(LEFT) Derbhle Crotty (RIGHT) Ruth McGowan, photo by Hazel Coonagh

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Princeton University's Fund for Irish Studies continues its 2024-2025 series with a conversation with members of Ireland’s Abbey Theatre: Literary and New Work Director Ruth McGowan and well-known Irish actor and Associate Artist Derbhle Crotty will discuss writing and performing in Ireland and perhaps offer readings from some Irish plays. Fund for Irish Studies co-chair and director of the Program in Theater and Music Theater Jane Cox will moderate the conversation on Friday, February 7, 2025 at the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street. The event begins at 4:30pm.

The event is free and open to the public; tickets are required, available in advance through University Ticketing and at the door prior to start of the event. The theater is an accessible venue, and guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.

Founded as a national theater for Ireland in 1904 by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, the Abbey Theatre celebrates both the rich canon of Irish dramatic writing and the potential of future generations of Irish theater artists. In December, the Abbey’s Artistic Director and Co-director Caitríona McLaughlin and Head of Producing Jen Coppinger shared their points of view in the inaugural conversation that marked the start of a new partnership between Princeton’s Fund for Irish Studies and the Abbey.

“We're so delighted to welcome two critical voices to continue our conversation with the Abbey Theater,” said Cox, “and to offer insight into the birth of new Irish plays—the brilliant Ruth McGowan, previously director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, who works with playwrights like Marina Carr and Conor McPherson in bringing their vision to the stage; and the celebrated actor Derbhle Crotty, who speaks and embodies this new work into existence.”

Ruth McGowan joined the Abbey Theatre in the new role of literary and new work director in 2023, working with playwrights and theater makers to generate future work for both stages of Ireland’s National Theatre. She works closely with artists, designing and delivering bespoke dramaturgical and practical supports to a dynamic range of commissions and ideas in development. Working as a dramaturg, programmer and producer since 2009, McGowan has built creative partnerships and championed new work across performance disciplines. She has produced world premieres in festival fields, above pubs, and in historic theaters from Letterkenny to the Lower East Side. In addition, McGowan was artistic director and CEO of Dublin Fringe Festival from 2018 to 2023. McGowan sits on Dublin City Council’s Arts and Culture Advisory Group. She holds a B.Ed. in English from St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, and an M.Phil. in Theatre and Performance from Trinity College Dublin.

In a career spanning 33 years, Derbhle Crotty has acted on most of the main stages of Ireland and the U.K., including those of the Abbey Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Druid, Royal Court, and Bristol Old Vic. She has played title roles in Hecuba, Portia Coughlan, Miss Julie, and Henry IV, and she has played Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard and Arkadina in The Seagull. Crotty has twice won the Best Actress award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and is a recipient of the Ian Charleson Award. An associate of the Abbey Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, she is also a member of the Druid Ensemble.

The Fund for Irish Studies Series is co-chaired this year by Cox and Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters.

The Fund for Irish Studies affords all Princeton students, and the community at large, a wider and deeper sense of the languages, literatures, drama, visual arts, history, and economics not only of Ireland but of “Ireland in the world.” The lecture series is co-produced by the Lewis Center for the Arts.

The Fund for Irish Studies website lists more information about the series. Additional events scheduled for the year include a reading by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín on February 21 and the annual Robert Fagles Memorial Lecture delivered by author, critic and scholar Fintan O’Toole on March 21. These events in the series will also require tickets; free tickets are now available to reserve through University Ticketing. In addition, in collaboration with Princeton’s Humanities Council and Labyrinth Books, the series will include a reading by author Niall Williams on March 20, which will be free, open to the public, and unticketed.

The Fund for Irish Studies is generously sponsored by the Durkin Family Trust and the James J. Kerrigan Jr. ’45 and Margaret M. Kerrigan Fund for Irish Studies.

Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events, most of them free, presented each year by the Lewis Center for the Arts.