There are many Kerry playwrights and writers whose work has been completely forgotten, a minority of which are women. That long list includes the likes of: Máirín Cregan, from Killorglin; Pauline Maguire, Caherciveen; Bridget Boland, London and Kerry and Lady Edith Gordon, of Ard na Sidhe, Caragh Lake.
Kerry’s Women Playwrights: A Forgotten Literary Legacy will be presented in lecture form at Killarney Library on Thursday, April 16th 2015 at 6.45pm by author and theatre historian, Dr. Fiona Brennan in association with Kerry Women Writers’ Network.
This lecture on Kerry’s women playwrights is part of her research on the county’s dramatic and theatrical heritage. Her lecture will concentrate on these four women who enjoyed both national and international success: for example, Maguire’s work was staged by the Abbey Theatre while Bridget Boland, playwright and screenwriter had her work staged in the UK and Dublin as well as being adapted for screen.
As well as looking at the careers of these four women playwrights, Fiona will be looking at the relevance of their work today and why it deserves a place in Kerry’s literary history.
Fiona, a native of Killorglin, completed a PhD in Drama and Theatre Studies in 2011 and has lectured on many topics including Kerry’s amateur dramatic movement and the Abbey Playwright, George Fitzmaurice.
Her lecture: Chasing the Dream: Killarney and the Kerry Drama Festival was part of the OPW Series of Lectures in 2013.
She is author of George Fitzmaurice “Wild in His Own Way”: Biography of an Abbey Playwright (Carysfort Press, 2005).
Her most recent awards include the Stephen Joseph Award (UK Society for Theatre Research) for her work on private theatricals in Kerry’s Great Houses and an award by Killarney Arts for research on Killarney’s amateur drama movement during the 1940s.
Theatre-goers in this area will know Dr. Brennan from her long association with the Scartaglin based, Sliabh Luachra Drama Group.
The Kerry Women Writers’ Network was founded in 2014 to help promote the work of contemporary women writers and to reclaim the work of forgotten women writers of the past.
