The Giant's Causeways

New Theater Corps Review

2009-03-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

New Theater Corps Review

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
FRIGID Theater Festival: The Giant’s Causeways
Reviewed by Amanda Halkiotis

A potato gun, a bottle of Jameson, and an opening-scene rendition of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” would in lesser hands be a formula for disaster on any stage, inviting ethnocentric overkill and exaggerated nostalgia for one’s homeland. Lucky for Nora Sun McLaughlin (and her audience), her new play The Giant’s Causeways is excellently balanced. Bringing together politics, humor, history and brotherhood, McLaughlin wraps these themes tightly around each other to create an earnest and straightforward framework for her characters. This works exceptionally well considering the turbulent backdrop of Belfast circa 1969-1971. Good for a laugh, working-class, and Catholic, Conall (Thomas Hodgskin) is determined “no matter what happens” not to let current events divide him and his best friend who just happens to be Protestant, the practical, buttoned-up Seamus (James Fauvell). As blood gets shed and family members murdered, this innocent pact becomes harder to uphold than either expected. Things get heated and personal once the British Army starts entering the city limits, and suddenly all bets are off. These two boys, who once only ever argued over their conflicting taste in famous actresses, now begin attacking each other on every standpoint. Conall’s suggestion to go away on holiday together sparks suspicion of anarchist political affiliations from Seamus, who chides Conall that “the IRA stands for I Ran Away.” Meanwhile Seamus, with a widowed mother and several younger sisters on his hands, feels forced to join the Loyalist army, the United Volunteer Force, against Conall’s concerned pleading. Inspired by an anecdote she once heard her father tell about a return trip home he took during “the Troubles”, McLaughlin pulls her weight as a true Irish storyteller whose narrative style of vivid imagery and upbeat humor makes this play feel more like fluid prose at times. A jarring history lesson as much as an account of the tender loss of innocence, Giant’s Causeways is the marking of great theater: it invites you into a world you may not have experienced otherwise, and changes the way you once may have viewed it.
Posted by Amanda Halkiotis at 3/11/2009 12:03:00 AM

NY Theatre Review

2009-03-05T17:50:00.002-05:00

NY Theatre Review

The Giant's Causeways

reviewed by Ivanna Cullinan

Mar 1, 2009

Set in a Belfast torn by sectarian violence, The Giant's Causeways is a fine production of a promising young writer's work. Nora Sun McLaughlin tells the story of a friendship destroyed by Catholic and Protestant aggression with energy, integrity, and a compelling humanity. Conall and Seamus are friends from boyhood, and the bonds of that friendship are severely tested by the rising violence in Belfast during the late 1960s. They begin as lads out on a lark that conveys the core of each one's character immediately. As events move faster than they can finish growing up, and bombs are thrown, family and friends die; both are forced to respond to their world in their own way.

This tightly written two-hander is clearly staged by Jill Harrison and acted with deep commitment by James Fauvell (who finds the humanity in what could be a thankless, slightly limited and cold part) and Thomas Hodgskin (whose engaging charm makes it all the harder to question his choices). The scenes and quotations are woven together with great specificity and skill, making what is overall a concise and effective piece. Although the physical transitions could be both simpler and a bit tighter, this group has the well-delivered talent to keep the audience engaged throughout and make me forgive the leprechaun. Yes, there is an unseen leprechaun in a significant early portion of the story and he contributes nothing at all to the overall piece. It is the one supernatural element in an otherwise straightforward narrative, but the production is interesting enough that it almost does not matter.

The Giant's Causeways is a production of great merit and well worth seeing.

Written/created by: Nora S. McLaughlin
Directed by Jill Harrison

Audience Choice Award

2009-02-25T17:00:00.003-05:00

Don't forget to fill out an Audience Choice Award form after you see a show, and to vote for your favorite local shows for the Innovative Theater Awards.

