Phelim Donlon
Phelim Donlon Playwright’s Bursary and Residency is an initiative of Irish Theatre Institute in association with Tyrone Guthrie Centre. The bursary was created in 2015 in honour of Phelim Donlon, former Drama Officer at the Arts Council and a dedicated member of the first Irish Theatre Institute PLAYOGRAPHYIreland Advisory Panel, in acknowledgement of his valued contribution to Irish theatre.
Recipients of the award receive an ITI writer’s bursary of €1,000 and a two weeks’ fully resourced residency in Annaghmakerrig. Arists are afforded time, physical resources and mentoring necessary to support the writing of a new play through this bursary. An open call is made annually to playwrights resident in Ireland with at least one full length play staged by a recognised professional production company/producer.
Phelim Donlon (1936 – 2014)
Phelim began work at the Arts Council in 1983, and served as Film, Drama and Opera Officer, retiring in 2001. He was also Director of the Auditoria review of the built infrastructure for the performing arts throughout Ireland. In retirement, his commitment remained undiminished, and he served on the boards of many performing arts organisations.
Orlaith McBride, Director of the Arts Council, said: “Phelim’s commitment to the arts in general and drama specifically was absolute. He was a passionate advocate for new and emerging talent, and did as much as anyone in the Arts Council’s history to develop professional theatre in Ireland.”
Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig
The overarching policy principle of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (TGC) is to provide the conditions in which artists can focus exclusively and for extended periods on the creation and development of their work.
Previous recipients of the award are Fiona Doyle (2015/16) and Dylan Coburn Gray (2016/17). The current recipient is Amy Conroy (2017/18).
Amy Conroy
Amy Conroy is an actor, playwright, theatre maker and Artistic Director of HotForTheatre. Her first stage play, I ♥ Alice ♥ I, won the Fishamble Award for New Writing in the 2010 Dublin Fringe Festival and has enjoyed sold out runs nationally and internationally. It was broadcast on RTE Radio One, has been translated and performed in Poland, Italy and Iceland and is published by Oberon Books. Her second show, Eternal Rising of the Sun, won the Best Female Performer Award when it premiered at Dublin Fringe Festival 2011 and subsequently earned her a nomination for Best Actress in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2011. In September 2013, Amy and her company HotForTheatre presented Break, which combined spoken word, music and text. Luck Just Kissed You Hello premiered at the Mick Lally Theatre as part of the Galway International Arts Festival 2015, before a sell-out run in Dublin Theatre Festival later the same year, and was nominated for Best New Play in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2016 and toured nationally. Amy is an ITI Six in the Attic alumni and is currently writer in residence with Rough Magic Theatre Company.
Dylan Coburn Gray
Dylan Coburn Gray is a writer based in Dublin. His work has won praise for its innovative use of language and playful approach to form, blurring the line between poetry and drama. Plays include Boys and Girls (Dublin Fringe 2013, winner of the Fishamble Best New Writing Award, nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust Award); Blackcatfishmusketeer (Dublin Fringe 2016, Edinburgh Fringe 2017); this is a room… (Dublin Theatre Festival 2017). He is a collaborating writer with Malaprop Theatre, winners of the 2015 Spirit of Fringe Award for Love+. With them he has co-written Jericho (Bewleys Cafe Theatre) and Everything Not Saved (Dublin Fringe 2017). He was awarded the 2017 Verity Bargate Award for his play Citysong.
Fiona Doyle
Fiona’s work in theatre includes Coolatully (winner of the 2014 Papatango New Writing Prize) at the Finborough Theatre in London and for Mead Theatre Lab in Washington DC; Deluge (winner of the 2014 Eamon Keane Full-Length Play Award) at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs; The Annihilation of Jessie Leadbeater (ALRA); Abigail (The Bunker Theatre); The Ceasefire Babies (NT Connections 2018); and Ms Y (short) as part of the Young Vic’s Five Plays. Fiona is a recipient of a 2018 Fellowship from the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, a Cill Rialaig Artist’s residency, a Peggy Ramsay Foundation grant, and has been on attachment at the National Theatre Studio. Her most recent play, The Strange Death of John Doe, was a finalist for the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her work is published by Nick Hern Books and Methuen Drama.
