1st September 2011
University College Dublin today honoured Irish Theatre Director Garry Hynes for her contribution to Irish Arts. She is most recognised as one of the co-founders of the Druid Theatre Company in 1975 along with Mick Lally and Marie Mullen.
In his citation for Garry, UCD Dr Eamonn Jordan School of English, Drama & Film said “Apart from her work with Druid, Garry Hynes has directed nationally at both The Abbey and Gate Theatres, and internationally for theatres, like the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Exchange, Manchester, and London’s Royal Court, in New York for Second Stage, Signature Theatre and the Manhattan Theatre Club, and in Washington D.C. for The Kennedy Centre”.
Hynes is the recipient of many awards and prizes. In 1998 she was nominated for six Tony awards and was the first woman ever to win a Tony Award for Directing, for Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. In 2002 she received the Irish Times/ESB Theatre Award for Best Director and on 15th June 2006 she was granted the Freedom of the City of Galway-the city’s highest honour.
Hynes was born in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon in 1953 and later moved to Galway with her family. Most recently Garry Hynes has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway.