Seeds - A New Writing Initiative

This initiative - launched in 2001 in conjunction with the Dublin Fringe Festival - aimed to seek out, encourage, enable, develop and stage new Irish theatre writing. In the first cycle, over 100 scripts were submitted for consideration, and a painstaking selection process identified six writers for commission.

These writers - Ioanna Anderson, Mark Doherty, Aidan Harney, Oonagh Kearney, Gerald Murphy and Raymond Scannell - received ongoing support from our Literary Manager, were provided with resources for workshops and readings, and each was assigned a mentor. These mentors were all highly experienced directors and included Mike Bradwell (Artistic Director, Bush Theatre, London), Philip Howard (Artistic Director, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), Wilson Milam (freelance director), Conall Morrison (Associate Director, Abbey Theatre), Jim Nolan (freelance writer and director) and Max Stafford Clark (Artistic Director, Out of Joint).

The plays were be presented as works-in-progress at Project in May 2002, followed by a discussion on the development process undertaken with each of the writers.

Since then, Take Me Away by Gerald Murphy was broadcast on national radio; Rough Magic produced TAKE ME AWAY by Gerald Murphy and Words of Advice for Young People by Ioanna Anderson for the Rough Magic in Rep season; Monarch in Hollywood by Aidan Harney was produced in the Dublin Fringe Festival; Beats 'n' Pieces by Raymond Scannell was produced by Cork's Meridian Theatre Company in 2003; Trad by Mark Doherty was produced by the Galway Theatre Festival in 2004 and Rough Magic have commissioned a new play from Oonagh Kearney.