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Fishamble: The New Play Company and Irish Repertory Theatre Present
Transatlantic Commissions ResidencyTransatlantic Commissions Residency by CN Smith, Felispeaks, Jade Jordan and Kwaku Fortune
Dublin's Fishamble and New York's Irish Repertory Theatre are delighted to present Transatlantic Commissions Residency, a follow-up to last year’s Transatlantic Commissions Programme. The programme supported the creation of four short plays under the mentorship of Obie Award-winning playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Dael Orlandersmith. Transatlantic Commissions Residency, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, reunites Fishamble and Irish Rep with writers CN Smith, FELISPEAKS, Jade Jordan, and Kwaku Fortune as they expand their works into full-length plays, presented as staged readings in New York in June and Dublin in July 2024.
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Fishamble and Irish Rep are proud to foster a supportive creative environment for this cohort, and to promote and celebrate under-represented voices in Irish theatre. The readings in 2023 were supported by Culture Ireland. The Transatlantic Commissions Residency is supported by the Arts Council, through the International Residency Initiatives Scheme.
The Black Wolfe Tone by Kwaku Fortune.
The Black Wolfe Tone is about muddled identity and how trauma can be passed down from generation to generation. It’s about a culture of silence and raging against the machine… about the mind, and how young men deal, or don’t deal, with the darkness. At its heart, it’s about a young boy seeking forgiveness, the inner child wanting only to be loved.
BENT! by FELISPEAKS.
BENT! follows Shayo, a young Black Irish woman, as she navigates self-acceptance. Over the Christmas holidays, Shayo battles with whether to listen to the voice within herself or to listen to the trusted voices of her parents. Influenced by Yoruba mythology and Christian beliefs, Shayo’s journey begs the question: Who will she listen to by the new year? Herself or her family?
89 by Jade Jordan.
89 is a Dublin story inspired by the life of Christine Buckley, an Irish activist and campaigner, who served as the director of the Aislinn support and education group for survivors of Industrial Schools in Ireland. An honest portrayal of industrial abuse, abandonment, identity and seeking answers, 89 is ultimately a story of survival.
Corktown by CN Smith.
A story about Dublin, set outside Dublin; about the present, set in the past. One night, in an all-white neighbourhood in Corktown, Detroit, an Irish immigrant answers a knock at her door. A Black woman on her doorstep insists she is due to move into the spare room upstairs. After a small struggle, she comes inside. Now what?
Directed by Jim Culleton & Nicola Murphy Dubey. Dramaturgy by Gavin Kostick & Nicola Murphy Dubey.
The Transatlantic Commissions Programme was founded in 2022 with the endeavour to address head-on the historical inequalities in representation that have existed in the theatrical canon. Together, Fishamble and Irish Rep commissioned four Black Irish artists and writers of colour to work with Dael Orlandersmith as mentor to create new works that will be workshopped and presented in public readings by Fishamble in Dublin, Ireland and Irish Rep in New York City.
The Black Wolfe Tone by Kwaku Fortune.
The Black Wolfe Tone is about muddled identity and how trauma can be passed down from generation to generation. It’s about a culture of silence and raging against the machine… about the mind, and how young men deal, or don’t deal, with the darkness. At its heart, it’s about a young boy seeking forgiveness, the inner child wanting only to be loved.
BENT! by FELISPEAKS.
BENT! follows Shayo, a young Black Irish woman, as she navigates self-acceptance. Over the Christmas holidays, Shayo battles with whether to listen to the voice within herself or to listen to the trusted voices of her parents. Influenced by Yoruba mythology and Christian beliefs, Shayo’s journey begs the question: Who will she listen to by the new year? Herself or her family?
89 by Jade Jordan.
89 is a Dublin story inspired by the life of Christine Buckley, an Irish activist and campaigner, who served as the director of the Aislinn support and education group for survivors of Industrial Schools in Ireland. An honest portrayal of industrial abuse, abandonment, identity and seeking answers, 89 is ultimately a story of survival.
Corktown by CN Smith.
A story about Dublin, set outside Dublin; about the present, set in the past. One night, in an all-white neighbourhood in Corktown, Detroit, an Irish immigrant answers a knock at her door. A Black woman on her doorstep insists she is due to move into the spare room upstairs. After a small struggle, she comes inside. Now what?
