MEET THE IRISH NEW YORK 2026 IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Contact Sharon Barry Director Ciarán Walsh Associate Director Alison Geraghty Head of Grant Programming
North American Cultural Officers Part of a network of Cultural Officers supported by Culture Ireland in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs Nik Quaife Head of Cultural Affairs (US East Coast) E nik.quaife@dfa.ie Aengus Finnan Cultural Attaché (Canada) E aengus.finnan@dfa.ie Giannella Ysasi Tavano Regional Cultural Officer (Latin America and the Caribbean) E Giannella.ysasi@dfa.ie
Culture Ireland Department of Culture, Communications and Sport Leeson Lane, Dublin 2, D02 R5Y3, Ireland E info@cultureireland.gov.ie T +353 1 643 7700
For Irish Arts Center Aidan Connolly Executive Director Rachael Gilkey Director of Programming and Education Mac Smith Director of Production
Meet the Irish is presented in association with Irish Theatre Institute
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Culture Ireland Established in 2005, Culture Ireland’s mission is to promote Irish arts worldwide. Through grant programmes and showcase initiatives, it supports and develops opportunities for Irish artists and companies to present their work across the globe. This includes international festivals, venues, galleries and arts markets including the Edinburgh Festivals, Celtic Connections, the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales, WOMEX World Music Expo and Frankfurt Book Fair. Through this work, it builds relationships and networks with arts and cultural organisations, relevant public bodies, state agencies and government departments at home and abroad to advance the global impact of Irish artists. It also ensures that Ireland’s cultural excellence is enjoyed by international audiences. Culture Ireland runs a regular funding scheme to support the international presentation of work by Irish artists and companies. Applications are accepted from both participating artists and from international presenters. Culture Ireland also operates See Here, a scheme to support the inward travel to Ireland of international presenters, curators and promoters to see new Irish work on the island of Ireland available for touring. Later this year, Culture Ireland will present the International Culture Programme to mark Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Full details of Culture Ireland’s activities and grant schemes are available at: www.cultureireland.ie Culture Ireland is a division of the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
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Welcome | Fáilte I’m delighted to introduce the Irish theatre and dance projects that are featured as part of Culture Ireland’s Meet the Irish Showcase for 2026. Over the last four years, in partnership with Irish Arts Center, Culture Ireland has developed this unique showcase platform here in New York. During this visit, Culture Ireland also cohosts with the Irish Consulate, the annual meeting of the NICCoNA network, our valued cohort of Irish Cultural Centers across the USA and Canada, who have been such stalwart supporters of Irish arts and culture over many years. Through its grant programmes, Culture Ireland continues to play an essential role in supporting and showcasing artists as they engage with global audiences. This New York showcase has proven its worth, not least with one of last year’s featured artists, Brokentalkers, returning to Irish Arts Center this January as part of the Under the Radar Festival. All the featured work this year aspires to international touring and presentation, and we are privileged at Culture Ireland to help in this journey.
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I want to sincerely thank the artists joining us in New York this week and wish them every success. Their success here in the US and beyond relies on the critical support and commitment of the many presenters and programmers who have stayed committed to Irish artists over many years. Whether you’re a presenter returning to the showcase or here for the first time, I hope you find it an enriching experience. I also want to acknowledge the support of our Consul General in NYC, Gerald Angley, Nik Quaife, our key contact here on the East Coast, Niamh O’Donnell from Irish Theatre Institute and in particular, Executive Director Aidan Connolly and the entire team here at Irish Arts Center, the permanent home for Irish artists in the US. Go n-eirí libh go léir.
Patrick O’Donovan, TD Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport
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MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS PHOTO: OLGA KUZMENKO
Pea Dinneen and Once Off Productions
Pea Dinneen: Raising Her Voice Presented by Pea Dinneen and Once Off Productions
A trans fantasia. How do you raise a voice? How do you get a whole country to hear it? Well, with 90s pop bangers adapted to fit a playful, subversive personal narrative about transgender liberation in the face of an uncaring system. OBVIOUSLY. This is as much a play about three decades in the history of a nation as it is a vast ongoing vanity project from a disenfranchised millennial hag.
HHHHH ‘extraordinarily sophisticated’ The Irish Times Winner of Best Production at Dublin Fringe Festival 2025 CONTACT
Pea Dinneen Lead Artist E peadinneen@gmail.com Maura O’Keeffe Producer E maura@onceoffproductions.com www.onceoffproductions.com
MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS
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PHOTO: PATO CASSINONI
Attic Projects
Scorched Earth Presented by Luke Murphy
A murder, an interrogation and a clouded world of fantasy and fear, Scorched Earth is part crime-drama, part psychological thriller all the while piercing into a dark but fundamental part of the Irish psyche. What right do we have to the land beneath our feet? What are we willing to do to keep it? Or take it. Blurring the lines of dance and theatre, Scorched Earth weaves story, striking visuals and visceral movement to sear a picture of wanting, striving, deserving and resenting.
