I have started reading the script of August: Osage County. Its shaping up to be a good play
Original Broadway windowcard
Synopsis:ugust: Osage County is the Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Tracy Letts directed by Anna Shapiro which premiered in 2007 to a crowd of many theatre lovers. Many who have enjoyed the play when it first came out have seen it on more than one occasion after it started a tour around America.
Tracy Letts’ play belongs to the black comedy genre, giving it quite a darkly dimension. The action revolves around the Weston family who is forced to confront their reality both from their past and their present. The plot of August: Osage County is very enjoyable and has made many people applaud the writing and directing efforts every single time the play was presented.
The August: Osage County plot begins in August as the action takes place over several weeks in the home of Beverly and Violet Weston in Oklahoma. Beverly is a poet and has a drinking problem while his wife suffers from mouth cancer and has become addicted to drugs. The story begins when Beverly is trying to hire a new live-in cook and caregiver for Violet.
Problems between the couple are part of the plot from the first scene when Johnna is hired. A few weeks later Beverly disappears which motivates the family to come together to look for him but only to find a few days later that he has committed suicide. Barbara and Karen, the other two daughters of Violet and Beverly, along with Ivy who lives in the house come to their father’s funeral, as does the entire family.
A series of conflicts ensue over the next several days as Violet and Barbara have never understood each other. Karen’s fiancé proves to be a pot smoker and tries to molest his soon to be niece, Ivy is planning to run away with her cousin after engaging in a romantic relationship, but he proves to be her half-brother and, at the end Violet remains alone, only with Johnna.
The August: Osage County characters are the most important part of the play, as both the writer and the director have built incredible and vibrant people that can be very relatable. The characters portrayed by the actors have done great justice to the play and made it into a Pulitzer Prize winner.
The main characters of August: Osage County are Beverly and Violet Weston. They are married and live in a three-story home in Oklahoma. They have three daughters by the name of Barbara, Karen and Ivy in the order of their age. Beverly is a well-known poet but has a drinking problem, probably due to Violet being a drug addict. Violet herself has a health problem an struggles with mouth cancer and needs drugs to treat her and alleviate her pain. She is also upset with her oldest daughter leaving her home, making her subject to the drugs.
Beverly and Violet are having marital problems and are constantly fighting over many issues, which is what leads Beverly into committing suicide at the beginning of the play. When this occurs the entire family is pulled together to attend the funeral and chaos ensues along with confrontation between family members.
Violet and Barbara have never gotten along and are constantly fighting. Barbara herself is in an unhappy marriage as her husband is cheating on her with a younger woman and her 14 year old daughter smokes pot. Karen has a fiancé who joins her niece in smoking pot and engages in shameless flirting with his soon to be niece.
Ivy also has a problem with her mother as Violet always picks on her for not having a romantic life, However Ivy has been engaging secretly in a romantic relationship with her cousin Little Charlie, who turns out to be her half-brother. Other characters of August: Osage County are Charlie and Mattie Fae – Violet’s sister – their son Little Charlie and the newly hired live in cook Johnna.
Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble members Rondi Reed (left) and Amy Morton in the original Chicago cast of August: Osage County.
Tony Awards 2008
Awards
‘August Osage County’ was a play produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company and directed by one of its members and long time collaborators, Anna D. Shapiro. It gained an immensely positive critical acclaim, so it was commissioned to be played on Broadway. It also was able to hit international famous scenes in countries like Argentina, England, Germany, Israel, Sweden and Peru. Because of its big success, the play also was nominated and won many awards, starting with the award for Best Director and ending with a Pulitzer. The drama will also be turned into a film.
‘August Osage County’ received its first award in the year of 2007. The Jeff Award (Chicago) was awarded to August Osage County for Best New Work and Best Production. These two awards were closely followed in 2008 by other six awards: Best New Play awarded by Drama Desk, Distinguished Production of a Play by Drama League, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play. 2008 was also the year August Osage County received the biggest award in the industry, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, shortly followed by a Tony Award for Best Play. The success of the drama didn’t end here. Times Magazine named August Osage County its Number 1 Theater Production in 2007. In 2009, the popular magazine Entertainment Weekly put the play on its famous end-of-the-decade, best of list. The critics at the magazine said that despite the fact that it is three and a half hours long, the director and the actors managed to create a moment of pure theatrical electricity.
