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Multiple DatesThu, May 02TallahasseeMay 02, 2024, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PMTallahassee, 1600 Miccosukee Rd, Tallahassee, FL 32308, USADon't miss this funny and insightful glimpse into the power of female friendship!
Information
At Goodwood's Jubilee Cottage
May 2-4 & 10 and 12, 2024
Description
Shush is a comedy by the Irish playwright Elaine Murphy. It tells the story of a group of friends who get together to celebrate the birthday of one of them, Breda, who is going through a divorce. The celebration-turned-group-therapy offers a funny and insightful look into the power of female friendship.
Elaine Murphy is a fresh face on the Irish playwriting scene whose work has won widespread acclaim. Her debut play, Little Gem, premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2008, playing to packed audiences during its sellout run. It picked up the Fishamble New Writing Award and a nomination for Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards before transferring to Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, where it won the 2009 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award.
Murphy’s second play, Ribbons, was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre for The Fairer Sex, a series of short plays from leading female playwrights, followed by Shush, also an Abbey Theatre commission, which premiered on the mainstage in 2013 for a six-week run. She is currently developing a new TV drama series Fleecers, and her adaptation of Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends opened to great reviews at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in 2022.
Shush portrays a group of women that anyone can relate to. They are in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, offering a variety of perspectives on how to deal with everyday emotions and how to navigate through the challenges that marriage, age, and relationships bring to their lives.
Shush will be performed at Goodwood's Jubilee Cottage, and tickets are available here on the IRT website. Most of the play takes place in the living room/kitchen of Brenda’s apartment, where the characters move about while chatting and drinking, which makes the space of the cottage perfect for the kind of intimacy that surrounds the characters.
Alejandra Gutierrez
Actors
The Director
For Alejandra Gutierrez as director, the possibility of doing a play that is centered on the characters and their journey is very exciting. All the women have distinct personalities, and through the course of the night, they will touch on a great variety of topics, including love, marriage, infidelity, children, loneliness, and death.
Gutierrez teaches at Florida State University. She has a PhD in Contemporary Hispanic Literature. While living in Venezuela, her country of origin, she studied theater with some of the most important companies in Caracas and founded a small theater group there. Her work in theater includes acting, producing, and directing. Gutierrez has acted with different groups in Caracas, Virginia, and Tallahassee, where she has worked with Theater with a Mission, The Irish Theater Repertory, Monticello Opera House, and Tallahassee Hispanic Theater. Among her many directorial credits is a critically acclaimed IRT production of “The Birds” with Nathan Williamson and Erika Stone. In 2006 she founded Tallahassee Hispanic Theater, with the mission of presenting contemporary Hispanic theater productions for the cultural education and enrichment of the community while building cross-cultural awareness. As Artistic Director here, she is involved in all the areas of the productions, including translating the plays into English, producing, directing, and acting.
Past Shows
Friday, March 15th, 2024
Saturday, March 16th, 2024
Join us in celebrating Irish culture by partaking in an Irish- themed dinner, listening to Celtic music, and watching staged readings from the Irish play Pygmalion at the Monticello Opera house. The doors will open at 5 pm. Staged readings of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," will be directed by Robyn Smith, and live Celtic music will be performed by "Dram O' Day." There will be traditional Irish dishes served by Tasty K. A variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be served at the bar.
Pygmalion Director: Robyn Peters
Robyn Smith Peters has been active in the Tallahassee Theater Community for many years and has performed all over North Florida and across the US. She studied Musical Theater at Lipscomb University and has been working in Educational Theater for 11 years while performing as often as she can. She currently co-owns Stage11, a youth and young adult Theatre Company here in Tallahassee, and has Directed many Productions in the area including Into the Woods (QMT), The Addams Family (FSUS), Tuck Everlasting (Stage11), and Cats (QMT). She also has a love of Choreographing, some recent credits include: "Into the Woods" (QMT), Shrek the Musical (Stage11), and Putnam (Stage11). When she isn’t behind the scenes she loves performing and has most recently been seen in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood“(Rosabud) and “A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder”(Sibella) both at Theatre Tallahassee. She would like to thank the Irish Repertory for the opportunity, her Husband Bryan, baby Soren, and God for His many blessings! Enjoy!
Ken Lambert is a graduate of FSU with a Bachelors in Music, Ken has performed roles in Tallahassee, Quincy and Monticello. He was most recently seen on stage as Frederick in Theatre Tallahassee’s Young Frankenstein and as Fred Graham in Quincy Music Theatre’s Kiss Me Kate. Other favorites include Fun Home (Bruce) with New Stage Theatreworks, Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye) and The Magic Flute (Papageno) with QMT.
