Tania Banotti
Chief Executive
Tania Banotti began work with Theatre Forum, the representative association for the professional performing arts in September 2003. Its members include: all the theatres and arts centres around the country; theatre, ballet, contemporary dance, opera and spectacle production companies and the main arts festivals. Theatre Forum is the collective voice for the sector. It lobbies for greater arts funding at local and national level and has an extensive programme of professional training and development courses on everything from arts marketing to directing. It provides a range of information and advice to members.
Theatre Forum was the founder of the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) in September 2009. The campaign is a broad coalition of arts organisations across different arts forms, as well as individual artists. It campaigns about the importance of the arts to Irish life and also about the importance of public funding for the arts at local and national level. www.ncfa.ie
From 1998- 2002 Tania was Chief Executive of Screen Producers Ireland, the national trade association for film and TV production companies. For a number of years she worked in public affairs in Brussels representing companies including ITV, the Association of European Commercial Television and the Motion Picture Association of America. She has also worked for the United Nations in the Gaza Strip, Palestine for 3 years.
Irma McLoughlin
Development & Membership (currently on leave)
Irma began working in the arts with Storytellers Theatre Company, initially as an Assistant Producer and later as Company Manager/ Producer. This was followed by contract positions with The Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon as Artistic Programme Co-ordinator for the Informal European Theatre Meeting (IETM) and with Children's Books Ireland as Festival Co-ordinator for the Children's Book Festival. Irma then spent a year living in Northern Spain and returned to Ireland in 2004 and worked with Blue Raincoat and The Irish Times Business 2000 before joining Theatre Forum in October 2005.
Sarah Murphy
Development & Membership (Maternity Leave Cover)
Sarah worked for Music Network, the O'Reilly Theatre, Cardboard Citizens (UK) and Filmbase before moving on to freelancing in marketing and project management for clients including the Dublin Fringe Festival, Highlight Productions, thisispopbaby and Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Recently, she presented PREGNANT?!, and executive produced THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON (THEATREclub). Sarah holds an MPhil in Anglo-Irish Literature & Drama from TCD and an HCert in Arts Management from the University of Ulster (NI).
Theatre Forum Board of Directors
Fergal Mc Grath - Chair
Fergal Mc Grath is Manager of the Town Hall Theatre, Galway. He was formerly Managing Director of Druid (2002-2006), General Manager of Galway Arts Festival (1992-2002) and had previously been General Manager of the Irish pot plant division of Fyffes (1985-1992). He is a member of the Nasc Regional Venues Collective and a former board member of Cinemobile, Galway Arts Centre and Solas Arthouse Cinema.
Una Carmody
Currently Director of the Arts Audiences Project, she has been CEO of the Helix, a performing arts complex at Dublin City University comprising three performance spaces including the 1,200 seat Mahony Hall. Previously she worked as Partnership Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon.
From 1994 to 2001 Una worked in a variety of roles, including that of Cultural Manager in Temple Bar Properties, the development body that oversaw the regeneration of Dublin's Temple Bar district as a flagship Cultural Quarter for the city. In 2001 she was Festival Producer for the Abbey Theatre's Murphy Festival, a major retrospective of the work of Tom Murphy. Una has worked in various management capacities in many leading cultural organisations, including Opera Theatre Company, Groundwork Productions and The Dublin Film Festival. As a consultant Una has contributed to numerous large-scale projects, including the redevelopment of Dublin's Docklands and the building of Ireland's National Aquatic Centre. She served on the adjudication panel of the 2000 Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards and currently sits on the board of the Dublin Fringe Festival.
Loughlin Deegan
Loughlin Deegan is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Dublin International Theatre Festival, one of the oldest dedicated theatre festivals in Europe. The festival runs for 2 weeks every October and presents the work of many of the world’s leading companies and artists.
Loughlin was Executive Producer of Rough Magic Theatre Company from 2003-2006. He was previously Literary Manager with Rough Magic when his responsibilities included developing the work of commissioned writers and co-ordinating the SEEDS project, a structured new-writing initiative for emerging Irish playwrights.
For the Irish Theatre Institute (formerly Theatre Shop), Loughlin edited the first two editions of the Irish Theatre Handbook, a comprehensive guide to drama and dance in Ireland, and he compiled and edited the launch phase of the Irish Playography Database (www.irishplayography.com), a comprehensive, on-line searchable database of all new Irish plays produced professionally between 1975 and the present.
Johnny Hanrahan
Johnny Hanrahan is a writer and director. He is Artistic Director of Meridian Theatre Company which specialises in new work, frequently incorporating music and multi-media elements. Johnny has written many plays for the company, including Crystal, Craving, The Mistress of Silence, Madam T, The White Lady, Castle Rackrent, Volpone, etc. Johnny has also worked with Operating Theatre, The Ark, Passion Machine, Cork 2005, the Everyman Palace, Macra. He is a former chair of Theatre Forum, a founder of Cork Arts Development Committee and The National Sculpture Factory and was a board member of Cork 2005.
Jo Mangan
Jo is Artistic Director of The Performance Corporation. Directing credits for the comapny include The Nose (Project), KISS (Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival), Lizzie Lavelle and the Vanishing of Emlyclough (site-specific, Belmullet, Co. Mayo), Drive-By (Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and Canterbury Festival), and Dr. Ledbetter’s Experiment (Kilkenny Arts Festival co-production, Traverse Theatre - Edinburgh Festival Fringe), The Yokohama Delegation (Kilkenny Arts Festival co-production), Paka (Nairobi and Mombassa, Kenya), Candide, The 7 Deadly Sins, and The Butterfly Ranch.
