Friel in Context
10th-Anniversary Season: Brian Friel (and Other Irish Voices)
To celebrate its 10th-anniversary season, Stanford Summer Theater (SST) proudly presents Brian Friel (and Other Irish Voices). Arguably the greatest living Irish playwright, Brian Friel has produced an incomparable body of plays, adaptations, and short stories dealing with the intersection of language, politics, art, and cultural renewal. As co-founder (with actor/director Stephen Rea) of the Field Day Theatre Company, Friel also has played a significant role in confronting the "troubles" that have so affected life in Northern Ireland.
SST presents two of Friel's greatest and most moving plays, Translations and Faith Healer (featuring Stanford Summer Theater guest artists Geoff Hoyle and Andrew Robinson). An all-day community symposium will put Friel's work in its wider Irish context, with lectures, performances, and panels drawing on Stanford faculty and SST artists. Finally, our seven-week film series screens some of the best Irish films, from John Huston's version of James Joyce's The Dead to Pat O'Connor's treatment of Friel's own Dancing at Lughnasa. Join Continuing Studies and Stanford Summer Theater for our 10th-anniversary season, and celebrate the art, struggle, and inspiration that is Brian Friel (and Other Irish Voices). -----------------------------------------------
Friel in Context
Our symposium, Brian Friel (and Other Irish Voices), welcomes the community to engage Friel's work in its wider political and cultural context. The symposium presents a mix of performances, lectures, and panel discussions involving Stanford faculty (Rush Rehm, poet Eavan Boland, playwright Amy Freed), SST company members (Andrew Robinson, Geoff Hoyle, Ed Iskandar, Courtney Walsh Phleger), and distinguished guests (we've invited the great Irish actress Ingrid Craigie). Topics will include the "troubles" in Northern Ireland and Friel's artistic response (the founding of the famous Field Day Theatre in 1980 and its first production, Translations); Friel and Chekhov; Friel's influence on other Irish playwrights and poets (Tom Murphy, Marina Carr, Tom Paulin); and the sensibility that unites Friel with his friend and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. All that, and an Irish luncheon (with Guinness and soda bread), and an afternoon tea break (Irish tea, scones, and clotted cream) on the "green banks" outside Memorial Auditorium.
Saturday, July 19
9:30 am - 4:30 pm
$80 (includes morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon tea)
Event fee is non-refundable.
For more information about the Summer Theater's season, "Brian Friel (And Other Irish Voices)," please visit summertheater.stanford.edu.
Also visit:
* Friel on Stage: Translations
* Friel on Stage: Faith Healer
* Friel and Others on Film
Sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies, Stanford University Drama Department, the School of Humanities & Sciences, and the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts. Summer Theater Festival