2013 Press Releases
Drama Desk Award for Mercier
Broadway’s The Testament of Mary continues to generate headlines, with UCC’s Mel Mercier winning a Drama Desk Award for ‘Outstanding Sound Design in a Play’.
Drama Desk Awards are the only major New York theatre honours for which productions On Broadway, Off-Broadway and in smaller theatres can compete against each other in the same category. Mercier, the head of School of Music & Theatre at UCC is also nominated for a Tony Award for ‘Best Sound Design of a Play’.
The ‘Tonys’ differ to the rival Drama Desk Awards in that they celebrate excellence in On Broadway theatre only. In total, The Testament of Mary is nominated for 3 Tony Awards, including best play.
Written by Irish author Colm Tóibín and directed by Deborah Warner, UCC graduate Fiona Shaw played the lead role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the one-woman show. Shaw completed a BA Degree at UCC in 1979.
Mercier, a composer, performer and academic, is the composer and sound designer behind the brooding score accompanying The Testament of Mary. He teaches Irish, African, Indian and Indonesian music at UCC, where he is a senior lecturer in Music.
Mercier’s next theatre project in the US is Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a one-woman show also starring Fiona Shaw and directed by the mind behind films Mamma-Mia! and The Iron Lady, Phyllida Lloyd, at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in December.
Mercier has also penned the music to Setanta (Fibin Theatre Company), which recently finished its Irish tour.
Follow the coverage in the Irish Examiner: Irish composer in running for Tony after Broadway success