Garry Hynes has been nominated for a Tony for her direction of The Lonesome West. Hynes follows up her Tony-winning stint directing The Beauty Queen of Leenane with another play in Martin McDonagh's "Leenane Trilogy."

A nasty dark comedy about loathsome, feuding siblings, West split the critics, some saying McDonagh was at the top of his comic form, others calling the piece repetitious and crude. Nearly all, however, praised Hynes's direction for its fluidity and ability to capture an impoverished Irish lifestyle.

Hynes has received honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland and the National Council for Education Awards. The first woman ever to win a directing Tony, Hynes previously garnered honors as Director of the Year in Ireland, having staged works at the Abbey (Portia Coughlan), as well as the UK's RSC (Man of Mode) and Royal Court. Off-Broadway she staged Arthur Miller's last new play, Mr. Peter's Connections, starring Peter Falk.

In a 1998 New York Times interview, Hynes told writer Benedict Nightingale, "I still get called 'a stick of dynamite' or 'pint-sized dynamo,' stuff like that. Actually, I was too busy to notice there was anything unusual about being a woman director until the early 1980s, when I looked around the professional theater and realized there weren't many of us. You have to make more of a case for yourself than any man."