Playwright Elaine Murphy
It’s tough to compete with Super Bowl Sunday, and it looks like few are. Even the Sunday session at Molly Maguire’s in Phoenixville has been cancelled. If you’re planning to go to a regularly scheduled Sunday event, call first.
But it’s not a weekend phenomenon. You can see and hear the phenomenal Next Generation Irish traditional musicians and Dansations Irish dancers on Sunday at the Garden State Discovery Museum’s Annual Irish Children’s Festival, starting at noon.
Tom Mchugh with Jimmy and Kevin McGillian will be playing for the dancers at AOH Notre Dame Div. 1 Hall in Swedesburg on Saturday night. It’s become the go-to place for the region’s ceili dancers.
Also on Saturday, the popular band Jamison is going to Curran’s in Palmyra, NJ.
Opening this week: “Little Gem,” a play by Dubliner Elaine Murphy, the latest from Inis Nua Theatre Company in Philadelphia, the only theater group producing contemporary works from Ireland and the UK. It’s in preview on Tuesday, opens on Wednesday, then runs through February 26 at the Inis Nua’s new digs, First Baptist Curch on Sansom Street (and 16th) in the city. The funny and touching play centers on three generations of Dublin women each experiencing an emotional crisis.
On Thursday, Daniel Tobin, PhD, poet and scholar, will be giving at talk at Villanova, Tobin is author of “Awake in America, ” a book of essays on Irish American poetry that looks at 19th and 20th century poets as well as contemporary writers.
The Second Street Irish Society Dancers are a fixture in the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It takes money to look that good, so they’re trying to raise a bundle at a Coach Bag Bingo Night on Friday, February 10, at the EOM Athletic Club on Moore Street in Philadelphia. As the name suggests, the prizes include Coach bags, a fashionista must-have.
Coming up the following week: Fiddler Jess Smith, a young man from Baltimore, will be performing at the Coatesville Cultural Society on Saturday. Both Smith’s parents are musicians and he studied with renowned fiddler Brendan Mulvihill. Smith moved Ireland in 1998 and toured with the band, Danu. His CD, Jigs and Reels, was among the top 10 traditional CDs of 2002 cited by “The Irish Echo.”
Also next week, a freebie concert for kids at Calvary United Methodist Church by the Heartstring Quartet, composed of noted Irish musicians Arty McGlynn {Planxty, Patrick Street, and DeDanann) , Nollaig Casey (Plaxty and Coolfin), and Maire Ni Chatasaigh and British flat-picking guitarist Chris Newman.
