Origin 1st Irish Festival Picks Nominees for Top Jury Prizes

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival has announced the nominees for its top jury prizes. The festival will host its closing night ceremony at Rosie O'Grady's Manhattan Club on Monday, January 28 at 7pm, where the awards will be handed out to this season's top productions. Among the festival's six mainstage productions in competition, five are US premieres, and one is a world premiere.

Leading the nominations are Sebastian Barry's two-hander On Blueberry Hill (five nominations); John Breen's Alone It Stands (four nominations), and Ann Blake's The Morning After the Life Before (four nominations). Picking up three nominations each were Derek Murphy's Inside Danny's Box, the Ronan Noone comedy in verse The Smuggler, and Patricia Byrne's touring production of Blinkered.

This year's blue-ribbon panel of judges includes actors Jenny Sterlin and Patrick Boll, theater book publisher Glenn Young, and casting director Christine McKenna. The event will also include the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Fionnula Flanagan, who currently stars in The Ferryman on Broadway.

Curated and coordinated by Festival founder George C. Heslin, the 11th annual Origin 1st Irish welcomed and organized 17 productions and special projects from Belfast, Derry, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Queens, and Manhattan. Participating venues include 59E59 Theaters, the cell, the American Irish Historical Society, Scandinavia House, the NY Irish Center, the Playroom, A.R.T./New York Theatres, the Irish Consulate, the Irish Arts Center, and NYU's Glucksman Ireland House.

To RSVP to the awards ceremony, a free event, visit www.origintheatre.org.