Announcing this year's Druid Debuts

28 June 2023

Druid today announced the selected playwrights and plays for this year’s Druid Debuts, their annual series of rehearsed readings of new plays. Drop by Bridgid Galvin and Legacy by Gerry Moynihan were selected from over 500 submissions to Druid’s new writing programme this year. The play readings will take place in An Taibhdhearc on Friday 28 July as part of this year’s Galway International Arts Festival.

Bridgid Galvin is an Irish playwright. She has won the Billy Roche International Short Play Competition 2019, was a semi-finalist at Waterford Film Festival 2021, was one of three winners of the George B. Miller Award 2022 and received a special mention at Listowel Writers’ Week 2022. Her work was selected for Fishamble’s A Play for Ireland mentoring process in 2018 and Tiny Plays in 2020, and the Abbey Theatre’s Dear Ireland in 2020. In Drop, Galvin takes us on an episodic journey through Shane’s life and the forces which have shaped him into the young man he is today.

From Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Gerry Moynihan graduated in 2012 with an MA in Screenwriting from The London College of Communication. His first piece for theatre, a short play entitled entitled Skiver, was staged at the Brockley Jack Theatre and his first full-length play, Cailleach Óg, had its premiere at The Pleasance Theatre in 2017. ​His next play Continuity ran at The Finborough in London in 2017. His Druid Debuts play Legacy is a tense thriller about the difficulty in confronting uncomfortable truths, set in Tyrone in the very recent past.

Druid Debuts offers a unique opportunity to experience brand new plays fresh off the page and to share an open discussion with the writer, director and cast. Each summer, the selected playwrights are provided with professional support, a director, cast and space in which to develop their script to a rehearsed reading level. Previous Druid Debuts have subsequently premiered as full Druid productions including Furniture by Sonya Kelly and Shelter by Cristín Kehoe.

Drop by Bridgid Galvin
Friday 28 July, 11am
18-year-old Shane has just buried his best friend Zippo. Growing up together on the north side of Cork city, they had dreamed of becoming freestyle rap legends by uploading videos of their music to YouTube. In Drop, playwright Bridgid Galvin takes us on an episodic journey through Shane’s life and the forces which have shaped him into the young man he is today.

Legacy by Gerry Moynihan
Friday 28 July, 2pm
Cormac McCusker believes that his Da was an IRA hero who died for Irish freedom, but when two brutal murders occur and he discovers that he is next on the murderer’s list, it soon becomes clear that his Da might not have been all that Cormac believed him to be. Legacy is a tense thriller about the difficulty in confronting uncomfortable truths, set in Tyrone in the very recent past.

Druid Debuts 2023 take place in An Taibhdhearc as part of Galway International Arts Festival. Tickets are now on sale.

Directors and casts for these two readings will be announced shortly.

Image: Druid Debuts 2022, photo by Emilija Jefremova