Directed by Jim Culleton & Nicola Murphy Dubey. Dramaturgy by Gavin Kostick & Nicola Murphy Dubey.
The Transatlantic Commissions Programme was founded in 2022 with the endeavour to address head-on the historical inequalities in representation that have existed in the theatrical canon. Together, Fishamble and Irish Rep commissioned four Black Irish artists and writers of colour to work with Dael Orlandersmith as mentor to create new works that will be workshopped and presented in public readings by Fishamble in Dublin, Ireland and Irish Rep in New York City.
Upcoming Performances
About Irish Repertory Theatre
IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE, co-founded by Producing Director Ciarán O'Reilly and Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, is now in its 33rd season after first opening its doors in September 1988 with Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. Irish Rep is currently the only year-round theatre company in New York City devoted to bringing Irish and Irish American works to the stage. Recognized with the Jujamcyn Theatres Award, a special Drama Desk Award for “Excellence in Presenting Distinguished Irish Drama,” an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Lucille Lortel Award for “Outstanding Body of Work,” Irish Rep celebrates the very best in Irish theatre, from the masters to the new generation of Irish and Irish American writers who are transforming the stage. Nearly 50,000 audience members annually attend productions at Irish Rep’s theatre located in the heart of New York’s Off-Broadway community. Once here, they witness Irish Rep’s engaging perspective on the Irish and their unique contributions to the world of drama.
IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE, co-founded by Producing Director Ciarán O'Reilly and Artistic Director Charlotte Moore, is now in its 33rd season after first opening its doors in September 1988 with Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars. Irish Rep is currently the only year-round theatre company in New York City devoted to bringing Irish and Irish American works to the stage. Recognized with the Jujamcyn Theatres Award, a special Drama Desk Award for “Excellence in Presenting Distinguished Irish Drama,” an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Lucille Lortel Award for “Outstanding Body of Work,” Irish Rep celebrates the very best in Irish theatre, from the masters to the new generation of Irish and Irish American writers who are transforming the stage. Nearly 50,000 audience members annually attend productions at Irish Rep’s theatre located in the heart of New York’s Off-Broadway community. Once here, they witness Irish Rep’s engaging perspective on the Irish and their unique contributions to the world of drama.
About Dael Orlandersmith
DAEL ORLANDERSMITH’s plays include Stoop Stories, Black n’ Blue Boys/Broken Men, Horsedreams, Bones, The Blue Album, Yellowman, The Gimmick, Monster, and Forever. Ms.Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Yellowman and the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick. Dael is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim, along with several other awards and honors. Her play, Forever, was commissioned and performed at the Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theatre Fall of 2014, followed by performances at the Long Wharf Theatre Winter 2014/15, New York Theatre Workshop Spring 2015, and ran at Portland Center Stage Winter in 2016. Her play Until the Flood was performed at St Louis Repertory in the fall of 2016.
She is currently working on two commissions for Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Until the Flood was done at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2018 and Milwaukee Rep in 2019. It was done at Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, the Arcola Theatre in London, The Galway Arts Festival at the Druid Theatre and at the Traverse at Edinburgh Festival. The play is scheduled to be performed in Berlin at the Schaubruhner Theatre in April of 2022 and at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC in June 2022. Ms Orlandersmith is working on a commission for Rattlestick Theater called watching the watcher and has two plays opening at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 2022: NEW AGE, to be directed by Jade King Carroll; and Antonio’s Song/I Was Dreaming Of A Son, co-written with Antonio Suarez Edwards and directed by Mark Clement. She is also working on a new work with writer/performer David Cale called You don’t know the lonely one. and is working on a new piece called SPIRITAS in 2020. Ms Orlandersmith received the Doris Duke Award.
DAEL ORLANDERSMITH’s plays include Stoop Stories, Black n’ Blue Boys/Broken Men, Horsedreams, Bones, The Blue Album, Yellowman, The Gimmick, Monster, and Forever. Ms.Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Yellowman and the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick. Dael is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim, along with several other awards and honors. Her play, Forever, was commissioned and performed at the Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theatre Fall of 2014, followed by performances at the Long Wharf Theatre Winter 2014/15, New York Theatre Workshop Spring 2015, and ran at Portland Center Stage Winter in 2016. Her play Until the Flood was performed at St Louis Repertory in the fall of 2016.
