'There is a tough and necessary beauty in this writing, in these finely-detailed portraits of funny, infuriating, heroic people, in these rough and harrowing tales. ... Dael Orlandersmith hears the human need for dignity and justice, for love, expressed in myriad voices; she is critic, witness and poet.'
Tony Kushner on the work of Dael Orlandersmith (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2002, and Obie Award Winner, 1995) A public reading of RAW BOYS, a new play by American writer Dael Orlandersmith will take place next Saturday 19th November at Druid Theatre, Chapel Lane, Galway at 12 noon as part of Druid's New Writing programme. The reading will feature actors Nick Lee, Sean Mc Ginley, Catherine Walsh, Rory Keenan and Ruth Lehane. This is a rare opportunity for Galway audiences to see a work in progress from an award-winning American playwright. The reading starts at 12 noon, admission is free and tickets are available in advance from Druid 091 568660. RAW BOYS follows two generations of an Irish diaspora family, the parents escaping from sectarian Belfast to the social trap of East London estates; the sons, the eponymous raw boys, escaping to New York and to the patterns of abuse and self-abuse they thought they had escaped. Dael Orlandersmith won an OBIE Award for BEAUTY'S DAUGHTER, which she wrote and starred in at American Place Theatre. She toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry) throughout the US, Europe and Australia. Her play, MONSTER, premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in November 1996. Dael attended Sundance Theatre Festival Lab for four summers developing new plays. THE GIMMICK, commissioned by the McCarter Theatre, premiered on their Second Stage on Stage and went on to great acclaim at the Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. YELLOWMAN was commissioned by and premiered at the McCarter in a co-production with the Wilma and Long Wharf Theatres. Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service published YELLOWMAN and a collection of earlier work. She was a Pulitzer Prize Award finalist and Drama Desk Award Nominee as an actress in and for YELLOWMAN which premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2002. She was a Susan Smith Blackburn Award Finalist with THE GIMMICK in '99 and won for YELLOWMAN. She is the recipient of a NYFA Grant,The Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Guggenheim and The 2005 Pen/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. This new play, RAW BOYS, was commissioned by The Wilma Theatre and premiered there this past March. | 
