Posted 17 June 2013
UCD marks Bloomsday by awarding honorary degrees to Patrick Mason, Conor McPherson, Sinead Cusack, and Bob Crowley
UCD Ulysses Medal for Irish playwright and theatre director, Tom Murphy
UCD has awarded the Ulysses Medal and Honorary Degrees to mark Bloomsday (16 June), a day synonymous with James Joyce and his novel Ulysses, and an important day in the university calendar.
University College Dublin is the alma mater of this great 20th century author. The UCD Ulysses Medal is the highest honour the university can bestow. It was awarded to Irish playwright and theatre director, Tom Murphy.
Watch the official citation for the presentation of the UCD Ulysses Medal to
Tom Murphy
The award was inaugurated in 2005, as part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebrations, to highlight the ‘creative brilliance’ of UCD alumnus James Joyce. It is awarded to individuals whose work has made an outstanding global contribution.
“Ireland has produced wonderful artists, performers, film makers, musicians, poets, writers, and, probably most successfully, a significant number of playwrights of world renown. Without doubt, and over a fifty year period, Tom Murphy has produced a body of work that matches the very best of those writing in the English language since the turn of the twentieth century,” said Dr Eamonn Jordan, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, who read the citation at the award ceremony in University College Dublin.
Previous recipients of the UCD Ulysses Medal include: Nobel-prizewinner, Seamus Heaney; Irish playwright, Brian Friel; and former US President, Bill Clinton.
At the award ceremony to celebrate Bloomsday (16 June) 2013, UCD Honorary Degrees were awarded to leading figures of Irish theatre.
Irish theatre producer and director, Patrick Mason was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature by University College Dublin
Watch the official citation for the conferring of a UCD honourary degree on
Patrick Mason
“Patrick Mason is a gargantuan of Irish theatre who has brought to the stage many of the most important plays of the Irish, European and American canons in landmark, memorable and definitive productions. The sheer scale and breath of his achievement is extraordinary and remarkable,” said Ms Finola Cronin, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, who read the citation at the award ceremony in University College Dublin.
“Mason claims the Abbey theatre defines his work because it is a ‘writer’s theatre’ and his quest to reveal a rich text for what it - ‘a deeply human thing - emotional and intellectual’ - found form brilliantly in his now legendary collaborations with playwright and poet Tom MacIntyre, actor Tom Hickey, and designer Bronwen Casson.”
“Mason’s work has been acclaimed on the international stage: in London, Edinburgh, New York, and on mainland Europe in The Netherlands, Denmark, Russia and farther afield in Australia and the Far East.”
Irish playwright, Conor McPherson was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature by University College Dublin
Watch the official citation for the conferring of a UCD honourary degree on
Conor McPherson
“In the mid-1990s Conor McPherson quickly emerged as one of the most innovative and energetic playwrights working in the London theatre,” said Dr PJ Mathews, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, who read the citation at the award ceremony in University College Dublin.
“In 1997 the Royal Court Theatre staged his play, The Weir, which established his reputation as a playwright of international significance, winning numerous awards including the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play, the Critics’ Circle Award and the Evening Standard Award. The Weir enjoyed hugely successful runs at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, on Broadway and, in subsequent years, in countless theatres across the globe.”
“McPherson is now widely recognised as one of the English language’s leading theatrical voices. His distinctive use of the Irish voice, his humour and his masterful story-telling combine to create a distinctive theatrical experience, at once challenging and uplifting.”
Irish theatre, television and film actress, Sinead Cusack was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature by University College Dublin
Watch the official citation for the conferring of a UCD honourary degree on Sinead Cusack
“Sinead Cusack is the eldest daughter of two renowned Irish theatre actors, Cyril and Maureen. After acting at the Abbey Theatre in the 1960s as one of the brightest of a rising generation of Irish actors, she went to England in the 1970s and debuted with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon,” said Professor Tony Roche, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, who read the citation at the award ceremony in University College Dublin.
“Sinead Cusack says that initially she was intimidated by the greatness of Shakespeare, thinking she should just stand stock still and deliver the lines. But she persevered and learned to make the lines her own by concentrating on Shakespeare’s profound understanding of human nature rather than on his intimidating greatness.”
“Since then, she has played a great many of the dominant, independent but embattled heroines of those wise Shakespearean comedies, receiving a Tony Award nomination in New York for her performance as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.”
“But she has gone further in her characteristically intrepid Shakespearean journey, tackling the most substantial of the female roles in the tragedies, Lady Macbeth, and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, one of her greatest achievements. Most recently, she has played Paulina in that great late Shakespearean romance, The Winter’s Tale, directed by Sam Mendes in the Bridge Project that was shared between the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and the Old Vic in London.”
Irish theatre designer and director, Bob Crowley was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature by University College Dublin
Watch the official citation for the conferring of a UCD honourary degree on
Bob Crowley
Bob Crowley’s complete list of nominations and awards is far too long however to rehearse now; suffice it to say that the Oliviers are many, the Tonys are multiple, the Drama Desk and London Critics Circle repeated and he was the recipient the Royal Design for Industry award,” said Dr Cathy Leeney, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, who read the citation at the award ceremony in University College Dublin.
“In addition he has twice been part of the British team entry for the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibition of Theatre Design and Architecture, the theatre design equivalent of the Venice Biennale.”
“Bob Crowley creates worlds. The stage is his space of infinite possibility. Each time he begins the process of creating a design for a production, settings and/or costumes, when he first encounters a new script or hears music from a new score, he faces the empty white page with a ‘rush of delight’ as he explains. This quality of energy, clarity and spatial vision is palpable in his work.”
UCD Ulysses Medal
The UCD Ulysses Medal, the highest honour the university can bestow. The award was inaugurated in 2005, as part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebrations, to highlight the ‘creative brilliance’ of UCD alumnus James Joyce.
It is awarded to individuals whose work has made an outstanding global contribution. Previous recipients of the UCD Ulysses Medal include: Nobel-prizewinner, Seamus Heaney; Irish playwright, Brian Friel; and former US President, Bill Clinton.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