The biggest success of August Osage County was the fact that it won a Pulitzer for Best Play. The Pulitzer if one of the most prestigious prizes in the world, being granted every year for outstanding creations in journalism, literature, drama.
August County is about the Weston family and how they are an unhappy family with a knack for making each other miserable. When the head male figure in the household disappears the members of the Weston family go about getting together to find him while attacking one another in the process. This story was the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and since this event it has been very well received by many audiences and critics through countless reviews coming from all over the US. Set in the plains of Oklahoma the play August Osage County by Tracy Letts gets much praise by many people for its grittiness and darkness. Many famous people have gone to see this play on Broadway New York and in other areas as well and have also reviewed it favorably including one Oprah Winfrey who hailed it as “outstanding” on twitter but the dark comic drama August: Osage County is a play that is loved by many more and hailed as one of the best plays that Broadway has ever hosted. Below is a list of reviews from famous publications and people for the play.
The New York Times Hails:
“Alcoholism, drug addiction, adultery, sexual misbehavior: The list of pathologies afflicting one or another of the Weston family is seemingly endless, and in some ways wearily familiar. But Mr. Letts’s antic recombination of soapy staples is so pop-artfully orchestrated that you never see the next curveball coming, and the play is so quotably funny I’d have a hard time winnowing favorite lines to a dozen. “
The Seattle Times Says: “On Todd Rosenthal’s magnificent, three-story dollhouse of a set (nod to Ibsen), director Anna D. Shapiro and a splendid acting ensemble make shameless voyeurs of us all.”
While the LA times boasts: “August” is a feast for actors and audiences alike. The ensemble doesn’t disappoint”
Its now being adapted into a film with:
Meryl Streep as Violet Weston
Julia Roberts as Barbara Weston
Margo Martindale as Mattie Fae Aiken
Sam Shepard as Beverly Weston
Chris Cooper as Charles Aiken
Benedict Cumberbatch as “Little” Charles Aiken
Ewan McGregor as Bill Fordham
Juliette Lewis as Karen Weston
Abigail Breslin as Jean Fordham
Dermot Mulroney as Steve Heidebrecht
Julianne Nicholson as Ivy Weston
Misty Upham as Johnna Monevata
Newell Alexander as Dr. Burke
Dr. Burke is a character written specifically for the film I think 🙂
Tracy Letts
playwright and actor, Tracy Letts received the 2008 Tony Award for Best Play for August: Osage County. This is his first nomination for performance.
1 NOMINATION
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
TRACY LETTS (Playwright) has been a Steppenwolf ensemble since 2002. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County, which played on Broadway for over a year, following a sold-out run at Steppenwolf in 2007. August also enjoyed a sold-out engagement at London’s National Theatre and a U.S. National Tour in summer 2009. Other accolades include five Tony Awards (including Best Play), an Olivier Award and six Jeff Awards (including Best Play). Mr. Letts is also the author of Superior Donuts, which had its world premiere at Steppenwolf in 2008 and opened on Broadway in 2009; Man from Nebraska, which was produced at Steppenwolf in 2003 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize; Killer Joe, which has been produced in Chicago, London and New York; and Bug, which has played in New York, Chicago and London. He has appeared at Steppenwolf in Betrayal, The Pillowman, Last of the Boys, The Pain and the Itch, The Dresser, Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross (also in Dublin and Toronto), Three Days of Rain, Road to Nirvana, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and the Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of The Glass Menagerie. Other Chicago stage credits include The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (A Red Orchid Theatre), Conquest of the South Pole (Famous Door), Bouncers (the Next Lab) and his directorial debut at the Lookingglass Theatre with Great Men of Science Nos. 21 and 22. He also appeared in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, directed by ensemble member Amy Morton. Television credits include: The District, Profiler, Prison Break, The Drew Carey Show, Seinfeld and Home Improvement. Film appearances include Guinevere, U.S. Marshals and Chicago Cab.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Steppenwolf Theatre Company is, as the name implies, a theatre company that is based in Chicago. It has been founded in the year 1974 by Terry Kinney, Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry and has moved its location from the basement of a church in Highland Park into its own building over the years, symbolizing great success. The Steppenwolf Theatre Company is now located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Halsted Street, Chicago.
In its long time running the theatre company has also won a Tony Award. Members of the company have always been responsible for running it which counts very much in the sense of total dedication, guaranteeing its success over the years. The artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company has been Martha Lavey for more than fifteen years. David Hawkanson has been the executive director of the company since 2003.
