Lyric Gets Boost With Playwright-In-Residence

David trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and has worked for many theatre companies across the UK including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exhange, Manchester, the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. He has collaborated with local theatre companies including Ransom and Tinderbox on his plays Arguments For Terrorism and Everything Between Us – the latter having just been nominated for the Stewart Parker Award. As well as being an Associate Member of Dundee Rep Ensemble, David is currently under commission to Oran Mor in Glasgow and Tinderbox. The Playwright-in-Residence’s post will be one of several Associate Artists with whom the Lyric will work in order to nurture a new wave of plays and playwrights to help raise the profile of indigenous artists and bring their work to local, national and international stages. In addition to the new adaptations already programmed in the theatre’s opening season, The Jungle Book and The Little Prince, the Lyric has five new commissions already in development with local writers. The Lyric’s Artistic Director Richard Croxford said, “We are truly delighted that local writer David Ireland will be our first Playwright-in-Residence in the new building. David has a huge amount of talent. He writes with great humour, integrity and credibility. His work is a voice that will resonate strongly with local audiences whilst entertaining them enormously. We look forward to working with him and to seeing him lead the way for new writing in our new theatre.” David Ireland said, “Like many people in Belfast, I’ve been going to the Lyric since I was a teenager and many of the plays I saw there over the years inspired me to work in the theatre, so it’s wonderful to be given this unique opportunity of being Playwright-in-Residence, particularly at this very exciting time in the Lyric’s history.” Tickets to see a rehearsed reading of David’s play What The Animals Say on Tuesday 3rd May at 8pm in the Naughton Studio during the theatre’s Opening Festival Fortnight are now on sale. For further information on highlights of the Lyric’s opening season, visit www.lyrictheatre.co.uk]]>