McGoldrick's Thread Takes Top Awards at the Sixth Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival

The musical McGoldrick’s Thread was awarded three honors at the 2013 Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival on September 30. Awards included Best Production and Best Direction, for Kira Simring, together with a Special Jury Prize. TheaterMania's managing editor, Andy Lefkowitz, a member of the festival's blue-ribbon jury, presented the show's choreographers — Joe Barros, Garrett Coleman, and Jason Oremus — with the Special Jury Prize for introducing a unique element of dance to the musical. Other members of the jury included Sarah Rice, Geraldine Hughes, and Leslie (Hoban) Blake.

This year's festival comprised eight works by Irish playwrights, and six of those works were world premieres. Tim Ruddy won the Best Playwright award for The International, in which three strangers recall a time of conflict and peril that changed their lives forever. Other top award winners included Carey Van Driest, Best Actress for The International, and Michael Mellamphy, Best Actor for The Cure. The award for Top Production Design went to the designers of The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle.

The Origin Award, which recognizes special achievement by a festival entrant, was presented to Northern Irish playwright Jimmy Kerr by NY1 personality Patrick Pacheco. Kerr, who participated in his third festival this year, was recognized by the jury as embodying the cross-boundary collaborative spirit of the festival.

Origin's 1st Irish is the only festival of its kind to focus exclusively on the work of Irish playwrights, and it is New York's only all-Irish theater festival. 1st Irish is curated and coordinated by the New York-based Origin Theatre Company, with George C. Heslin as its artistic director.