The theater company did not make the transition easily between its original location and that it has now. If first moved into a 134-seat theater and afterwards, two years later into a bigger 211-seat one. The Halsted Street address that the company is now on has been its home since 1991 and has represented one of the most important reasons why Chicago is a leader in the performing arts.
Of the first performances at the Steppenwolf were Grease, Rosencrantz and the Guildenstern are Dead and The Glass Menagerie. Many great names have formed a part of this theatre over the years and many have went on to even greater careers and achievements after passing through the Steppenwolf. John Malkovich and Steve Martin were two of the actors of this theatre that went on to make motion pictures that are memorable to thousands of people around the world. Tracy Letts, another active member of the Steppenwolf has won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County.
Playright Tracy Letts, responsible for writing the Pulitzer Prize winning drama August: Osage County was born on July 4th 1965 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has been active since 1988 and apart from writing has also graced audiences by acting on stage and in feature films.
Tracy Letts is the son of Dennis Letts and Billie Letts. He has taken his love of writing and the theatre from both his parents as his father was an actor and a college professor, while his mother was a best-selling author. Tracy’s family has always been interested in the arts, as Tracy’s brother Shawn is a composer and a jazz musician.
Letts moved from his home-state of Oklahoma to Dallas to pursue an acting career. His first roles began there and he moved to Chicago at the age of 20 where he began working with Steppenwolf and the Famous Door. He is still a part of the Steppenwolf company to this day. Tracy has made an effort to make his achievements even greater and started the Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre – which many important names were a part of.
The writer Tracy Letts began his career in 1991 with the Killer Joe play which he managed to put on stage two years later in Chicago at the Next Lab Theatre. Many years have passed since the premiere of Killer Joe and Letts’s play made its way into 15 countries and has been translated into 12 languages.
The most famous play of the writer is August: Osage County, which was first presented in Chicago in 2007 and then moved to New York. The play has been on Broadway for 2 consecutive years, from 2007 to 2009 and has gained great fame and, of course, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Tracy Letts draws his inspiration from the plays of Tennessee Williams as well as writers Jim Thompson and William Faulkner.
Anna D. Shapiro, Director
Anna D. Shapiro in an American director and was born in 1967. She specialized in theater directing and received an undergraduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago. She also went to Yale School of Drama. In 1996 she received a Princess Grace Award for her professional achievements. All her colleagues from Yale named her ‘the waitress who will one day run American theater’ because she was bold, inventive, creative and the smartest person in the Yale program. She perceived the theatrical scene in Chicago as being full with psychological realism. Anna D. Shapiro was born in Evanston, Illinois.
In 2002, Anna D. Shapiro started a career as head of the Graduate Directing Program in Theater at the Northwestern University. Her longest professional partnership and most successful was with Steppenwolf Theatre. Today, Anna D. Shapiro is an artistic associate at Steppenwolf Theater.
Her theatrical portfolio as a director includes plays like ‘Until We Find Each Other’, ‘The Pain and the Itch’, ‘Three Days of Rain’, ‘The Ordinary Yearning of Miriam Buddwing’, and ‘The Infidel’. Other names include ‘Iron’ at Manhattan Theater Club and ‘A Fair Country’ at Huntington Theater Company, proving that she collaborated with other theater companies as well. This helped her a lot to expand her artistic horizon, paving the way for her biggest success. Anna D. Shapiro’s portfolio as a director includes 10 plays and one big Broadway success.
Her biggest success was directing ‘August: Osage Country’ by Tracy Letts. For this play she won the Jefferson Award for Best Director. Being such a success, the play was commissioned by Broadway. The Broadway cast was the same as the initial cast, with only two actors being replaced. After being played in Broadway, ‘August: Osage Country’ was named by famous and reputable Time Magazine as the Number 1 Theatrical Production of 2007.
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Nathan Lowell has been a writer for more than forty years, and first entered the literary world by podcasting his novels.
His sci-fi series, The Golden Age of the Solar Clippergrew from his long time fascination with space opera and his own experiences shipboard in the United States Coast Guard. Unlike most works which focus on a larger-than-life hero (prophesized savior, charismatic captain, or exiled prince), Nathan centers on the people behind the scenes–ordinary men and women trying to make a living in the depths of space. In his novels, there are no bug-eyed monsters, or galactic space battles, instead he paints a richly vivid and realistic world where the “hero” uses hard work and his own innate talents to improve his station and the lives of those of his community.
