*******************

"I am completely smitten with the Lunch with Books patrons...who welcomed me like a long-lost cousin. It takes two to have a successful reading: an enthusiastic presenter and an engaged audience, and boy did the stars align for us." -Marie Manilla, Still Life with Plums

"Lunch With Books is an outstanding program -- one of the best in the country." -NPR Journalist Matthew Algeo, The President is a Sick Man


"With a new book in hand, I’ve visited a lot of libraries lately, and I think the Ohio County Public Library is my all-time favorite. People are kind and welcoming, and deeply appreciate a visiting writer." -Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (National Book Award)

“I wanted the book launch to be at Lunch With Books because it is the best library book program in West Virginia and because Wheeling and the Wheeling area was centrally involved in so many of the firsts in West Virginia sports.” –Bob Barnett, Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia

This blog is being discontinued.

This blog is being discontinued.
Please visit: www.ohiocountylibrary.org/calendar

Friday, June 8, 2012

Library to Host “Quiet Man” Play Readings

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the release of the beloved 1952 film, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen and Ward Bond, Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library, in partnership with Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theater, will present two readings of the pub-version of the play, The Quiet Man, adapted for the stage by Frank Mahon. Directed by the great John Ford, the film version was based on the same source material as the play, a short story by Irish writer Maurice Walsh first published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1933.

A screening of the original film will be offered at the library on Thursday evening, August 23, starting at 6 pm. Free popcorn and beverages will be served. The film premiered in Wheeling on Thanksgiving Day 1952 at the Victoria Theater.

The first performance of the pub-reading, a dress rehearsal, will be offered at Lunch With Books during its usual day and time on Tuesday, August 28 at noon. The second performance, a staged reading of the pub version, is scheduled for Thursday August 30 at 7 pm. A cast of seven actors from Towngate Theater will read the play. The evening performance will include music by Matt Smith and Erin Huffman of the local Irish band, Black Slaney plus free Irish style “pub grub.” Tickets for the evening performance are $10.00 and 100% of the proceeds will benefit Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center.

As attendees will discover, the three versions of The Quiet Man (book, film and play) are very different, and the differences are intriguing. A discussion of the three versions will be offered at the library sometime after the second reading. A date and time will be announced this summer.

Playwright Frank Mahon began writing professionally for ABC TV’s Emmy Award winning series Equal Justice. He has also written for America’s Most Wanted. Maurice Walsh’s The Quiet Man, earned Mr. Mahon a nomination for a Jeff Award for Best New Adaptation (under the title The Quiet Man Tales). In 2011, he created and produced, along with Brigid Duffy, The Stone Hearth Reading Series for The Irish American Heritage Center. Mr. Mahon is currently working on a new play concerning the Irish War of Independence. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Irish American Artists & Writers, and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

When asked permission to do the readings at the Ohio County Public Library, Mr. Mahon said “What a great compliment to have a library want to do a reading of our play.” He also promised “to let the Walsh family know right away…” as he believed it would “mean a lot to them to hear that their grandfather ("Mossie") will be back in a library.”

The Quiet Man play has been well received by audiences and critics in Mahon’s hometown of Chicago and across the country, including at the John Wayne Museum in Iowa. Maureen O’Hara herself called it “A wonderful script…” featuring “strong and interesting” characters and a “tale well told…” that “brings us into the homes and lives of the Irish living in those difficult times.”

For more information about the readings or the screening of the films, or to purchase tickets to the August 30 fundraiser, please send an email to lunchwithbooks@yahoo.com or call the library at 304-232-0244 and ask for Sean.





No comments:

Top Ten Lunch With Books Programs

Program; Presenter; Attendance; Date

1. SAENGERFEST; Eintracht German Singing Society; 200; 07-17-10

2. A Lucky Child; Auschwitz Survivor Judge Thomas Buergenthal; 198; 03-04-11

3. Fashion Show; Civil War 150; 194; 11-20-11

4. Ruanaidh; Art Rooney, Jr. and Jim O'Brien; 168; 06-15-10

5. Follow the River; James Alexander Thom; 160; 06-05-08

6. Warwood Memories; 157; 12-18-12

7. The Quiet Man Pub Reading; 150; 08-30-12

8. Wheeling Then and Now; Sean Duffy; 146; 09-07-10

9. Bloch Brother Tobacco; Stuart Bloch; 131; 04-27-10

10. Reasons to Believe; Dr. Scott Hahn; 126; 08-21-07

Book Discussion Groups

The Ohio County Public Library facilitates book discussion groups for both young adults and adults. Currently, the OCPL offers two adult groups, which meet on the first Monday and third Thursday of each month.

In addition to its own growing collection, the OCPL has access to the book discussion collection of the West Virginia Library Commission.

To join or form a book discussion group, or for more information, please call 304-232-0244.

Meeting of the Minds Philosophy Group

The Meeting of the Minds Philosophic Inquiry Forum is facilitated by David Weimer. The group meets virtually every Tuesday at 6 PM. Call the library for meeting room locations.

For more information, visit www.firstknowthyself.org/m&mphilosophy.htm or contact group organizer, David Weimer, at 740 526-0985 or by email at dwwweimer@comcast.net..