Scéal Nua Play Readings 2025
Scéal Nua (New Story), founded by Sarah Street, in collaboration with Origin Theatre Company and Irish Arts Center, is a community of playwrights within the Irish diaspora that meets weekly to develop and share new work. Our inaugural Scéal Nua New Play Festival will showcase full-length play readings and excerpts from seven Irish inspired playwrights of this year’s cohort: Leo McGann, Molly Babos, Nicola Murphy Dubey, Ciara Van Buren, Colm Summers, Don Creedon and Barbara Cassidy. Join us over the course of three nights in June as we celebrate these brilliant new works!
SARAH STREET,
FOUNDER OF SCÉAL NUA
CLICK ON THE DATES FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL BLOCK OF SHOWS!
MARIA
By Nicola Murphy Dubey
(approx. 20 min excerpt)
Maria follows a group of young girls in their final year of secondary school as they navigate relationships, drinking, friendships and an unexpected surprise.
THE EDIT
By Molly Babos
(approx. 75 mins)
Ivy, a wayward recent college graduate, gets more than she bargained for when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the professor whose child she babysits.
FALLS
By Colm Summers
(approx. 80 mins)
A coming-of-age comedy about Parkinson’s disease, queerness and caregiving.
THEIR OWN THING
By Ciara Van Buren
(approx. 20 min excerpt)
A young woman with Down syndrome spends her day in a program for adults with disabilities, making plans and counting down the seconds until her life begins.
COLLARED
By Don Creedon
(approx. 65 mins)
A woman with a colorful past visits her ex-boyfriend, now a priest, to confess all her sins. But she’s got more than salvation on her mind.
A QUESTION OF LOVELINESS
By Barbara Cassidy
(approx. 75 mins)
Sometime in the near future, something terrible has happened...
OFF THE BOOKS
By Leo McGann
(approx. 1 hour 50mins)
When Padraig, an Irish bartender in New York, encounters corruption, he’s faced with a decision: break the rules to secure his future or lose everything.