Dr. Nathan Lowell holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology with specializations in Distance Education and Instructional Design. He also holds an M.A. in Educational Technology and a BS in Business Administration. He grew up on the south coast of Maine and is strongly rooted in the maritime heritage of the sea-farer. He served in the USCG from 1970 to 1975, seeing duty aboard a cutter on hurricane patrol in the North Atlantic and at a communications station in Kodiak, Alaska. He currently lives in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains with his wife and two daughters.
From Nathan:
My “golden age of science fiction” started when I was ten in 1962. I rapidly exhausted all the sci-fi titles at my school library. To feed my reading obsession, an aunt who was a voracious reader, dropped off a paper grocery bag full of Ace Doubles every month. For those unfamiliar, a double is two novellas in one book printed back to back. You read one to the middle, then flip it over and read the other. My inspiration comes from all the greats: Asimov, Bujold, Cherryh … through Lackey, Modesitt, Moon … all the way through Weber, Willis, and Zelazny. I always had a desire to write fiction and when I started listening to books on podcasts, I knew I found a media to tell the stories bottled up in me.”
His bio for press like me 🙂
Nathan Lowell was born in Portland, Maine, in 1952. He grew up in an agricultural community in rural Maine and spent time working on fishing boats along the coast. His first literary success came with the publication of a poem while still in elementary school. That early success was followed by forty years of attempt, rejection, failure, and ultimately giving up on the dream of writing science fiction.
In 2007, with the rise of podcast fiction, he started writing again. He completed his first successful novel – Quarter Share – in January, 2007, and podcast it through Podiobooks.com over February and March, 2007. Since then he has written eight novels, several short stories, and a novella. His podcast novels have been finalists in the Parsec Award five times, and he’s won Parsec Awards for Speculative Fiction (long form) twice — 2010 and 2011.
He holds a BS in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing from SUNY/Buffalo (92), an MA in Educational Technology (98), and a Ph.D. in Educational Technology with specializations in Distance Education, Interactive Media, and Instructional Design (04). He lives Colorado with wife, two daughters, and a trio of feline companions.
His Awards and Nominations
2011 Parsec Award Winner for Best Speculative Fiction Long Form (Owner’s Share)
2011 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction Short Form (Astonishing Amulet of Amenartas)
2010 Parsec Award Winner for Best Speculative Fiction Long Form (Captain’s Share)
2009 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Specultative Fiction Long Form (Double Share)
2009 Podiobooks Founder’s Choice Award (Captain’s Share)
2008 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction Long Form (Full Share)
2008 Podiobooks Founder’s Choice Award (Double Share)
2008 Parsec Award Finalist for Best Speculative Fiction Long Form (South Coast)
I am a fan of the Solar Clipper Series on Podiobooks.com/Itunes
If there anything we’ve learned in the last few weeks, it’s that little things on the internet can make big statements about your life when it’s combined into a single pile. There’s a lot of those little things hidden in what many hope to be a “private space” — your email. And a small program from a group of MIT Media Lab students can mine your mail, take all those tiny things and create an artistic, disturbing and accurate picture of your life and relationships.
Hooking up to your Gmail account via a secure connection, Immersion scans accounts for metadata related specifically to the To, From, CC and Timestamp fields in emails. All of this metadata is readily available using the proper API, but not directly accessible from the mail account itself. From there, all of the data is sorted, categorized and placed into a beautiful graphic that shows all…
At 4am on 10 April 1914, fourteen people left the tiny village of Lagherdaun, Co. Mayo (population 96). Escaping poverty, they were emigrating to America. Unfortunately for them they were booked to travel on the new superliner, the HMS Titanic. Eleven of the fourteen died in the tragedy. They became known as the ‘Addergoole 14’. The villagers from Lagherdaun were so traumatised by the loss that they went silent. They didn’t speak about it even among themselves. Within two generations the story was lost completely. This documentary tells the story of the Addergoole 14 and how the village that lost more people on Titanic than any other community in the world rediscovered their lost history.
