About the Director
James J. Christy
This season marks Dr. Christy's 39th year as a professor and director with Villanova's theatre department. Last season, he directed Twelfth Night at Villanova Theatre and Take Me Out at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Take Me Out received six Barrymore nominations, including Dr. Christy's seventh nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play. In 2004, he had the pleasure of directing a new play, Never Tell, written by his son, Jimmy, for the New York International Fringe Festival. In 2003, he directed fellow faculty member Michael Hollinger's Red Herring for Actor's Theatre of Louisville and received his sixth Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Merchant of Venice at The People's Light & Theatre Company. Other recent credits include Don Juan, The Trojan Women, and Passion of Christ at Villanova Theatre, Proof at Arden Theatre Company, and The Laramie Project at Philadelphia Theatre Company, which received 2001 Barrymore Awards for Overall Production of a Play, Direction of a Play, and Outstanding Ensemble. In recognition of his long career as a theatre artist and educator, Dr. Christy was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards ceremony on October 10, 2005.
About the Playwright
Sebastian Barry
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. Novelist, playwright, and poet, his first play Boss Grady's Boys (1988) won the BBC/Stewart Parker Award. In 1989 he was Writer in Association at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, when Prayers of Sherkin (1990) was produced. His 1995 play The Steward of Christendom won the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the London Critics' Circle Award, the British Writers' Guild Award and the Lloyd's Private Banking Playwright of the Year Award. In 1996 he received The Ireland America Literary Prize, and was Writer Fellow at Trinity College. Our Lady of Sligo (1998) was joint winner of the Peggy Ramsay Award. His most recent book of poems is The Pinkening Boy (2004). His novels include The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), currently being produced for television, and Annie Dunne (2002). His latest novel, A Long Long Way (2005) has been optioned for a film.
Production Photos
Fanny Hawke (Marcie Thurstlic), Hannah Hawke (Joanna Rotté), John Hawke (James F. Schlatter), Sarah Purdy (Taylor Williams), and Jesse Hawke (Matthew Mykityshyn)
Jesse Hawke (Matthew Mykityshyn) and Fanny Hawke (Marcie Thurstlic)
Sarah Purdy (Taylor Williams), Hannah Hawke (Joanna Rotté), and John Hawke (James F. Schlatter)
Fanny Hawke (Marcie Thurslic), Jesse Hawke (Matt Mykityshyn), and Patrick Kirwin (Jared Michael Delaney)
Fanny Hawke (Marcie Thurstlic) and Patrick Kirwin (Jared Michael Delaney)
John Hawke (James F. Schlatter)