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD

FRIGID New York 2009 Audience Choice

By filling out this form, you are casting your vote for the FRIGID New York 2009 Audience Choice Awards. Feel free to rate every show you've seen in this year's festival; winner will be determined by highest average rating. Your show reviews may be posted to our website, so be thoughtful! Questions NOT marked with an asterix are optional and will help us to learn more about our audience in preparing for next year's festival.

After seeing the show - help continue to show your support by clicking on the link above and casting your vote for The Giant's Causeways.

Also, please help support the festival by checking out the other 29 participants in FRIGID New York 2009.

Here is what people are saying so far. Thank you for everyone that voted!

Audience Choice Awards * The Giant's Causeways
Star Rating * audience Comment * Audience Member
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5 * An excellent work, production and performance. * Chris DeHoust
5 * extraordinary!!!!!!! * lynne cresitello
5 * Well performed with limited resources * Priya
5 * Very good * Jeremy
5 * it was pertty awesome! * Madelaine Sandoval
5 * EXCELLENT * ELLIN RIND
5 * WONDERFUL * JAMES F FAUVELL
4 * Well written. * Mary Zehnter
5 * excellent * Michael Sun

All Five Shows Sold out

2009-02-25T16:55:00.006-05:00

Thank you for everyone's very generous and continued support. The Giant's Causeways has sold out all five performances.

Please be on time to the performance, space is limited, seating is general admission - first come, first serve, and there will be no late seating, and most importantly, enjoy the show!

We all at The Giant's Causeways thank you and look forward to seeing you at the performances. Join us after at our various locally sponsored pubs and restaurants.

Sunday March 8 - SOLD OUT

2009-02-25T07:47:00.001-05:00

Thank you so much to everyone coming on Sunday, March 8.
I am happy to announce that we are now sold out of that performance.

Wednesday March 4 - Sold Out

2009-02-24T19:06:00.003-05:00

Thank you to everyone coming Wednesday night.
I am happy to announce that we are sold out of Wednesday night's show.

Radio Irish

2009-02-24T09:39:00.001-05:00

Thank you to Radio Irish for broadcasting this event.

About 5 minutes in....

Friday February 27 - Sold Out

2009-02-23T23:08:00.004-05:00

I'm happy to announce that Opening Night is sold out.

Thank you to everyone that is coming and supporting the Opening Night show.

Seating is very limited - purchase tickets HERE

Saturday March 1 - Sold Out

2009-02-18T09:12:00.004-05:00

Great news. Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 8:30pm is now sold out. Thank you to everyone that is coming.

Purchase tickets online HERE

A note from the generous hard working people at the festival -

February 25 - March 8, 2009

FRIGID New York 2009 is almost upon us and things are looking great this year! We have already surpassed last year's ticket pre-sales by a signfigant margin. In a year gripped by recession, FRIGID New York 2009 is well on its way to breaking its own box office records. As of this morning The Giant's Causeways has already sold out one of their performances, congratulations. We are all very excited for opening night, and can't wait to see you all there!

Sunday, March 1st is our official opening weekend party, FREE BEER, FREE food, and a whole lot of really cool theatre artists. DJ Joey Nova returns to the Kraine - It all starts at 10pm! You can only get into the party if you have a fesitval pass, but have no fear, our $30 THREE SHOW PASS (THE BLT) gets you in to 3 FRIGID shows in addition to the fiesta! That is WAY less than the price of just one ticket to a Broadway show, even at the TDF booth.

Do not miss FRIGID this year! Bring friends, bring neighbors, bring strangers off the street and enjoy the shows.

Ticket Purchasing

2009-01-22T02:03:00.011-05:00

General Admission: $12.00 - why $12.00? Because for the same price as a movie theatre ticket, you can come out and see live theatre.

Seating is limited. Purchase tickets early.

Purchase your ticket online here:

Or by calling: (212) 868-4444

Meet the Actors

2009-01-12T00:09:00.004-05:00

James Fauvell: (Seamus) made his professional acting debut in the world premiere of Tom Fontana's The Day Jack London Got Pinched and has since performed at numerous Off and Off-Off Broadway theatres. Most recently he starred in Alcohol, a one-man show written by Kyle Bradstreet which premiered at The Players Theater Loft. He is currently filming his first feature film, with a lead role in Nicholas of Myra, to be released this December.

