GALWAY SCRIPTS & Scribes is a new play-reading group which, starting next Monday evening at the Commercial Boat Club in Woodquay, will host weekly sessions exploring works by women playwrights.
The group is facilitated by Geri Slevin who has worked in theatre all over the world. Her aim is to build a list of plays as a tool for directors/producers/actors committed to ending under-representation of female playwrights in Irish theatre, both on the professional and amateur stage.
At next week’s inaugural session, plays read will include Eva O'Connor’s Maz and Bricks, Sharman MacDonald’s When I Was A Girl I Used to Scream and Shout, and Ann Jellicoe’s The Sport of My Mad Mother.
At 26, O'Connor is an emerging new young Clare playwright and performer, now based in London. She has just finished performing The Friday Night Effect at the Dublin Fringe Festival and on October 3 BBC3 will start airing her series Overshadowed. McDonald’s 1984 play is a little gem exploring the relationships between mother and daughter in 1950s Scotland as both struggle to make sense of life and men. Jellicoe, who died on August 31, age 90, covered many areas of theatre and film. The Sport of My Mad Mother centres on a group of teens given to outbursts of violent behaviour, its fragmented structure, use of chants and drumbeats challenged critics at the time of its production.
Among the plays to be read over the coming weeks are 7 Jewish Children/Top Girls/Serious Money by Caryl Churchill; Once A Catholic by Mary O'Malley; Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven by Jane Arden; The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler; Geraldine Aron’s My Brilliant Divorce; Nicky Sharpe’s Feather Boy; Brenda O'Connor's A Night with George Clooney; Geri Slevin's Invisible Women; Rita Ann Higgins' God of the Hatch Man; and Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan.
Sessions run from 6pm to 9pm every Monday at the Boat Club. All are welcome – including male readers! Further information from Geri Slevin on 086-8057285.
