Individual Women by Julie Morrissey

2023 Script Clubs: The Importance of being Orson by Jessica Cooke, Free! Tonight!! by Emma Callahan, The Apple Orchard by Cameron Tharmaratnam & Our Father by Amy Witting

2023-2024 New Works Fall Festival — Featuring Readings of 5 New Plays, Spotlighting Irish Female Voices
The Beacon by Nancy Harris, Her Hand on the Trellis by Katie Holly, Rathmines Road by Deirdre Kinahan, Helen and I by Meadhbh McHugh, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Ursula Rani Sarma

2022-2023 Inaugural New Works Summer Festival — Readings of 5 Plays in 5 days, Spotlighting LGBTQ+ voices
Drip Feed by Karen Cogan, ERIS by John King, Once Before I Go by Phillip McMahon, Irishtown by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, and Motherland by May Treuhaft-Ali, directed by Nicola Murphy Dubey and Colm Summers

2022-2023 Transatlantic Commissions Program in collaboration with Fishamble: The New Play Company, featuring short work by Felispeaks, Kwaku Fortune, Jade Jordan, and CN Smith

2022 Staged Readings of The Love Parts by Derek Murphy, The Dark Things by Ursula Rani Sarma, Hecuba by Marina Carr and Lally The Scut by Abbie Spallen

2022 Workshop of I and The Village by Darren Donohue

2021 Staged Readings of Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick, Playboy of The Western World by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle (adapted from J.M Synge), and An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde by Tom Holcomb (adapted from Oscar Wilde)