Running Time: 52 mins | Colour
****
An Dubh Ina Gheal (Assimilation)
The poet Louis de Paor lived in Australia for ten years in the 1980s, where he composed Didjeridu and An Dubh ina Gheal, his poetic responses to the plight of the Aboriginal people. In the documentary An Dubh ina Gheal, Louis returns there to explore how the Irish, as a founding people in the story of white Australia, were complicit in their dispossession. At the heart of this exploration is the story of the Stolen Generations, mixed race children, many of Irish heritage, who were taken away from their families to be assimilated. A few decades later, an Aboriginal resistance lead by ‘Shamrock Aborigines’ of Irish descent saw theirs as a shared struggle against a common oppressor. Weaving social and personal history with poetry, An Dubh ina Gheal is the hidden story of the Irish in Australia.
Running Time: 53 mins | Colour
Louis de Paor is Director for Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway. he was a special guest at the 2011 Daonscoil in Victoria, Australia.
***
Life’s a Breeze is a feel-good ‘recession comedy’ about a family struggling to stay afloat and stay together through hard times in Ireland. Unemployed slacker Colm (Pat Shortt), his aging mother Nan (Fionnula Flanagan) and his niece Emma (Kelly Thornton) must overcome their many differences to lead their family
in a race against time to find a lost fortune. Who said life’s a breeze?
The Galway Film Fleadh is delighted to present the world premiere of Life’s a Breeze as part of our 25th programme. Lance Daly’s latest is that rarest of things: a feel-good comedy that actually delivers on its promise. Featuring inspired performances from Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, Eva Birthistle and newcomer Kelly Thornton, Life’s A Breeze proves that, though the country may be bollixed, there’s still plenty to smile about in this life-affirming comedy
****
Running Time: 85 mins | Colour
Producers: Macdara Kelleher
Script: Lance Daly
Cast: Pat Shortt, Fionnula Flanagan, Kelly Thornton, Eva Birthistle
Production: Fastnet Films
Print Source: Wildcard Distribution
***
Discoverdale
A fly-on-the-wall film crew follows cult Irish comedy rock band Dead Cat Bounce on a desperate quest across Europe to reunite lead singer Jim with his long-lost father. Nothing out of the ordinary you might think, except that Jim thinks his father is none other than legendary rock god, the Deep Purple and Whitesnake frontman, David Coverdale.
Crossing Ireland, England, Norway and Denmark, the band follows the trail of Coverdale as he plays to his adoring fans on the Whitesnake Forevermore world tour. The boys have got no money, no contacts, and absolutely no idea what they’re doing – just blind faith that one day soon Jim will be sharing a jacuzzi in a 5-star hotel with the dad of his dreams – and hopefully some hot Asian chicks…
Like the deranged, clueless and yet somehow rather charming offspring of Anvil and Spinal Tap, Dead Cat Bounce manage to blag their way backstage into the canon of truly great rock’n’roll mockumentaries. A must-see for fans of music, comedy and ridiculous ginger men in corpse-paint.
The Director and members of the cast will attend
Running Time: 82 mins | Colour
Producers: James Dean, Chris Carey
Script: Shane O’Brien, James Walmsley, Demian Fox, George Kane
Cast: Shane O’Brien, James Walmsley, Demian Fox
Production: Ashmore Films
Print Source: James Dean
Fri 12 Jul Town Hall Theatre 23.00
Dead cat bounce have their finial show on September 10th at vicar street Dublin with Mick Cullen rejoining them on keybords for night thus a a 4 piece once again. They previously rocked Galway as a 4 piece at the Róisín Dubh in 2009 at GAF 2009
***
Close To Evil
In 1945 Tomi Reichental was a nine-year-old boy starving to death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. SS woman Hilde Lisiewicz was one of the Nazi guards that kept Tomi and his family in brutal captivity. 68 years later in 2013, Tomi speaks to schools all over Ireland about what he witnessed and how 35 members of his family perished in the Holocaust. Ninety-one-year-old Hilde lives quietly alone in Hamburg – a devout Roman Catholic, popular in her parish. An RTÉ Radio interview leads Tomi to go in search of Hilde. Along the way he uncovers a dark secret that Hilde has long hidden. Tomi seeks neither to accuse nor to avenge. Will his quest end in rejection or redemption?
The Director will attend
Running Time: 70 mins | Colour and B&W
Producer: Gerry Gregg
Script: Tomi Reichental, Gerry Gregg
Cast: Tomi Reichental, Efraim Zuroff, Mathilde Michnia aka Hilde Lisiewicz, Merrick Whyte, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Eckhard Lubkemeier
Production: Praxis Pictures for RTÉ and the Irish Film Board
Print Source: Screenscene
Tomi Reichental has previously done I Was a Boy in Belsen and a memior under that Title.