Erika Stone is an Actor in Residence with the FSU College of Motion Picture Arts. She has done numerous roles in IRT productions including Lily in The Freedom of the City, Diane in The Birds andLady Patrick Campbell, (the actress who at 49 years old originated the role of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion), in Dear Liar. Other favorite local roles include Jacqueline in Don’t Dress for Dinner, Becky in Becky’s New Car, Barbara Fordham inAugust: Osage County, Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Gina in the SOT+ production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Erika is married to Jonathan Stone and has two sons who are forever supportive of her creative work.
2022-2023 Season
About Professor Kirby
David Kirby teaches at Florida State University. He is the author of Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, which the Times Literary Supplement described as “a hymn of praise to the emancipatory power of nonsense” and which was named one of Booklist’s Top 10 Black History Non-Fiction Books of 2010. Entertainment Weekly has called Kirby’s poetry one of “5 Reasons to Live.” In 2016, Kirby received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Florida Humanities, which called him “a literary treasure of our state.”
2023 Bloomsday Festival
The Irish Repertory Theater of Tallahassee's Third Annual Bloomsday Festival will be held at Goodwood Museum and Gardens.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Friday, June 2, 2023
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Friday, June 16, 2023
Sunday, June 18, 2023
You'll be transported back to 1904 Dublin by the Irish Step Dancers of Tallahassee, the Celtic bands Roisin Mo Chroi and Dram O'Day, Jessica Ogden and Melanie Applegate performing bits from Steven Dietz's "Bloomsday," and a lecture by FSU's Camille Vilela-Jones on the influence of James Joyce's Ulysses in Latin America. You'll be treated to a reenactment of the lives of Goodwood's Irish laundresses who worked there a few years later, employed by Goodwood's owner Fanny Tiers. Traditional Irish meals, snacks, and beverages will be available for cash purchase.
The Irish Laundresses - a world-premiere one-act play will be performed by Robin Jackson and Tiffany Underwood.
Photo Credit: Unnamed Irish Laundresses who worked at Goodwood circa 1914. From the Goodwood Collection.
Lizzie Chambers finishing up the day's ironing.
Photo Credit: Grace Photography
Mary McPadden in deep contemplation.
Photo Credit: Grace Photography
Lizzie Chambers and Mary McPadden, 1914.
Photo Credit: Grace Photography
Bloomsday Production
Come see Caithleen (Melanie Applegate) and Cait (Jessica Ogden) perform an excerpt from Bloomsday by ubiquitous playwright Steven Dietz at our annual "Bloomsday Festival!" Travel through time with them while enjoying this humorous and profound play that highlights a love that could-have-been. Jessica Ogden will be portraying the adult version of her real life daughter, Melanie Applegate.
Irish Repertory Theater
Locations in Dublin
1. James Connolly’s Liberty Hall: James Connolly organized labor unions and was one of the leaders of Ireland's fight for independence from Britain. A hotel used to be located where present day Liberty Hall is. In this building Connolly developed the publication of various propagandist newspapers and used it as a weapons factory for arming and equipping his Irish Citizens Army.
2. Thomas Clarke’s shop: Thomas Clarke, another leader of Ireland's fight for independence, hid his revolutionary activities within this news and tobacco shop in Dublin.
3. Pearse’s St. Endas school: Patrick Pearse, a socially conscious poet, scholar and teacher, founded and taught at this school. He tried to revive the use of Gaelic in Ireland and published calls to freedom from British rule that widely inspired his fellow natives to sacrifice their lives for the cause of independence.
4. Lying-in Hospital: Surgeon and "man-midwife" Bartholomew Mosse founded the Lying-in Hospital for Poor Women in 1745 to help women with complicated labor and delivery and to teach midwifery to doctors, midwives and nurses. In 1889, the first Cesarean section was performed there.
5. Magdalene Laundry: In the late 19th century through the 1970s, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity operated a commercial laundry and dormitory for women who were committed by the courts to live and work there without pay. Most of the inmates were single women without family support who had become pregnant. This was one of dozens of "Magdalene Laundries" in Ireland.
Want to Try Authentic Irish Cuisine?
TastyK will be preparing traditional Irish dishes, including Colcanon, Guinness Stew, Dublin Coddle, and Bangers and Mash at this years 2023 Bloomsday Festival.