She is currently working on two commissions for Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Until the Flood was done at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2018 and Milwaukee Rep in 2019. It was done at Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, the Arcola Theatre in London, The Galway Arts Festival at the Druid Theatre and at the Traverse at Edinburgh Festival. The play is scheduled to be performed in Berlin at the Schaubruhner Theatre in April of 2022 and at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC in June 2022. Ms Orlandersmith is working on a commission for Rattlestick Theater called watching the watcher and has two plays opening at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 2022: NEW AGE, to be directed by Jade King Carroll; and Antonio’s Song/I Was Dreaming Of A Son, co-written with Antonio Suarez Edwards and directed by Mark Clement. She is also working on a new work with writer/performer David Cale called You don’t know the lonely one. and is working on a new piece called SPIRITAS in 2020. Ms Orlandersmith received the Doris Duke Award.
About the writers
Kwaku Fortune
Kwaku will next appear on our screens as Josh Ola alongside Angeline Ball, Peter Coonan and Simone Kirby in Hidden Assets directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan; Redemption directed by John Hayes for ITV; and Burn It All opposite Toni O'Rourke, directed by Jack Hickey. He has most recently been cast as Ray in The Beauty Queen Of Leenane directed by Rachel O'Riordan for the Lyric Hammersmith & Chichester Festival Theatre, and as the voice of “Gael” in the Skydance / Apple+ animated feature Luck. Further screen credits include “Line Of Duty” for the BBC (broadcast earlier this year); “Normal People” directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald for BBC 1, BBC 3 and Hulu; and “Animals” alongside Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, directed by Sophie Hyde. Stage credits include the role of Eli in Asking For It at Birmingham Repertory Theatre; Peat directed by Tim Crouch; and the role of Dara Mood Caitríona McLaughlin’s acclaimed production of Marina Carr's Raftery's Hill directed for the main stage at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre. Kwaku trained at the Lír Academy, Dublin (in association with RADA). He is highly skilled in football & motocross, and has some boxing experience.
Kwaku will next appear on our screens as Josh Ola alongside Angeline Ball, Peter Coonan and Simone Kirby in Hidden Assets directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan; Redemption directed by John Hayes for ITV; and Burn It All opposite Toni O'Rourke, directed by Jack Hickey. He has most recently been cast as Ray in The Beauty Queen Of Leenane directed by Rachel O'Riordan for the Lyric Hammersmith & Chichester Festival Theatre, and as the voice of “Gael” in the Skydance / Apple+ animated feature Luck. Further screen credits include “Line Of Duty” for the BBC (broadcast earlier this year); “Normal People” directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald for BBC 1, BBC 3 and Hulu; and “Animals” alongside Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, directed by Sophie Hyde. Stage credits include the role of Eli in Asking For It at Birmingham Repertory Theatre; Peat directed by Tim Crouch; and the role of Dara Mood Caitríona McLaughlin’s acclaimed production of Marina Carr's Raftery's Hill directed for the main stage at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre. Kwaku trained at the Lír Academy, Dublin (in association with RADA). He is highly skilled in football & motocross, and has some boxing experience.
Jade Jordan
Jade is a mixed race Irish actor and author of Nanny, Ma & Me. She studied screen acting at Dublin’s Bow Street Academy. Jade’s television credits include upcoming roles in ITV drama “No Return,” ITV/Virgin Media drama “Redemption,” Channel 5 drama “Witness No 3,” as well as guest roles on “Kin” (RTE1), Channel 4’s “The Virtues” and BBC’s “Doctors.” DIFF this year will see her in a number of productions, Kate Dolan’s feature film You are not my Mother, Shaun Dunne’s film documentary How to tell a Secret & as a writer and producer her own short film The Colour Between. Her theatrical appearances include Citysong & Dear Ireland for the Abbey Theatre, Coole Park Poetry Series & Four Days in July for Druid Theatre Company.
Jade is a mixed race Irish actor and author of Nanny, Ma & Me. She studied screen acting at Dublin’s Bow Street Academy. Jade’s television credits include upcoming roles in ITV drama “No Return,” ITV/Virgin Media drama “Redemption,” Channel 5 drama “Witness No 3,” as well as guest roles on “Kin” (RTE1), Channel 4’s “The Virtues” and BBC’s “Doctors.” DIFF this year will see her in a number of productions, Kate Dolan’s feature film You are not my Mother, Shaun Dunne’s film documentary How to tell a Secret & as a writer and producer her own short film The Colour Between. Her theatrical appearances include Citysong & Dear Ireland for the Abbey Theatre, Coole Park Poetry Series & Four Days in July for Druid Theatre Company.
