This symposium is funded by:

• The British Academy
• Glucksman Ireland House, Arts & Science NYU
• Queen's University, Belfast
• 

A Tribute to Brian Friel

Glucksman Ireland House NYU is very pleased to highlight the Irish Arts Center’s ‘A Tribute to Brian Friel: Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Ireland’s Legendary Playwright’ on Friday, May 1st at 8pm.

An unforgettable evening with some of New York greatest actors performing from Brian Friel’s incredible body of work over five decades, including A Saucer of Larks (1962); Philadelphia, Here I Come (1964); Lovers (1967); The Freedom of the City (1973); Faith Healer (1979); Translations (1980); Dancing at Lughnasa (1990); and The Home Place (2007).

Presented in association with Queen’s University, Belfast.

Please see http://www.irishartscenter.org/frielevent.html for ticket details.

Biographies

Nicholas Grene

is Professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, a Fellow of TCD and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has published widely on Irish drama and on Shakespeare; his books include The Politics of Irish Drama (1999) and Shakespeare’s Serial History Plays (2002) both published by Cambridge University Press. His study of Yeats’s poetry, Yeats’s Poetic Codes, appeared from Oxford University Press in 2008, and his edition of Synge’s travel writings, Travelling Ireland: Essays 1898–1908 has just been published by Lilliput Press.

Eamonn Hughes

is a senior lecturer in the School of English at Queen's University, Belfast; he is also Assistant Director of the Institute of Irish Studies, and served as Acting Director 2007-8. He is a regular contributor to Irish cultural publications and broadcasts regularly on arts and culture on BBCNI; his short history of Irish literature is being broadcast by BBCNI in 50 episodes from April to June 2009 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/biw/).

He specialises in Irish Literary and Cultural Studies on which he has published widely. He has particular interests in autobiography and in the representation of place in poetry. He edited Northern Ireland: Culture and Politics 1960-1990 (1991), and co-edited Last before America: Irish and American Writing (2001 – with Fran Brearton); Ireland (Ulster) Scotland: Concepts, Contexts, Comparisons. Proceedings of ISAI 2002, QUB 20-22 September 2002 (2003 – with Edna Longley & Des O'Rawe) and A Further Shore: Essays in Irish and Scottish Studies. Selected essays from the AHRC Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies Cross-Currents Conference, QUB 7–9 April 2006 (2008 – with Eadaoin Agnew, Caroline Magennis and Christina Morin). Recent publications include essays on William Carleton, autobiographical writing of the Irish Literary Revival Period, Northern Irish fiction, Belfast in poetry, Derek Mahon, John McGahern, Sean O'Casey, Benedict Kiely and Ciaran Carson.

Anthony Roche

is Associate Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin and the editor of The Cambridge Companion To Brian Friel (2006). A revised, updated and expanded edition of his Contemporary Irish Drama will be published in August by Palgrave Macmillan. He is currently completing a book on entitled Brian Friel: Theatre And Politics to be published late next year by Palgrave Macmillan.

Patrick Mason

is a freelance director of theatre and opera. He has had a long association with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, which culminated in his tenure as Artistic Director from 1993–1999. He has worked extensively with writers such as Brian Friel, Hugh Leonard, Tom Murphy, Tom Kilroy, and Tom MacIntyre. His production of Friel’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ won him an Olivier nomination and a Tony Award for Best Director. He is also closely associated with the work of Frank McGuinness and directed the premieres of ‘The Factory Girls’,‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’,‘Dolly West’s Kitchen’ (Abbey, Old Vic), and ‘Gates of Gold’ (Gate Theatre, Dublin). In 2000 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity College Dublin in recognition of his contribution to Irish Theatre. He is currently an adjunct professor in Drama at University College Dublin.

Anna McMullan

is Chair in Drama Studies at Queens University Belfast. She has published many essays on contemporary Irish theatre and performance, and co-edited The Theatre of Marina Carr: “before rules was made” (Dublin: Carysfort Press, (2003) with Cathy Leeney. She is working on a book on Brian Friel to be published by Routledge in 2011. She is author of Theatre on Trial: The Later Drama of Samuel Beckett (Routledge, 1993) and co-editor of Reflections on Beckett: A Centenary Celebration with Steve Wilmer, University of Michigan Press, 2009. Her book on Performing Embodiment in Samuel Beckett’s Theatre and Media Plays will be published by Routledge in 2010.