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Who's Who Profiles

Who's Who Profiles

Name Class Section Copy
Tania Banotti
Chief Executive

Tania Banotti joined Theatre Forum in September 2003. She previously ran Screen Producers Ireland, the trade association for independent film and TV production companies. She worked as a public affairs consultant in Brussels for 4 years and her clients included the Euopean Commercial Television Association (ACT), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the UK TV station ITV. She also worked for a number of years with the United National Special Coordinators Office for the Occupied Territories (UNSCO) in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

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Una Carmody
Board of Directors

Una Carmody is currently Chief Executive 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.

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Olwen Fouéré
Olwen Fouéré
Board of Directors

Born in Ireland of Breton parents, Olwen is a freelance actor and an artistic director of Operating Theatre whose most recent work includes the series of live installations entitled "Here Lies" (around Antonin Artaud's 1937 visit to Ireland) and Passades, both directed by Selina Cartmell.

She has played several major roles in the Abbey, most recently Woman in Woman and Scarecrow directed by Selina Cartmell and Ness in A Cry from Heaven directed by Olivier Py. Other wprk at the Abbey has included playing the role of Hester Swane in the acclaimed world premiere of Marina Carr's "By the Bog of Cats...". She has also played several major roles with the Gate Theatre where she created the role of Salomé in the original Steven Berkoff production of Wilde’s Salomé and various roles in the Beckett and Pinter festivals in Dublin,New York and in the Barbican, London.

Other recent work includes her role as Maeve in The Bull with Fabulous Beast (Dublin Theatre Festival 2006, Barbican 2007, touring to Berlin spieizelteuropa Nov 2008) and Macbeth and Titus Andronicus (Siren Productions). Theatre in the UK includes major roles with the National Theatre, the RSC, ESC, Edinburgh Royal Lyceum and in the West End.

She features in several installations by Irish artist James Coleman which are exhibited internationally. A documentary film of a year in her life "Theatre in the Flesh" was made in 2004, directed by Dara McCluskey.

Current projects include "Here Lies in film" (an Operating Theatre collaboration with cinematographer Christopher Doyle) and a French adaptation and performance of Roddy Doyle's "Paula Spencer" created in collaboration with director Michel Abbécassis which will premiere in Paris in September 2008.

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Johnny Hanrahan
Johnny Hanrahan
Board of Directors

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.

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Claudia Woolgar
Claudia Woolgar
Board of Directors

Claudia is Artistic Director of The Source Arts Centre, a new arts centre in Thurles, County Tipperary with a 250 seater theatre and gallery space. In 2003 and 2004 she was Director of Kilkenny Arts Festival, during which the Festival commissioned and produced site specific work and initiated an innovative community outreach programme. Prior to her move to Ireland she worked in The Netherlands as an international theatre producer. She ran two producing companies, Offshore Cultural Projects and (i)tex, presenting the work of such directors as Rimas Tuminas (Lithunania), Silviu Purcarete (Romania), Lev Dodin (Russia) and Declan Donnellan (UK).

From 1994-1997, based in London, (with a seven month stint living in Romania), she ran a British-Romanian theatre exchange programme called Noroc. This sought to work bi-laterally between the two countries, and involved touring the work of Romanian directors in the UK, and producing collaborative projects. Woolgar also ran a three year training placement programme with the Caucasus region for Visiting Arts in London for young arts managers from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Her first professional job was a theatre critic, specialising in Eastern European theatre.

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Annie Ryan
Annie Ryan
Board of Directors

Annie Ryan is a director, actor and teacher based in Dublin. Originally from Chicago, Annie trained in acting at the Piven Theatre Workshop and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was part of New Crime Productions in Chicago in the early ‘90s, where she was introduced to the style of Commedia dell’Arte that has become the trademark of her theatre company, The Corn Exchange.

Founded in 1995, The Corn Exchange has won international acclaim for its unique style and energy. Productions include STREETCAR, BIG BAD WOOLF, BABY JANE, THE SEAGULL, CAR SHOW (Judges Award Irish Theatre Awards 1998), FOLEY by Michael West, LOLITA, MUD by Maria Irene Fornes (Best Production Irish Theatre Awards 2003), DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT (Best Ensemble, The Stage, Edinburgh) and EVERYDAY, both by Michael West in collaboration with the company. Outside of The Corn Exchange, Annie directed RUDOLF THE RED for the Ark, COME AND GO for the Beckett Festival at the Gate and the Barbican. Her most recent production was FOOL FOR LOVE by Sam Shepard for the Abbey Theatre.

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Fergal Mc Grath
Fergal Mc Grath
Board of Directors

Fergal Mc Grath is Manager of the Town Hall Theatre Galway. He was previously Managing Director of Druid Theatre Company (2002-2006), General Manager of Galway Arts Festival (1992-2002) and a General Manager with Fyffes Plc (1985-1992). In addition to Theatre Forum, he is a board member of Cinemobile.

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Eina McHugh
Eina McHugh
Board of Directors

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.

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Tomás Hardiman
Tomás Hardiman
Board of Directors

Tomas Hardiman holds a B.Comm from NUIG (1979) and an M.A. in Film and Television Studies from DCU (1992). After graduation he worked in human resources in Dublin before living for a time in Toronto, where he became involved in the theatre.

Following his return to Ireland he was appointed Marketing/Publicity Director of the Abbey Theatre (1984 to 1993). He then returned to Galway where he ran his own communications and independent film production company, Parzival Productions, for which he produced eight short films and documentaries, seven of which were broadcast by RTE. From 2002 to 2007 he was Managing Director of Galway Arts Centre and the Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

He now operates Parzival Productions offering arts-related project management services. He is currently undertaking projects for Baboro and The Ark, a Centre for Children and in June will introrduce Murmur, an audio oral history project in Galway.

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Anne Clarke
Anne Clarke
Board of Directors

Anne Clarke was for many years Deputy Director of the Gate Theatre. In 2003, she established an independent production and management company, Landmark Productions, to produce work in Ireland and tour Irish work abroad.

Since then, the company has managed four international tours for two theatres on three continents, and produced ten shows, including four Irish premieres and two world premieres, in Dublin. These include David Hare's Skylight, Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel, David Harrower’s Blackbird and Frank McGuinness’s version of Miss Julie, all at the Project; The Secret Garden, Sleeping Beauty and Alice in Wonderland, all of which were co-produced with The Helix; and Fiona Looney’s Dandelions and Ross O’Carroll-Kelly’s The Last Days of the Celtc Tiger, at the Olympia.

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Irma McLoughlin
Development & Membership Officer

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.

 

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