Druid Theatre Company

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The Druid Theatre Company, founded in Galway in 1975, was the first Irish professional theatre company to be established outside Dublin. Founded by Garry Hynes, Maire Mullen and Mick Lally after the three had met and put on productions together while members of the University College Galway (now NUIG) Drama Society. Garry Hynes is the only woman to have won a Tony Award for best director. The play for which she won the award (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) also won three others. Part of The Beauty Queen of Leenane was performed at the Tony Award's Ceremony in 1998, and it can be viewed here Hynes was again nominated the following year for the same award (The Lonesome West).

From its Galway home, it has been to the fore in the development of Irish theatre, performing in its home in Chapel Lane, elsewhere in Galway, Ireland and beyond. Druid has toured extensively at home and abroad (including visits in recent years to London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Perth, Washington D.C. and New York), winning a formidable international reputation for both classic work and new work, and making the company one of the most well-known in the English speaking theatre world.

It has led the way in the development of Irish theatre in the ensuing years and is generally credited (along with Macnas, and the Galway Arts Festival) with making Galway one of the premier cultural centres in Ireland. In 2005, DruidSynge, a production of all six plays of John Millington Synge as a day-long cycle, or multi-day series of double bills, was envisioned by Garry Hynes and premiered at the 2005 Galway Arts Festival to critical acclaim.^[1]