FELISPEAKS
FELISPEAKS (Felicia Olusanya) is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from Co. Longford; currently based in Dublin City. FELISPEAKS has been nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival Sep. 2018. As well as being a Member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors appointed June 2020, Felicia is a member of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS’ poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the English Ordinary Level Leaving Cert Curriculum for examination year 2023. Also in 2020, FELISPEAKS was commissioned a new piece for RTÉ’s The Big Picture on the theme of ‘The New Normal’ - this poem, entitled Still captured the minds of the nation and has been performed to audiences all over the country. In 2021, FELISPEAKS continued to climb, with a Visual Carlow Residency and Arts Council Bursary supporting her work. She wrote and performed Do You Miss It?, commissioned by Guinness for their national advertising campaign, ‘The Best of the Pub’. She also wrote More Than Ever for Tullamore Dew X District Magazine advertising collaboration, performed by Adam Mohammed. FELISPEAKS has also recently performed at ‘Dignity, A Celebration of Bob Dylan at 80’ at the US Ambassador’s Residence, and was nominated for JCI Ireland’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the Year in the category of Cultural Achievement. FELISPEAKS ends 2021 as an Irish Tatler Woman of the Year with a win in the Catalyst Category - which recognises a woman who has affected change in Irish society in a pivotal way!
FELISPEAKS (Felicia Olusanya) is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from Co. Longford; currently based in Dublin City. FELISPEAKS has been nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival Sep. 2018. As well as being a Member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors appointed June 2020, Felicia is a member of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS’ poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the English Ordinary Level Leaving Cert Curriculum for examination year 2023. Also in 2020, FELISPEAKS was commissioned a new piece for RTÉ’s The Big Picture on the theme of ‘The New Normal’ - this poem, entitled Still captured the minds of the nation and has been performed to audiences all over the country. In 2021, FELISPEAKS continued to climb, with a Visual Carlow Residency and Arts Council Bursary supporting her work. She wrote and performed Do You Miss It?, commissioned by Guinness for their national advertising campaign, ‘The Best of the Pub’. She also wrote More Than Ever for Tullamore Dew X District Magazine advertising collaboration, performed by Adam Mohammed. FELISPEAKS has also recently performed at ‘Dignity, A Celebration of Bob Dylan at 80’ at the US Ambassador’s Residence, and was nominated for JCI Ireland’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the Year in the category of Cultural Achievement. FELISPEAKS ends 2021 as an Irish Tatler Woman of the Year with a win in the Catalyst Category - which recognises a woman who has affected change in Irish society in a pivotal way!
CN Smith
CN SMITH is a playwright and director from County Louth. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Lir Academy and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he directed Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2019), and Eden (ISDA, 2019). Writing work includes the radio play Ode to a Postcode (Dublin Fringe, 2019), and At the Very Beginning (Civic Theatre, 2020/21), both written for young audiences. He was an inaugural member of the Abbey Theatre’s Young Curators programme in 2018/2019, and was a recipient of The Lir Academy’s Patricia Leggett Playwriting Scholarship for 2020. He also participated in Smock Alley’s Baptiste Programme, and Dublin Fringe’s WEFT Studio Group, both in 2021, where he developed his plays A Trip to the Beach and Before You Head Off.
CN SMITH is a playwright and director from County Louth. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Lir Academy and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he directed Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (Samuel Beckett Theatre, 2019), and Eden (ISDA, 2019). Writing work includes the radio play Ode to a Postcode (Dublin Fringe, 2019), and At the Very Beginning (Civic Theatre, 2020/21), both written for young audiences. He was an inaugural member of the Abbey Theatre’s Young Curators programme in 2018/2019, and was a recipient of The Lir Academy’s Patricia Leggett Playwriting Scholarship for 2020. He also participated in Smock Alley’s Baptiste Programme, and Dublin Fringe’s WEFT Studio Group, both in 2021, where he developed his plays A Trip to the Beach and Before You Head Off.
