Launch of Ciara O' Dowd's "Wild Looking But Fine: Abbey Theatre Actresses of the 1930's"

Join us for the launch of Wild Looking But Fine: Abbey Theatre Actresses of the 1930s.

Aideen O’Connor and Ria Mooney have different backgrounds, ambitions and creative visions. They come of age in an Ireland desperate to control and restrict women: their sexuality; their careers; their independent lives. They are united by one thing: a devotion to theatre and to Ireland’s National Theatre, in particular. Drawing on archival records from Dublin, Galway, New York and California, Wild-Looking But Fine traces the lives of O’Connor and Mooney from their debuts on the Abbey stage, to performing in New York in 1937, and the lives they made for themselves after that tour.

Author Ciara O’Dowd grapples with their artistic theories; their economic situations; their personal dilemmas. Illustrated with original black and white images from the period, the book is a reflection on how we can construct life stories from the disparate traces left behind. These biographies offers a new perspective on Ireland in the 1930s, on the treatment of women at the Abbey Theatre and in Hollywood, and on theatre practices in Ireland and America. It charts an internationalism in Irish acting and directing, connecting it with the work of feminist artists overseas and paints a vivid portrait of the artistic and inter-personal cultural milieu of the Abbey Theatre of the era.

Dr. Ciara O’Dowd studied English and Theatre in Trinity College Dublin and University of Galway, where she gained her PhD. In 2016, she received the HD Fellowship in English Literature from Yale University’s Beinecke Library. She spent ten years as a theatre assessor and adviser for the Arts Council of Ireland and now works as a consultant in the non-profit and cultural sector. She is an author of the ground-breaking report "Gender Counts: An analysis of gender in Irish theatre 2006-15." Her writing on Irish theatre past and present has appeared in journals New Hibernia Review, Critical Stages, Theatre Topics as well as literary magazine Banshee Magazine.

Ciara will be in conversation with Caroline Heafey, Assisant Director of Glucksman Ireland House.