ENA MAY COLLECTION:
GUIDE AND INVENTORY
SPEC.CMS.115

(Compiled by Elva Griffith, 2004)

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INTRODUCTION

Ena May is an actress, writer, and director from Dublin, Ireland. She trained under Deirdre O’Connell at the Stanislavski Studio at Focus Theatre in Dublin and has a long association with the Focus. Ena began acting in 1973 and has played in over fifty productions on stage, radio, TV, and film. Besides the Focus, she has performed at The Gate, Peacock, and Project theatres in Dublin and has toured extensively. Her work as a director at Focus includes productions of her plays, Out Of The Beehive and She’s Your Mother Too, You Know! She also directed a highly acclaimed production of Waiting For Godot in Berlin.

The first production of Out Of The Beehive was in 1984 at Focus Theatre. She’s Your Mother Too, You Know! played at the Focus in 1988 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Ena May directed and co-wrote with Ruth Jacobs That Fine Line. It was performed at the Actor’s Center for Performing Arts, St. Brendan’s Hospital in 1986 and was the subject of an RTE documentary.

She worked for a year with The Balcony Belles, a theatre group of women from Dublin’s inner city. Maria’s Claim was written by Ena for The Balcony Belles and performed at the City Arts Centre and various community centres throughout Dublin. So What Was It Like For You?, also written for Balcony Belles, was performed in 1995.

This collection is archival material for five of her plays. Acquired by The OSU Libraries from Ena May in 2002, it adds to the acquisition made in 2001 of her archive for A Close Shave With The Devil (see SPEC.CMS.106), a book of Dublin stories published by The Lilliput Press in 1998.

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THE ENA MAY COLLECTION -

CATALOGUE OF INVENTORY, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Detailed Listing/ Folder Listing:

Folder Number #1-14

1. Out of the Beehive. Typescript with few holograph corrections, additions. 55 leaves.



2. Out of the Beehive. Typescript photocopy. 35 leaves.



3. Out of the Beehive. Publicity material, reviews. 4 leaves.



4. Out of the Beehive. Photographs of Ann O’Driscoll, Bernie Downes, Tony Colman, Jack Lynch, Frank McDonald. 4 photos.



5. Out of the Beehive. Holograph draft in notebook. [Also bound in notebook is text and production notes for The Boy Friend: A Musical Play by Sandy Wilson performed by the Dalkey Youth Musical Society in April 1984.]



6. Out of the Beehive. Holograph draft in notebook.



7. She’s Your Mother Too, You Know! Typescript (photocopy). 96 leaves.



8. She’s Your Mother Too, You Know! Posters, reviews, press release. 6 leaves



9. She’s Your Mother Too, You Know! Photographs of Frank McDonald, Hazel Dunphy, Blanaid Irvine, Jayne Snow, Deirdre O’Connell. 3 photos.



10. That Fine Line. Typescript with numerous holograph revisions, annotations. 39 leaves.



11. That Fine Line. Radio Telefis Éireann correspondence and photocopy of reviews. 2 leaves.



12. So What Was It Like For You? Coombe Hospital Project 1995 for ‘The Balcony Belles’. Typescript. 11 leaves.



13. Maria’s Claim. Typescript with holograph revisions. 52 leaves.



14. Maria’s Claim. Programme. 2 leaves.

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