Thomas Hodgskin: (Conall) is very excited to be working on The Giant's Causeways. He recently completed a National Tour for FoodPlay Productions and is thrilled to be in NY. He has a Bachelors degree from DeSales University in Theater Arts and has played such roles as Venticello #2 in Amadeus, Banjo in the Man Who Came to Dinner, and Oscar Hubbard in The Little Foxes. He sends his thanks to Jill, Mom and Dad, and Ashley. GBA

Press Release

2008-12-30T17:57:00.006-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan Dunlap / smelinde@gmail.com
FRIGID Press Contact: Emily Owens PR / Emily@emilyowenspr.com / 972-743-3746

FRIGID NEW YORK
Presents
The Giant’s Causeways
written by Nora Sun McLaughlin
directed by Jill Harrison
featuring James Fauvell and Thomas Hodgskin

Nora Sun McLaughlin’s new play, The Giant’s Causeways, asks the question, can the friendship between two boys, one Catholic, the other Protestant, stand up to the political and religious battles surrounding them in Northern Ireland in the 60's and 70's? Loosely based on a story told by her father who grew up in Belfast, on a return trip to Belfast during the Troubles, McLaughlin tells her tale from a larger, empathetic perspective that no one side was right, weaving a fierce drama about rage, pain and death along with some Irish singing, whiskey drinking, and the moral choices we make every day.

James Fauvell (Tom Fontana’s The Day Jack London Got Pinched, and the upcoming film, Nicholas of Myra) and Thomas Hodgskin (National Tour for FoodPlay Productions, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival) bring this story to life. Directed by Jill Harrison, (Stefanie Zadravec’s Leaving, Craig Lucas’ Reckless and Harry Kondoleon’s Play Yourself at Theatre Outlet, Assistant to the Playwright, Craig Lucas’ Prayer for My Enemy at Playwrights Horizons), The Giant’s Causeway gives voice to an emerging new playwright from New Jersey with a powerful story of her own to tell.

Friday, February 27, 2009 @10:30:00 PM
Sunday, March 01, 2009 @ 8:30:00 PM
Wednesday, March 04, 2009 @ 7:30:00 PM
Saturday, March 07, 2009 @ 8:30:00 PM
Sunday, March 08, 2009@ 2:30:00 PM

The Red Room Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, New York, New York 10003

Ticket Price: $12.00
Purchase tickets at: Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info

http://thegiantscauseways.blogspot.com/

Press/Marketing/Publicity

2008-12-30T17:34:00.031-05:00

Featured on NYC Onstage
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Featured Upcoming Event on New Jersey Life Magazine
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New Jersey Chapter of the Irish American Cultural Institute
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TheaterOnline
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OffOffBway.com
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Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab posts Alum Director's current projects on their site.
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Theatermania
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New York Celtic Music Meetup Group
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See the online interview with NYTheatre.com HERE
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The Record Online Edition - NorthJersey.com
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The Montclair Times ONLINE
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MSN City Guides
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Tom Schopper Photography
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FRIGID New York
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City-Data Forum
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NBC New York
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Verona-Cedar Grove Times
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Thank you to the Montclair Times for posting an article in the February 26, 2009 edition.

Meet the Creative Team

2008-12-16T11:53:00.020-05:00

Nora Sun McLaughlin (playwright), a native of New Jersey, and student of Ken Urban and Stefanie Zadravec, makes her production debut at the FRIGID New York 2009 Festival. She has worked for the Chester Theatre Group, DUMBO Theater eXchange in the NYC International Fringe Festival 2006, 4th Wall Musical Theatre Group, and for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The Giant’s Causeways has been a long journey into her family’s history and the political culture of Northern Ireland. Thank you to all my family and friends for your support.

