Joanne Beirne holds a B.A. Hons in Drama & Theatre Studies from the University of Surrey and an M.Phil in Irish Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin.
Joanne completed a three year term as the Artistic Director of the Belltable Arts Centre in Limerick earlier this year. During her tenure at the Belltable, Joanne was responsible for the programming of the venue, she curated the annual Unfringed Festival and was the project manager for the Limerick Theatre Hub initiative.
Joanne’s previous work has included roles in areas of directing and producing. She produced, directed and adapted Lenka's Wardrobe (Dublin Fringe Festival 2007). She has worked as a production co-ordinator for Lane Productions. Joanne has also worked as an assistant director on productions for Corcadorca, Fishamble, Yew Tree and the Cork Opera House. She also worked with Galway Youth Theatre, Calypso & Barnstorm within their outreach programmes.
Caroline Byrne graduated from Central School of Speech and Drama. She has worked as an actor trainer/director of actors at National Student Drama Festival, Lyric Belfast, Cockpit Theatre, East 15, Central School of Speech and Drama, Kingston University and the Actors Centre. Caroline studied Performance at University of California, Berkeley and more recently with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company. She teaches and directs works at the Central School of Drama, and at the Actors Centre as the Creative Projects Manager. Directing credits include Unrealistic Sleep Expectations, What do we do about Henry? (Tristan Bates Theatre) Twizzler Soaked Ecsatcy, (SITI Co, Bernhard Theatre Studio) The Children (Embassy Theatre), Lab Run and Attempts on her Life (Durham Theatre, Berkeley, USA).
Dan Colley is a theatre maker with a focus on dramaturgy and collaborative writing. He has just finished facilitating improv workshops with homeless LGBT teens in Los Angeles and is making a documentary piece from interviews he has recorded. He’s just finishing 12 months of drama facilitation training with the National Association for Youth Drama. He produced and co-wrote You Can’t Just Leave – There’s Always Something for Spilt Gin in ABSOLUT Fringe 2011.
As a dramaturg he has worked on Bang Shoot Blast by Karl Watson in the Project CUBE and at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival 2011, Soh by James Hickson in the ABSOLUT Fringe. He devised and implemented ‘Scriptscribe’, for Come As Soon As You Hear, a playwriting programme aimed at first-time playwrights. He facilitates and directs a devised theatre-making course with Transition Years in Mount Temple Comprehensive. He’s an associate artist of Come As Soon As You Hear and Spilt Gin collectives.
He hates blank pages and will do almost anything not to have to look at one.
Amanda Collins is a director from Bray, Co. Wicklow and is currently based in London. She studied directing at Rose Bruford College, London. She is Co-Artistic Director of Life Drawn Theatre Company.
Recent directing work includes: Jason In The Bath written by Ian Orrick (Old Red Lion Theatre, London as part of their RedFest New Writing Festival), Not I by Samuel Beckett (Towards A Cultural Olympiad Symposium held at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance, London), Futurists by Dusty Hughes (Associate Director collaborating with second year actors at Rose Bruford College) and Ringing In Your Ears by Joel Horwood (New Writing Season Unicorn Theatre, London).
Amanda is Resident Assistant Director for Bred In The Bone Theatre Company, with whom she has spent the last two summers at The Grotowski Institute, Wroclaw, Poland researching and developing a production of Don Quixote. Other assisting credits include Sweeney Todd (The Octagon Theatre, Bolton) The Wanamaker Festival (The Globe Theatre) and Noises Off (Birmingham Rep).
Ricardo Correia is a theatre-maker and graduated in Education Sciences and post-graduated with an M.A. in Theatre Directing in the E.S.T.C –Superior Theatre and Cinema School. He is a founding member of CASA DA ESQUINA multi-disciplinary arts collective.
He has worked as an actor/director since 2001 with several theatres groups: National Theatre São João, Escola da Noite, T- Zero, Teatro Oficina, Lábio, Casa da Esquina, Teatrão, Teatro Matosinhos, among others.