Radio plays include The Flying Dutchman of Iniskill by Tom Swift (Nominated Best Drama PPI Radio awards) and Haven By Michelle Read. Films include War and Peace, the Musical and A Life (15 Second Film Festival @ Darklight Festival and Belfast Festival at Queens) and A Life Redux (Galway Film Fleadh). TV includes a Flann O’Brien special for TV3.
Other theatre directing credits include; Beware of the Storybook Wolves (The Ark), Awimbaway, Mary Quirke, Moira, and Dreamframe (Fishamble), Lost Letters of a Victorian Lady (Bewleys), A Place with the Pigs by Athol Fugard (Crypt), Frank McGuinness’s Mary and Lizzie (Dublin Theatre Festival), and The Magic Island (Yew Theatre).
Jo is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, and worked as producer for Fishamble Theatre Company for 4 years producing shows by among others Joe O’Connor, Pat Kinevane, Ian Kilroy and Maeve Binchy. Jo is a board member of Fishamble, The Association of Theatre Directors of Ireland, The Riverbank Arts Centre and Theatre Forum.
Fiach Mac Conghail
Fiach Mac Conghail has been Director/CEO of the Abbey Theatre since May 2005. The Abbey Theatre is Ireland’s National Theatre and he is responsible for the artistic programming and strategic management of the organisation. He has produced many productions at the Abbey, including plays by Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Marina Carr, Paul Mercier, Mark O’Rowe, Billy Roche, Sebastian Barry and Sam Shepard. Prior to his appointment, Fiach was Arts Adviser to John O’Donoghue, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism (2002-2005). He was Commissioner of the Cultural Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the EU in 2004. He worked on the establishment of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2001-2003) for the Department of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Cultural Commissioner for EXPO in Hanover (2000) and Commissioner of the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennales of Visual Arts (1996-7). He was Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre from 1992 - 1999, and was one of the founders and, subsequently, Chairman of the International Dance Festival of Ireland.
In television and film, Fiach has produced several award winning dramas for RTE and TG4 with Brothers Films. He produced the feature film ’Studs’ (1996) by Paul Mercier and starring Brendan Gleeson.
He was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship in 2004 and currently sits on the board of Theatre Forum Ireland and is a member of the University of Limerick’s Governing Authority.
Eina McHugh
Eina McHugh is Director of The Ark, a Cultural Centre for Children. Before taking up her current post in 2005, she worked as a specialist consultant in children and young people's culture with clients such as Channel 4, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Nursery Channel, The British Film Institute, the Arts Council of England and the Welsh broadcaster S4C. In 1998 she directed the Second World Summit on Television for Children in London and in 2001 became Head of Development for S4C Commercial. Her love of children's cultural work began in 1990 when she became involved in Northern Ireland's inaugural children's film festival, Cinemagic, eventually going on to direct the award winning festival and become Deputy Director of the Northern Ireland Film Council.
She has worked on several committees and boards including the National Arts and Business Sponsorship Association Arts Development Forum, the European Children’s Film Association, the E.U. Media Education and Children’s Film Production Working Party, the National Century of Cinema Committee, and Young People's Committee of The Edinburgh International Television Festival. She has served on numerous children's juries for BAFTA, Royal Television Society, International children's film festivals and the Irish Film and Television awards.
Cian O'Brien
Cian is Associate Producer of Rough Magic Theatre Company. Credits as producer with Rough Magic include Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, Improbable Frequency (New York and National Tour), The Parker Project, Life is a Dream, The Taming of the Shrew (National Tour). Cian also works as a freelance producer. His credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Making Strange and Project Arts Centre), All Dolled Up (thisispopbaby, Brighton Fringe Festival 2007), La Marea (Bedrock Productions and Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival) Roberto Zucco (Bedrock Productions) Danny and Chantelle (Still Here) (thisispopbaby); How Many Miles to Babylon (Second Age Theatre Company); The Friends of Jack Kairo (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Prague Fringe Festival 2007); Mother Teresa is Dead (Focus Theatre); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Making Strange Theatre Company) H-BAM (How Babies are Made) Comedy troupe (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2002,2003). Cian took part in the Rough Magic AIB SEEDS3 programme as producer. As part of the AIB SEEDS 3 Showcase he produced Caligula (Nominated Best Production, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2007). Cian is also a board member of Project Arts Centre.
Karl Wallace
Karl is Director of Siamsa Tire, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, Co Kerry. Prior to joining Siamsa, Karl was: the Artistic Director at the Castle in Northampton, Artistic Director, Belltable, Limerick and Artistic Director/Founder Member of Kabosh Theatre Company, Belfast.
Prior to joining the Theatre Forum Board, Karl was previously: Chair of Ransom Theatre Productions, Belfast 2004-2006, Board Member, Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast 2001-2003 and Board Member for the Independent Theatre Council (ITC) in the UK 1997-2001.
Karl was previously a panel advisor (Performing Arts) for the Arts Council Northern Ireland as well as a freelance theatre director. Karl holds a BA Hons Theatre Studies and an MA in Cultural Management.