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The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

People

Mary Manning (1)

1905 - 1999

Mary Manning (also known as Mary Manning Howe) was born in Dublin in 1905 and attended the Abbey Theatre drama school under Sarah Allgood. Manning acted in the Abbey and the Gate in the early 1930s. Her first play, "Youth's the Season?", was produced at the Gate Theatre when she was just 23. She emigrated to the USA in 1934 and directed drama at Radcliffe College, then later became a director of the Poet's Theatre, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mary Manning was a childhood friend of Samuel Beckett's and the pair collaborated on a number of literary and dramatic projects. She worked as drama critic for Hibernia magazine for several years and was a regular reviewer of books for The Irish Times. Her humorous novel 'The Last Chronicles of Ballyfiungus' was published in 1978. Dramatic works not listed here include 'Go Lovely Rose', performed as part of the International Women Playwright’s Conference in Galway shortly before Manning's death in 1999.