James W. Flannery (born Nov 8, 1936 in Hartford, CT) is a producer, stage director, singer, scholar, critic and Professor Emeritus at Emory College of Arts and Sciences in Atlanta. [1] [2] He is a specialist in the dramatic work of W.B. Yeats and is one of the leading interpreters of the art songs of Thomas Moore. [3]
In 1958 Flannery completed his undergraduate studies in music and English at Trinity College located in Hartford, CT, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. [4] He pursued a Master of Fine Arts in acting and directing at the Yale School of Drama, graduating in 1961. He then obtained a Doctorate in English and Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College Dublin in 1970. [3]
Between 1989 and 1993, Flannery held the position of executive director at the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where he organized the Yeats International Theatre Festival. [4] During each of the five years, he produced three plays by Yeats, accompanied by original music composed by Bill Whelan, who later achieved success as the composer of Riverdance . [5] In his 2022 autobiography, The Road To Riverdance, Whelan mentions that "some members of the company found Flannery's dictatorial style curious, but nobody could deny his deep knowledge (and zeal) for Yeats as a playwright." [5] [6]
In 1988 Flannery founded the W.B. Yeats Foundation at Emory University. [4] He has garnered critical acclaim for his staging and directing of the plays of Yeats in America, Canada and Ireland. [3]
Flannery maintains that Yeat's plays sought to inspire people to live "creative and abundant lives". [7]
He is a talented tenor and is one of the foremost interpreters of the art songs of Thomas Moore [8] and in 1997 published a book and recording titled, Dear Harp of My Country: The Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore. [9]
He was a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland in 2000 and 2001. [3]
In 2010 he was named an International Associate Artist at the Abbey Theatre. [10]
He married Ildiko Elizabeth Pokoly in 1964. [11]
He has been Winship Professor Emeritus of the Arts and Humanities at Emory University Emeritus College since 2016. [12] He received honorary doctorates from Trinity College (Hartford) in 1991 and from the University of Ulster (Derry) in 2001. [11] [3] In 2010 he was honored as a visiting professor at the University College, Dublin. [4]
In 2012 he won the Southeastern Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Entertainment for his film A Southern Celtic Christmas Concert on PBS. It has since been broadcast regularly as a Christmas special on PBS stations across the country. [13] In the same year, for his many contributions to the Irish-American community, he was named the “Irishman of the Year” by the Hibernian Benevolent Society in Atlanta. [4]
In 2020 he got a 2020 Presidential Distinguished Service Awards from the Global Irish Network. [1] [14]
Irish America Magazine has listed him among the one hundred most distinguished Irish-Americans five times. [4]
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.
William Michael Joseph Whelan is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, "Riverdance", was a seven-minute piece of original music accompanying a new take on traditional Irish dancing that became a full-length stage production and spawned a worldwide craze for Irish music and dance. The corresponding soundtrack album earned him a Grammy. "Riverdance" was released as a single in 1994, credited to "Bill Whelan and Anúna featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra". It reached number one in Ireland for 18 weeks and number nine in the UK. The album of the same title reached number 31 in the album charts in 1995.
The Abbey Theatre, also known as the National Theatre of Ireland, in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day. The Abbey was the first state-subsidized theatre in the English-speaking world; from 1925 onwards it received an annual subsidy from the Irish Free State. Since July 1966, the Abbey has been located at 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.
Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, she turned against it. Her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the political struggles to occur in Ireland during her lifetime.
Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH was an English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists.
Thomas Sturge Moore was a British poet, author and artist.
The Irish Literary Revival was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. It includes works of poetry, music, art, and literature.
Ben Iden Payne, also known as B. Iden Payne, was an English actor, director and teacher. Active in professional theater for seventy years, he helped the first modern Repertory Theatre in the United Kingdom, was an early and effective advocate for Elizabethan staging of Shakespeare plays, and served as an inspiration for Shakespeare Companies and University theater programs throughout North America and the British Isles. His name lives on as the name of a theater at the University of Texas as well as annual theater awards presented in Austin, Texas.
The Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century. Originally Dun Emer Press, from 1908 until the late 1940s it functioned as Cuala Press, publicising the works of such writers as Yeats, Lady Gregory, Colum, Synge, and Gogarty.
Anne Butler Yeats was an Irish painter, costume and stage designer.
Thomas F. Kilroy was an Irish playwright and novelist.
Standish James O'Grady was an Irish author, journalist, and historian. O'Grady was inspired by Sylvester O'Halloran and played a formative role in the Celtic Revival, publishing the tales of Irish mythology, as the History of Ireland: Heroic Period (1878), arguing that the Gaelic tradition had rival only from the tales of Homeric Greece. O'Grady was a paradox for his times, proud of his Gaelic heritage, he was also a member of the Church of Ireland, a champion of aristocratic virtues and at one point advocated a revitalised Irish people taking over the British Empire and renaming it the Anglo-Irish Empire.
The Irish Repertory Theatre is an Off Broadway theatre founded in 1988.
Robert Anthony Welch was an Irish author and scholar.
Thomas Augustine Martin was an Irish academic, Anglo-Irish scholar, teacher, writer, broadcaster and literary critic. During his career he was Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin, chairman of the Board of the Abbey Theatre, and a member of the Seanad Éireann from 1973 to 1981.
David Downes is a composer, pianist, producer, and music director who is known for both contemporary composition as well as work in the commercial field, particularly with Riverdance and as founder of Celtic Woman.
Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh was an Irish actress and republican activist. She started acting in her teens and appeared in the first Irish-language play performed in Ireland. She was a founder-member of the Abbey Theatre and was leading lady on its opening night in 1904, when she played the title role in W.B. Yeats's Cathleen Ni Houlihan. She later joined the Theatre of Ireland, which she helped to found.
Anthony Stephen Knowland was a professor of English literature, specialising in the work of W.B. Yeats, William Shakespeare and classical Greek literature. Apart from his passion for literature, he loved music, was an accomplished pianist, and an enthusiastic cook. A gentle, unassuming person, humorous, warm and kind, he was a committed humanist and pacifist. He had no truck with status, celebrity or power.
Katherine Frances Purdon was an Irish novelist and playwright, part of the Irish Revival movement and a member of the United Irishwomen.
Ann Saddlemyer, is a Canadian academic, author, and expert in the history of Canadian theatre and Anglo-Irish literature.