Jill Harrison (Director) has been involved in the arts for over seventeen years, working as a director, performer, choreographer, and teaching artist. Select credits include: Stefanie Zadravec’s Leaving (The Queens Players), OFF Stage (Peculiar Works Project), Jump, Breathe, and The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Harry Kondoleon's Play Yourself and Craig Lucas' Reckless (Theatre Outlet), Maria Micheles’ The Actress and Flowers For Me (Brooklyn Playwrights/Theatre for the New City). Assistant work: Craig Lucas’ Prayer for My Enemy at Playwrights Horizons, NYTW, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NYMF, NAMT and FHB Productions. Upcoming: The Survivor Theatre Project (Heiress Productions/Simpatico Theatre Project). Member of Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab. Love to Tom S. and family.

Emily Chang (Stage Manager)

Tom Snyder (Production/Technical Director) works as a freelance theatrical technician for Off-Broadway and regional theatres. Select Credits include: Three Changes, Prayer for My Enemy, and The Savannah Disputation (Head Stage Carpenter/Playwrights Horizons), Becky Shaw, Eurydice (Stage Carpenter/Second Stage), Romantic Poetry, Blackbird (Stage Carpenter/Manhattan Theatre Club), Dangerous Liaisons and La Fanciulla del West (Technical Director/Dicapo Opera), Play Yourself (Technical Director/Theatre Outlet). Love to Jill and Family.

Genevieve Kolve (Lighting Designer)

Susan Dunlap (Press Manager) has provided marketing work for BRICstudio, the Weasel Festival, DUMBO Theater eXchange, and currently works for a nonprofit Association as Marketing Coordinator.

Chis Tedeschi (Marketing Manager)is an actor, writer, and marketing manager at an entertainment company. He's a recent graduate of the William Esper Studio, under the tutelage of Terry Knickerbocker. He recently worked with Lizz Winstead (Co-creator of The Daily Show) on a spoof for her new morning show Wake Up World. He is quite elated to be able to assist in the marketing of this wonderful production.

Russell Cowans IV (Sound Technician)

Dermot Woods (Dialect Coach) is a native of County Leitrim, Ireland and has lived in New York for the past 9 years. He has appeared in many locally produced plays in The Corn Mill Theatre in Leitrim as well as a broadcast production of Oliver Twist. Most recently he starred in an Irish comedy "Blinded By The Light" written by Dermot Bolger at the New York Irish Center. Alongside performing, Dermot is an aspiring playwright and published poet. His play "The Great Leitrim Diamond Heist" will go into production in June of 2009.

Jennifer Wilcox (Freelance Graphic Designer) is currently studying at Seton Hall University with a focus in Accounting and Graphic Design.

Chris DeHoust (Freelance Graphic Designer)

Tom Schopper (Photographer)

Links to the festival

2008-12-14T21:16:00.007-05:00

To visit The Giant's Causeways website provided for by the NYC Frigid Festival, please click HERE.

A list of all shows can be found HERE, where people from all over the world are participating in this season's festival - all great artists coming together.

More about the NYC Frigid Festival - that's giving me my first opportunity to bring my words to the stage - can be found HERE. Their mission, how long they've been around, past festival participants, the Companies that founded Frigid.

Listed on THEATERMANIA
Synopsis
Riding the fringe of winter, the hit celebration of independent theater runs February 25-March 8th, 2009, boasting over 150 performances and 30 shows over 12 days in 3 theater's, FRIGID New York will kick off the annual North American Fringe Circuit with a bang!

