Profile

In 1988, Charlotte Moore and Ciaran O'Reilly established this off-Broadway company in order to promote the work of Irish and Irish-American playwrights. A typical five-show season might find Eugene O'Neill and Frank McCourt side-by-side or Oscar Wilde with contemporary dramatist John O'Keefe. Productions take place in one of two intimate performance spaces: a thrust stage with roughly 140 seats or a basement black box seating 60—most often used for readings. Located in a former chemical factory, the theater was built by the members themselves after seven nomadic years. Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards followed as have some fairly notable actors: Ally Sheedy, Fritz Weaver and Tony Award-winner Brian O'Byrne have all trod the boards in the last decade. — Betsy Schiffman