For immediate release
2016 the year of our Heroes – Thirteenth International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival Launches
The programme of the world’s largest Gay Theatre Festival was launched today by Minister of State for New Communities, Culture & Equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, celebrating a century of LGBT heroes.
“We are delighted to once again host the world’s biggest and most diverse LGBT Theatre Festival from May Bank Holiday for two weeks in this commemorative year. 2016 not only allows us commemorate the contribution of gay people to the freedom of Ireland as a republic, but the many people who led the way to a more equal world for LGBT people. This is our thirteenth year staging new and diverse theatre, welcoming artists and audiences regardless of their sexual identity. Everyone is welcome in this unique festival of theatre” said Brian Merriman, who founded the event in 2004, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Wilde, with the aim to create new opportunities for visibility and affirmation of emerging LGBT artists and theatrical works.
“I am delighted to be here at today’s launch. The festival is crucial to providing a space for LGBT voices in the arts,” said Minister Ó Ríordáin, “This of course is a very special year for our country and as we reflect on the last 100 years and all of the positive things that we have achieved. We need only cast our eyes back to last May, to when we became the first country in the world to vote Yes to marriage equality, to see how far we have come as a nation.”
For two weeks the Festival will offer a unique opportunity to see LGBT culture on city centre stages (10 performances each night), presented by theatre companies from Ireland, the UK, USA, Canada, Iran, Russia, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, & Greece. From a wordless contemporary interpretation of the mythical story of Apollo & Hyacinth, to a satire of last year’s Marriage Equality Referendum, this varied programme of music, dramas, comedy and dance is a celebration of diversity and identity.
This year, the festival is especially excited to feature a host of 1916-themed productions in the form of full length plays, including “Eirebrushed,” written and directed by Festival Director Brian Merriman, in which the hidden lesbian and gay heroes of 1916 return today to discuss their place in modern Ireland. There is also a collection of Irish historical shorts and a free academic seminar detailing the forgotten role LGBT people and women played in 1916.
Also featured this year is the story of Alan Turing whose computer cracked the Nazi codes in World War II, and Ireland from the times of Oscar Wilde to the modern heroes that passed the referendum for equal marriage. Helen of Troy, the Greek banking crisis and even “the devil” Julie Andrews, make an appearance in a programme that welcomes, for the first time artists from regimes who endanger their lives as LGBT people in Russia and Iran.
Last week, the festival also received an endorsement from New York City Councillor Daniel Dromm, for the positive impact their work has had on LGBT people of Irish decent. “It is a great cause for celebration that Dublin is the recognised worldwide centre for the celebration of the LGBT identity through theatre as an art form.” said Brian Merriman.
They are all a part of the thirteenth annual International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Are You?
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For further information please contact:
Brian Merriman, Founder/Artistic Director
pr@gaytheatre.ie