Tomi Reichental, who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust, gives his account of being imprisoned as a child at Belsen.
Tomi Reichental was nine-years old in October 1944 when he was rounded up by the Gestapo in a shop in Bratislava. Along with 12 other members of his family he was taken to a detention camp where the elusive Nazi War Criminal Alois Brunner had the power of life and death. Tomi, his mother Judith and his brother Miki, his granny Rosalia and two other relatives were dumped into a cattle wagon on a train bound for Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The others were sent to the slave labour camp at Buchenwald, where inmates were literally worked to death. It took seven days and nights for the train to arrive at Belsen as Allied bombing had disrupted rail links all across occupied Europe. All together, 35 members of the Reichental family – grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins – died in the Holocaust.
For 55 years, Tomi didn’t speak of his experiences “not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t.” Since breaking his silence he has been on a mission of remembrance. Tomi has lived in Dublin since 1959 and hardly a week goes by without him travelling up and down the country to talk to Leaving Cert. students about his wartime boyhood experiences.
As one of only three Holocaust survivors left in Ireland, Tomi is mindful that the horrors of the Holocaust will soon pass from memory to history.
“The Holocaust happened and it can happen again, and every one of us, if only for our own sense of self preservation, has a solemn duty to ensure that nothing like it ever occurs again”
Tomi puts it very simply: “In the last couple of years I realised that, as one of the last witnesses, I must speak out.”
Tomi’s story is a story of the past. It is also a story for our times.. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of racism and intolerance, providing lessons from the past that are relevant today. In Tomi’s words “…. The Holocaust didn’t start with cattle wagons and gas chamber, but with whispers, taunts, daubing and then abuse and murder. One of the lessons we must learn is to respect difference and reject all forms of racism and discrimination.”
Tomi Reichenthal
Tomi Reichenthal returns to Belsen
****
25TH GALWAY FILM FLEADH PROGRAMME
Closing Film | Dir. Stephen Brown | Ireland, UK | 2013
The Sea
Grieving after the death of his wife, Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds) returns to the seaside resort where he spent summers as a child. He lodges at a boarding house where frosty proprietor Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) now resides. Before long – and despite protestations from his daughter Clare (Ruth Bradley) – Max revisits the ghosts of his past.
Max’s mind returns to an idyllic summer in 1955 when, as a child, he encountered the Grace family. Carlo (Rufus Sewell) and Connie (Natascha McElhone) were unlike any adults he had met before.
Young Max befriends the young Grace twins, and his fascination for this unconventional clan transforms into intimacy and love. The children’s young nanny, Rose (Bonnie Wright) regards the new surrogate with quiet suspicion.
While Max recalls moments with his departed partner Anna (Sinéad Cusack), he also confronts a distant trauma from the past.
The Director, Matthew Dillon and Missy Keating will attend. Ciarán Hinds and Sinéad Cusack TBC
Running Time: 87 mins | Colour
Producers: Luc Roeg, David Collins
Cast: Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Natascha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, Bonnie Wright, Sinéad Cusack, Matthew Dillon, Missy Keating
Production: Independent Film Company
Print Source: Independent Film Company
***
Monsters University
Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer – and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University (MU). But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, ‘Sulley’ (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Programme. To make matters worse, they realise they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.
Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, Disney•Pixar’sMonsters University is directed by Dan Scanlon (Cars, Mater and the Ghostlight, Tracy), produced by Kori Rae (Up, The Incredibles,Monsters, Inc.) and features music from future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning composer Randy Newman (Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3).
Also screening: Disney/Pixar Shorts Programme | Thursday 11 July | IMC 6 |14.15
A very special selection of Pixar’s fantastic short films get a rare cinematic outing as part of our Animation focus (see related videos on the right hand side).
Running Time: 103 mins | Colour
Producer: Kori Rae
Script: Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird and Dan Scanlon
Cast (Voices): Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina
Production: Disney/Pixar
Print Source: The Walt Disney Company, Ireland
Monsters University is the prequel to 2001 film Monsters, Inc.12 anniversary.
An Announcement
THE REAL DEAL
€FREE | Thursday July 11th, 2013 | 10:30 a.m. – 3p.m. | The Veranda Radisson Blu Hotel
This year the conference is focused firmly on the new international trends emerging in filmmaking, taking an encompassing look at what producers should be doing to meet the new demands of the marketplace from development through to production and market exploitation.
