Cafe Buzz
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Welcome to the Cafe Buzz! We started the "Buzz" section here at the Celtic Café as a means of sharing some of the news and information posted to our associated mail lists, which are devoted mostly (but not exclusively) to Irish dance and Celtic music. For more detailed information, and to join in the discussion about "anything Celtic," please sign up for our main list, large and very international: Celtic Cafe Yahoo Group Got any "newsy tidbits"? E-mail us via the Contact Form. |
Wanted urgently for forthcoming 6-week UK theatre tour, Male Dancer with Irish and Show experience.
Tour Dates - Oct. l through Nov. 9 plus rehearsal period, Sept. 21 - 30. E-mail CV's please to jmapo80@aol.com or tel 01275 842800 and ask for Diana or John if you require any further information.
Take a look at the show, THE ESSENCE OF IRELAND on www.theshowproviders.com.
Click on the image for a direct link.
We at the Celtic Cafe are thrilled that Solas is releasing their latest album on Aug. 26, For Love and Laughter. This brilliant work features not only new vocalist Mairead Phelan, but collaborators The Duhks and Natalie Haas. Thanks to the good folks at Compass Records, we have a treat for the Celtic Cafe community... an MP3 of one of the new tracks, “Merry Go Round". Click on the CD cover image to read the press release and get a taste of the sounds of Solas!
Michael Patrick Gallagher and Carol Leavy-Joyce will be joined by guest tutors Dearbhla Lennon and Melissa Convrey for the 2nd Annual Spraoi Irish Dance Camp in Dublin! Thanks to shows like Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, and many other terrific Irish Dance companies, fans of Irish dance from all over the world are now availing themselves of the opportunities to attend workshops like these. There they can learn steps from the amazing dancers who sparked their interest in the first place!
Michael Pat plans to hold dance camps in various cities across the USA later on in the year, so be sure to check out the official site at IrishDanceWorks.com for details on those. We hope he comes to a city near us!
Moya Brennan, one of the Celtic Cafe's all-time favorite Irish singers, has provided lead vocals on 'Green to Gold' -- the official song of the 2008 Irish Olympic team.
Opening with a reflective but determined variation of the athlete's Olympic oath, performed to the traditional air of 'She Moves through the Fair', the song breaks into a hard rock track that endeavours to capture the energy of the world's biggest sporting event from an athlete's perspective.
”The crowd is calling, challenge has begun
History falling, on shoulders of the young
The field of combat, holding out the prize
In sight of glory, captured through the eyes…
Of the heroes, watching as their destinies unfold
To bring the Green to Gold”
Available at records shops and via download (in Ireland) from the 1st of August, all profits from 'Green to Gold' will be used to support the development of Irish youth sports. Learn more by clicking on the image to read the press release.
Have you heard of Garry Hynes? Anyone who loves Irish Theatre should know her name well! Director and co-founder of Druid Theatre, she brought DruidSynge, a cycle of six Synge's plays, produced by Druid, at Lincoln Center Theatre in summer 2006, and recently directed Juno (her first musical!) for Encores! (see the review on CelticCafe).
Missed them? She'll be back! Check here for more details on her direction of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan at Atlantic Theatre Company in December, and a Druid Theatre tour of The Playboy of the Western World and Shadow of the Glen in the autumn.
Here's Ms. Hynes on what she loves about directing, Irish playwriting, and the American-Irish audience.
Good News: Juno is the Great Irish Musical we've all been waiting for!
Bad News: The wait continues!
Ever since Riverdance, Celtic enthusiasts have been waiting for the Great Irish Musical. After the massive disappointment of The Pirate Queen a year ago the wait has worn long.
The Encores! City Center production of Juno, a revival of the musical based on Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, was awe-inspiring, heart-breaking, funny, tuneful, exciting and unforgettable. But productions in the Encores! Series have just five performances over one weekend. Use this review to light a fire under any producers you know. Bring Juno to Broadway—soon!
Conor McPherson's Port Authority recently made its New York debut at the Atlantic Theatre Company. Three men talk about their lives, and loves—in a psychic limbo of their own making. John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening) plays the young man, Brian D'Arcy James the middle-ager, and Jim Norton (who recently won the Tony for his stunning performance in McPherson's The Seafarer on Broadway) the senior. CelticCafe looks at the peculiarly Irish flavor of yearning in McPherson's lyric drama.
It can't get much better than this... an opportunity to learn Irish dance from some of the very best Irish dancers in the world, and in southern France, at that!
Joanne Doyle, Breandan de Gallai, Dearhbla Lennon and Ronan McCormack from Riverdance will be teaching a week-long workshop from July 7th to 13th, and Joanne and Ronan will be teaching a specialized grades preparation workshop before that in May, which is organized with the An Coimisiun.
Get all the details at the official website.
Cafe Buzz