Queer Notions: New Plays and Performances from Ireland

Acknowledgements

ix Acknowledgements I have wanted to publish this book for some time now. Over the past decade, I have seen almost all of the plays included here in performance, noted how they have resonated with audiences, but also feared that they would get lost and be forgotten about without being published. Ephemerality is part of the allure of the performance encounter, and queer practices tend to thrive on this dynamic, but it is also one of the obstacles to documenting cultural history. For recognizing the importance of this project, I am very grateful to Cork University Press. I am particularly thankful to the external reviewers for their comments, and to Sophie Watson and Maria O’Donovan for leading the book through to completion. A special thanks goes to Hilary Bell for her discerning copy-editing. I would like to acknowledge the support of my colleagues at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Funding from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences assisted final preparations of the manuscript. All edited collections are collaborative endeavours, but perhaps this is especially true of an anthology of this kind. In preparing the book I have been mindful of the complex networks of people involved in the initial production and reception of the plays and performances before they were assembled in words and visuals here: the festivals or companies that first put the work on stage; the audiences that turned up to show their interest and encouragement; the agencies that supplied valuable funding along the way, and those who worked for free to help make things happen. I also think of the people who lived outside of the temporal and even geographic parameters of the project, who might never have imagined a book like this being possible. x Acknowledgements Of course, I am especially indebted to the artists whose material is included here. The experience of publishing this collection has been made extra special by virtue of the fact that I know some of the contributors personally. A special thanks goes to Phillip McMahon for discussing the project at various stages of its development. Thanks also to Niall Sweeney for designing such a beautiful cover at such short notice. Also, I greatly appreciate Frank McGuinness’s thoughtful Foreword. Finally, I would like to dedicate the book to those who have made, or continue to make, unsettling theatre, and theatre that refuses to settle. Fintan Walsh Trinity College Dublin March 2010 ...