The FRIGID New York Festival was founded by Horse Trade and EXIT Theatre in 2007. Since founding The San Francisco Fringe Festival - the 2nd oldest fringe in the United States - nearly 17 years ago, EXIT has learned a thing or two about festival running. They introduced Horse Trade to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) in mid-2006. Besides feedback from dozens of thrilled CAFF participants and artists, Horse Trade was drawn to its main principle: "...to provide all artists, emerging and established, with the opportunity to produce their play no matter the content, form or style and to make the event as affordable and accessible as possible for the members of the community," Horse Trade is proud to sign on to the tradition and chill out the New York independent theater scene's ideas of what a theatre festival can be. In true support of theatre on the fringe of the mainstream, the artists take home 100% of their box office, and the festival producers do not receive royalties from future performances. The festival's producers are proud to support self-producing artists' growth and future success. New York City is an indisputable hotbed of groundbreaking talent and we're proud to once again invite artists to take advantage of this opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination.

Performance Dates - Update #1

2008-12-10T18:47:00.003-05:00

The performance schedule is finally here:

Friday, February 27, 2009
10:30:00 PM

Sunday, March 01, 2009
8:30:00 PM

Wednesday, March 04, 2009
7:30:00 PM

Saturday, March 07, 2009
8:30:00 PM

Sunday, March 08, 2009
2:30:00 PM

FRIGID New York Festival - Performance Dates

2008-12-10T00:27:00.005-05:00

3 theaters, 12 Days, 30 shows, over 150 performances.

The FRIGID New York Festival is slated to run from Wednesday, February 25 through Sunday, March 8, 2009.

Specific performance dates and times for The Giant's Causeways will be updated shortly...

Location - Red Room

2008-12-03T21:56:00.002-05:00

The Giant's Causeways will be performed at The Red Room Theatre, located at 85 East 4th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, housed in the same building as the KGB Bar.

The theatre is home to Horse Trade Theater Group.

http://www.horsetrade.info/InfoRedRoom.html

Located on the third floor, The Red Room is an intimate black-box like space. With 32 stackable chrome and padded seats on fixed risers and a flexible stage depth, The Red Room is ideal for especially innovative artists.

The space boasts five stage entrances that are all accessible to the dressing room directly, including double doors that open to 7’x 8’ out of the crossover, and a “secret door” behind a panel in the left wall.

The stage is technically 14’x14’, but with an extra 6 feet in front of the proscenium, the stage can easily be extended to 20’ long.

The lighting system includes a carefully designed reparatory plot which allows a great variety of looks, areas and colors. Six Re-Focusable and Re-Gellable instruments add to its versatility.

This space is equipped with a sound package that includes a mixing board with a microphone jack, a dual CD Deck, digital hookup, and 4 speaker stereo sound.

Additional amenities include central air conditioning, Set and Prop storage, and projector and screen rental. The KGB Bar is on premises; drinks are permitted in the theater.

NYC Frigid Festival - Update #1

2008-12-03T21:55:00.000-05:00

One of the first fifteen applicants to be accepted into the 2009 NYC Frigid Festival, The Giant's Causeways will be making its first New York City staged appearance during the months of February and March.

A play loosely based on a story my father told me, growing up in a war-torn Belfast, during an era known as The Troubles, and having experienced internment and interrogation. The play began as a monologue, morphed itself into a short story and has settled into its current one-act form.

The play questions: can a friendship between a Catholic and a Protestant withstand what is going on politically around them?

Information on the festival can be found at: http://www.frigidnewyork.info/

The Giant's Causeways Nora S. McLaughlin Montclair NJ USA
A story about two boys growing up in Belfast, Ireland between 1969 and 1971 amidst the political struggles of that time and how their friendship is affected. $12.00

Photographs

2008-12-01T11:05:00.004-05:00

FRIGID Snap Shot Event - Thursday January 29, 2009, UNDER St. Marks
Photographs curtesy of Tom Schopper Photography. These are photographs from the opening scene of the play.

FRIGID Snap Shot Event

The Giant's Causeway - what does it look like?
Photographs I took while visiting the Causeway in October, 2008.

Ireland Coast

NYC Frigid Festival - Mission of the Festival

2008-12-01T01:54:00.001-05:00

The mission - “…to provide all artists, emerging and established, with the opportunity to produce their play no matter the content, form or style and to make the event as affordable and accessible as possible for the members of the community...”