It was a heady night for Galway's Druid Theatre company at The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards 2004 in Dublin's Burlington Hotel last night.
The company's prime mover, Garry Hynes, was presented with the Special Tribute Award for her services to Irish theatre since Druid was founded in 1975.
The 2004 Best Actress award went to another of Druid's founding members, Marie Mullen, for her performances as Mary Byrne and Mary Doul in the DruidSynge productions of The Tinker's Wedding and The Well of the Saints by John Millington Synge. The Best Costume Designer went to Kathy Strachan, in part for her work on the DruidSynge production of The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge.
Three of the seven Synge plays were produced and toured nationally by Druid last year. They were The Playboy of the Western World, The Tinker's Wedding and The Well of the Saints.
This year, Hynes will direct the other four - In the Shadow of the Glen, Riders to the Sea, Deirdre of the Sorrows and When the Moon has Set - and all seven plays will be performed together as part of the Galway Arts Festival this summer. It will be the first time all Synge's plays have been performed together.
There were three judges for the 2004 awards: Mr Phelim Donnellan, formerly a drama officer with the Arts Council, Ms Delores Lyne, artist and a designer for theatre, and Mr Tony Ó Dálaigh, former civil servant and director of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
There will be a full report on last night's proceedings in tomorrow's editions of The Irish Times and highlights of last night's events can be seen on a special edition of The View on RTÉ 1 television at 11.25 tonight.