This year the conference will be moderated by Angus Finney and will feature an exciting line-up with speakers from the Irish and international industry.
The 2013 Edition: Future Ideas – Future Business – Future Conversations
10.45 – 11.00: Welcome address by James Hickey, Chief Executive, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board
11.00 – 11.45: Future Conversations: “Evolution or Revolution” Opening presentation on creative management by Angus Finney followed by a conversation with the new BSÉ/IFB Project Managers Rory Gilmartin, Mary Callery and Keith Potter on their thoughts for development and creative producing.
11.50 – 12.30: Future Business: “Low Budget – Big Ambition” An exploration of the practicalities, the do’s and don’ts of making a film on a tight budget without sacrificing artistic intent or market aspirations.
Speaker: Rebecca O’Flanagan (Producer, Treasure Entertainment)
Case Study: THE STAG produced by Treasure Entertainment
12.30 – 13.00: Lunch (refreshments will be provided)
13.00 – 14.15: Future Ideas: “Hybrid Distribution” In time of turbulent change and disruptive technologies, we explore new ways to audiences.
Key speakers: Eduardo Panizzo – Coffee & Cigarettes; David Shear – Shear Entertainment; Emily Best – Seed & Spark; Anita O’Donnell – re:fine Group
14.20 – 15.00 Future Business: “The Future Is Here”
A discussion on the multiplatform UK release of Ben Wheatley’s “A FIELD IN ENGLAND”, Shane Meadows “MADE OF STONE” and Sophie Fiennes’ “A PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY“ with Picturehouse.
Key Speakers: Sarah Frain & Gabriel Swartland (Picturehouse UK)
Please note that places will be limited at the conference as the venue has been changed to the Veranda Bar at the Radisson Hotel in Galway. You must sign up to secure your place atinfo@irishfilmboard.ie by Friday July 5th at 5pm.
Last week I was in London for a few days, doing some research. When I visit that city I always try to make time to visit the Royal Court bookshop. It doesn’t have as wide a selection of new plays as can be found in the amazing shop at the National Theatre – but what it does have is cheap scripts. Almost every new play the Court produces comes with a playscript that is usually priced somewhere between £2 and £5. So it’s possible when you visit to stock up on some great new writing for an affordable price.
That’s exactly what I did last week, coming away with new work by Lucy Kirkwood, Martin Crimp, Polly Stenham, Bruce Norris, and Bola Agbaje. Since then I have been reading and enjoying those plays – some of them very much.
I’ve been struck by a few thoughts while reading through…
I got an email this morning with highlights from this year’s Dublin Fringe. Some great stuff in there already, with more to come when tickets go on sale on 14 August.
The hottest tickets this year will surely be for the new work from Louise Lowe, Thirteen. This is, we’re told, a “citywide exploration and interrogation of the 1913 Lockout; building each day from one to thirteen events around themes and locations associated with the dispute through site-responsive performances and installations.”
One of the most impressive features of Louise Lowe’s work over the last few years is the way she’s been able to change direction and do new things from one production to the next – while also maintaining the core integrity of her work. Really looking forward to this.
Also delighted to hear of a new work from Amy Conroy, whose I ♥ Alice ♥ I and Eternal…
Dr. Patrick Lonergan views on 2013 synge summer school as his last year in charge but Stuart Carolan wont discuss what has happened to Darren “he wouldn’t say anything”!
I’m just back from the Synge Summer School in Rathdrum in Wicklow. I’ve been directing that event since 2008 and because this was my last year in charge I decided to invite eight Irish dramatists to come and speak about Irish playwriting today. So we heard from Stuart Carolan, Deirdre Kinahan, Mark O’Rowe, Owen McCafferty, Marina Carr, Dermot Bolger, Declan Hughes and Enda Walsh. Rita Ann Higgins also attended and while she is better known as a poet, she has also written plays. And we went to see Colin Murphy’s Guaranteed! and heard him and Gavin Kostick speaking about it afterwards.
This is something we’ve always done at the Synge School: although most of the talks are by academics, during my time as director we’ve also had occasional interviews/readings with Sebastian Barry, Una McKevitt, Colm Toibin, Joseph O’Connor, Bernard Farrell, Louise Lowe, Pat McCabe, Christina Reid, Billy Roche and Conor…
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The View from The DJ booth 