CONTACT
Gwen Van Spyk Producer E producer@atticprojects.com www.atticprojects.com
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MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS PHOTO: PAT REDMOND
Irish National Opera
MARS
by Jennifer Walshe and Mark O’Connell Presented by Tom Creed (Co-Director) and Mark O'Connell (Librettist)
Four astronauts are cooped up in a space-craft for nine months on a mission to Mars. Tensions rise, relationships are tested, seasons of Real Housewives are watched and re-watched. Arriving on the red planet they confront isolation, sinister ideologies, the prospect of alien life, and a vibe-shift toward corporate authoritarianism. MARS is an opera about space colonisation, reactionary futurism, pronatalism, hustle culture, and the unsettling futures encroaching on our present.
★★★★★ ‘INO’s exhilarating space-travel opera comes from a mind exploding with ideas’ The Irish Times
CONTACT
Tom Creed Co-Director E tomfromcork@gmail.com www.irishnationalopera.ie
MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS
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PHOTO: PATRICIO CASSINONI
Emily Terndrup
OFFSPRING
(A Modern Frankenstein) Presented by Emily Terndrup
OFFSPRING cracks open Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, reanimating it into a darkly comic, fiercely modern exploration of creation, control, and consequence. An artist in her late 30s hovers between desire and dread as she contemplates her narrowing window to biological creation. With razor-sharp wit and raw vulnerability, she plunges into the beauty, chaos, and terror of making anything – child, art, or monster. Hailed as ‘supernaturally brilliant’ (★★★★★ The Arts Review), this visceral, award-winning gothic confession leaves audiences spellbound. CONTACT
Carolyn Boyd Producer E carolynrae.boyd@gmail.com www.emilyterndrup.com
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MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS PHOTO: STE MURRAY
Brokentalkers
The Mirror Stage Presented by Feidlim Cannon, Rachel Bergin and Kévin Coquelard
The Mirror Stage is a powerful new theatre work created with and inspired by people who have lived through Psychosis. Brokentalkers began by asking the question: ‘When you imagine a theatre show about psychosis, what do you see on stage?’ The Mirror Stage weaves images, memories and stories of startling clarity together with movement, music, and arresting visual imagery to create a performance that attempts the impossible — to make the invisible visible, and the unspeakable speak. The Mirror Stage attempts to understand what happens when the reality you inhabit no longer matches the reality everyone else agrees on. CONTACT
Rachel Bergin Creative Producer E mail@brokentalkers.ie www.brokentalkers.ie
MEET THE IRISH ARTISTS
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PHOTO: ROS KAVANAGH
Lovano
Her Father’s Voice Presented by Shane O’Reilly with Rachel Croash and Rory Dunne
Three generations under one roof. A young girl faces cochlear implant surgery as her parents wrestle with the weight of their choices. The unexpected arrival of a Deaf mother and daughter unearths buried truths that echo across generations. Acclaimed Irish writer, Shane O’Reilly fuses theatre, opera and film in a ‘rich and emotionally complex’ (The Irish Times), bold and ambitious new work. This contemporary family drama – tense, humorous, and authentic – pulses with the reverberations of decisions that will shape their future. CONTACT
Pádraig Heneghan Producer E padraig@lovano.ie Shane O’Reilly Writer E shanebernardoreilly@gmail.com www.lovano.ie
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UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL PHOTO: STE MURRAY
Brokentalkers
Bellow
Presented by Brokentalkers
Bellow is a unique and astonishingly beautiful new theatre performance exploring what it means to be an artist. Bellow tells the extraordinary real life story of one of Ireland’s greatest living traditional musicians, Danny O’Mahony, a man who had dedicated his life to the preservation of traditional Irish music and to the mastery of his craft. The performance fuses traditional music, an original electronic composition by Valgier Siggurdson and a contemporary dance score, heightening the tension between past and present, contemporary and traditional, preservation and progress. Presented as part of Under the Radar CONTACT
Rachel Bergin Creative Producer E mail@brokentalkers.ie www.brokentalkers.ie Jan 7 – Jan 18, 2026 The JL Greene Theatre at Irish Arts Center 726 11th Avenue, Hell’s Kitchen, NYC
SPECIAL NICCONA SHOWCASE
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PHOTO: ROISÍN WHITE
Liam McCarthy
He Dies in the End Introduced by Liam McCarthy and performed by Darren Yorke
In the end, we all become stories... Matty’s dead, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. He’s no big loss, or so he tells us. Matty recounts his last day alive, over and over, telling us contradicting versions of a life that was already falling apart. An irreverent story about love and grief, and a riff on time and potential. Premiered at Dublin Fringe Festival 2025, First Fortnight Award winner. A special one-off performance will take place at the Irish Arts Center on Monday 12 January. To attend, please mail: showcases@cultureireland.gov.ie
CONTACT
Jenni Little Producer E liam.mccarthyplays@gmail.com
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Upcoming North American Performances Supported by Culture Ireland Bellow by Brokentalkers at Villanova University’s Mullen Center for Performing Arts, Philadelphia, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Los Angeles, USA and the Canada Ireland Foundation March/May Cahoots NI presenting Secrets of Space on tour across USA January – March Scorched Earth by Luke Murphy/Attic Projects at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York, USA April Impasse by Mufutau Yusuf at the Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, USA as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival April – May Branar presenting You’ll See on tour across USA and Canada May – June Brokentalkers’ Masterclass at Luminato Festival, Toronto, Canada June
More information on Culture Ireland’s activities here:
DESIGN: GARETH JONES