The Gaiety School of Acting – The National Theatre School of Ireland commissions original work from internationally acclaimed Australian based playwright Lally Katz.

The Gaiety School of Acting – The National Theatre School of Ireland has commissioned a new full length play from Australia’s most exciting and original playwright. Lally Katz, for this year’s seventeen graduating students, entitled Another Twin. The Gaiety School of Acting is unique in that it is the only acting school in the country with a tradition of commissioning plays for Graduating Students. The play will be performed by the students at the Smock Alley Theatre from 25^rd to the 30^th of June.

Following her extraordinary absurdist play When the Hunter Returns for the Gaiety School in 2009. Since then, Lally has emerged as Australia’s most prolific playwright with four main stage productions in Melbourne and Sydney in eighteen months. Lally returns to Dublin with a new story.

Another Twin is the story of a town divided by a river and by very different life styles. On one side of the river the Internet has taken over… not only taken over peoples’ minds and bodies, but also taken over their land. On the other side of the river people are now being taken over by a kind of bug…Which side would you rather be on?

With this new play Lally continues to merge poetry, theatre and sound, telling stories with iconic imagery, humor and beauty. This play will to be performed in the equally new Smock Alley theatre space. It will be directed by Liam Halligan with set and lighting design by Marcus Costello. Roger Gregg will create a live soundscape, and costumes are being designed by Helen Connolly.

Lally Katz is a graduate of the University of Melbourne's School of Studies in Creative Arts in Australia, and studied playwriting at London's Royal Court Theatre.  She is a core member of Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre which has rapidly built a reputation as one of the Australia's most exciting theatre companies. Her play The Black Swan of Trespass won several Green Room and Melbourne Fringe Awards before touring to the New York International Fringe Festival where it won the 2004 Producer's Choice Award. She was appointed a Writer In Residence at Melbourne University in 2011 and recently nominated by InStyle Magazine as one of their 2011 Women Of Style in the arts category.

In Lally’s own words ‘At first the only space the internet took up was time. And the space inside peoples’ minds. But then, like every force in existence, I suppose it got greedy. It wanted more space. So it actually started taking over land.’

Images available on request. Interviews are available on request with writer Lally Katz . Composer Roger Gregg, Designer Marcus Costello and Patrick Sutton, Director of The Gaiety School of Acting are all also available for interview.

For further information or images please contact

Contact Information

Pace Borza-Butterly

Marketing Manager - The Gaiety School of Acting

Essex Street West, Temple Bar, Dublin 8.

Phone +353 (01) 679 9277 / Mobile: 086 3715692

Fax +353 (01) 679 9277

marketing@gaietyschool.com

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Gaiety School of Acting - The National Theatre School of Ireland was founded in 1986 by internationally renowned Theatre Director Joe Dowling in response to the lack of full time actor training in Ireland at the time. The school is now widely regarding as the country’s premier training facility for actors with Patrick Sutton as Director.

Our message is to enhance Creativity and Confidence through the medium of performance. Our notable alumni include Colin Farrell, Olivia Wilde, Aidan Turner, Eva Birthistle and Colin O’Donoghue.

In addition to a Full Time course in Intensive Professional Actor Training, the school provides an extensive programme of part-time courses for adults, children and young people throughout the country that encourage individuals to grow in confidence and develop techniques. We have courses available in Temple Bar, Cork, Navan, Malahide and Bray.  

Please see our website www.gaietyschool.com for more information.

Lally Katz Biography

Lally Katz had three world premiere plays programmed for performance in Australia in 2011; A GOLEM STORY at Malthouse Theatre in June, NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH at Belvoir in July and RETURN TO EARTH at Melbourne Theatre Company in November.   Lally has also been commissioned by Arena Theatre to write a play for children, STARCHASER, which will premiere in the first half of 2012.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH was nominated for four Sydney Theatre Awards in 2011, including Best New Australian Work, Best Mainstage Production, Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Mainstage Production (Robyn Nevin) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Mainstage Production (Kris McQuade).

Lally wrote an episode of the second series of SPIRITED, starring Claudia Karvan, for W Channel and Southern Star. She has also written television for THE ELEPHANT PRINCESS, a children’s series by Jonathan M Shiff Productions.

A recent work, GOODBYE NEW YORK, GOODBYE HEART opened in New York in late 2010. THE APOCALYPSE BEAR TRILOGY played at the Melbourne Theatre Company as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2009. Lally adapted stories from the bible for THE MYSTERIES: GENESIS at Sydney Theatre Company.  WHEN THE HUNTER RETURNS was commissioned and produced by The Gaiety School of Acting in Ireland and had a return season. Her play GOODBYE VAUDEVILLE CHARLIE MUDD premiered at Malthouse Theatre (co-produced by Arena Theatre) and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for drama in 2009.

Lally’s adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN was directed by Ralph Myers at Sydney Theatre Company in 2008 and nominated for a Queensland Premier’s Award for Best Drama Script. In 2007, Lally co-wrote CRIMINOLOGY with Tom Wright, which was produced by Malthouse Theatre and Arena Theatre, and two short plays WAIKIKI PALACE and HIP HIP HOORAY formed a double bill premiering at Sydney Theatre Company that same year.

Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre has produced a series of Lally’s plays: THE BLACK SWAN OF TRESPASS which played at Malthouse, Belvoir and the New York International Fringe Festival where it won the Producer’s Choice Award after winning several Green Room Awards in Melbourne; THE EISTEDDFOD premiered in Melbourne at the Storeroom Theatre and transferred to Malthouse, Belvoir and PS 122 and Richard Foreman’s Ontological Hysteric Theatre in New York City, this production won the 2004 Best Independent Production Green Room Award.

Lally participated in the attachment programme at the Studio at the National Theatre in London in 2009 and a British Council Realise Your Dreams grant for 2010. Lally was a Churchill fellow in 2010 and was appointed a Writer In Residence at Melbourne University in 2011. Recently she has been nominated by InStyle Magazine as one of their 2011 Women Of Style in the arts category. See an example of an interview of Lally Katz on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGlsxdxP4Sk