The Irish Repertory Theatre (IRT) was founded in New York, New York in 1988 by Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O'Reilly. As of 2018, Moore is the Artistic Director and O'Reilly is the Managing Director. The two met in the late 1980s in a Hudson Guild Theater production of Hugh Leonard's Summer, and decided to collaborate on a production of Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars in September 1988. Their profits from that production were enough to stage another show, and in this way the IRT was founded. The IRT produces Irish and Irish-American plays and musicals year-round, both classics of Irish theater as well as new works by emerging Irish and Irish-American writers. The Theatre moved to its current location, as of 2018, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in 1995. The IRT, its staff, and their productions have garnered critical acclaim and industry awards for their work.