merrion street

Three theatre companies supported by the Arts Council are to participate in this year’s 1^st Irish Theatre Festival in New York in September. Fishamble (Dublin), Tall Tales (Navan) and Cirque de Légume (Sligo) are all participating in the month-long festival which runs from 5 September to 3 October 2011 in theatres across New York.

Coordinated by the New York-based Origin Theatre Company, the festival features plays by 16 contemporary Irish playwrights spanning a range of theatrical genres and styles, with the collaboration of 18 theatres and arts organisations from the USA and abroad.

Wishing the participants well before their departure to New York,  Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan said:

The arts are one of our most valuable cultural exports and I am very pleased to have this opportunity to encourage and support 1^st Irish. It is positive that artistic productions are available to audiences in Ireland and abroad because of a long-term investment by the Arts Council. Irish people have a deeply embedded and distinctive tradition of story-telling and included in this year's 1st Irish programme for American audiences are some of Ireland's finest writers, directors and performers. I am particularly pleased to offer my support to the festival in the year of Imagine Ireland, a special initiative of my Department and Culture Ireland, which will see over 1,200 artists present work in the US during 2011. I wish Artistic Director George Heslin and all the participants every success – particularly the cast, writers, directors and production crews from Fishamble, Tall Tales, Cirque de Légume and also Brassneck Theatre Company, Belfast.

See www.1stirish.org for more details.