Recent directing work includes: Audio-walk: Chambres Rooms Zimmers in Coimbra and It felt empty when the heart stopped at first but it is alright now by Lucy Kirkwood (Casa da Esquina) 2011. Peregrinação by Fernão Mendes Pinto (Teatrão) 2010; Auto da Barca do Inferno by Gil Vicente (TEUC/ Festival das Artes) 2010; Os Trabalhadores Invisíveis by Sandra Pinheiro (staged reading to MAD) 2010; As Extraordinárias Aventuras do Urso Polar e da Raposa do Deserto (Teatrão) 2010; PlayPause by Harold Pinter (E.S.T.C / Teatro Taborda) 2009; Ida e Volta by Tiago Rodrigues, (Staged reading to MAD) 2009; Exercícios de botânica (Casa da Esquina) 2008; Finisterra – unha visión en construcción sobre o espírito da revolucíon do 25 de Abril (Casa da Esquina/Colectivo Urbano Lugris, Spain) 2008 ; Staged reading of Cataclismo by Sandra Pinheiro (Teatro Oficina) 2007; Maratona de Nova York by Edoardo Elba, assistant director of Jonathan Humphreys (Teatro Oficina) 2007; Projecto Müller by Heiner Müller (T.E.U.C.) 2007
More Info: algumacoisameconsome.blogspot.com
Mark Fitzgerald is an actor who trained at The Drama Centre London and at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris. Mark has worked with theatre companies such as The Abbey, Fishamble, Rough Magic, Second Age, Storytellers, Hatch, Dirty Market, Real Circumstance, Company Of Angels, Tightrope, Ape and has done workshops with Complicite, Frantic Assembly, Song Of The Goat, Corn Exchange, Di Trevis, Shona Morris (Ecole Jacques Le Coq), Susan Batson and Bernard Hiller. He has also worked for Sandblast and Caravanserai performing in Algeria for the Saharawi Refugee camps.
His theatre credits include: The Plough and the Stars, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Still The Blackbird Sings, On the Other Side of the Wall, Bacchaefull, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cruel & Tender, A Harlot’s Progress, Duck, Merchant of Venice, Joan Of Arc, Oedipus Rex, Scenes From The Big Picture, Antonio, A Laughing Matter.
Films include: Two Tonne Hands, Commune, 8:31, On The Run. Radio work includes several plays for RTE radio.
Conor Hanratty is a theatre director from Dublin. He trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College, at Royal Holloway and the National Theatre Studio in London, and recently completed an MFA in Directing at UCLA in Los Angeles. In 2004 he was awarded a Japanese Government Scholarship to study theatre in Tokyo, where he lived for two years and worked for an extended period with Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa.
In Dublin he has worked extensively with Second Age, and was part of Rough Magic's SEEDS programme in 2006-2007. This included the opportunity to assist Lynne Parker on Schiller's Don Carlos, and culminated with Conor's production of Caligula at the Fringe in 2007. The production was nominated for two Irish Times Theatre awards, including Best Production, and was later revived as part of Re:Viewed in the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival in 2008. Conor was also a part of the first ever Project Brand New, presenting an adaptation of Mir Amman's Tale of Four Dervishes. Recent productions in LA include Bruckner's Pains of Youth, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites Aeschylus' Persians and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.
Jessica Hilliard has been involved in youth theatre since the age of 12 (Activate and Dublin Youth Theatre). Following the completion of her BA in Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin in 2002, she worked for Little Bird Film and Television before joining Dublin Theatre Festival in 2005 and was there for five years as the Administrative and Research Coordinator. She has also been involved with Alternative Miss Ireland, Electric Picnic, Festival of World Cultures and Kings of Concrete.
She has worked in administration, script reading, costume and makeup design, production management, programming, research, facilitation, as a producer and a performer.
A founding member of Randolf SD | The Company, Jessica has recently completed a full time MA in Performance and Culture at Goldsmiths College London. She is currently based in Dublin.
Alma Kelliher has a BA in Music from Trinity College, Dublin and an MSc in Sound Design from Edinburgh University. She studied organ to diploma level with the London College of Music and Media and is currently a member of the Rough Magic SEEDS Programme 2010-11.
Previous theatre credits include sound for Plaza Suite (Rough Magic 2011), the development of Jacques Cousteau is in the Silent World, (Making Strange 2010) and the productions: Dead Cat Bounce… Too Fast For Love (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2010), Missing (Project Brand New 2010), Basin (Anu Productions, Dublin Fringe Festival 2009), Dead Cat Bounce… Wired (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 09) Extremities (Spark to a Flame 2009), Zillah (The Headphone Theatre Project, Edinburgh 2008), and as assistant sound designer and composer on Beauty and the Beast (National Theatre, London, 2010) Sodome My Love, The Importance of Being Earnest and Phaedra (Rough Magic, 2010).
Previous film and television work include The Incredible Shrinking Office (New Star Fish Enterprises), The Holiday Show (Trilogy Media, TV3), Lullaby (Barry Reddin dir.), The House and Veronique (both Timesnap Productions). Musical Director of Pop Céilî, an eight piece music fusion group. Also created a collection of music inspired by the book Magician by Raymond E Feist in 2007.
Dance Ireland Nominee
Place kindly funded by Dance Ireland
Amy Kinlon is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. She has trained in a range of dance styles: contemporary, capoeira, ballet, street, Afro-Brazilian and Irish traditional sean nós dance. In 2000 she was awarded a full scholarship to train in contemporary dance at Laban, London and after working as a freelance dancer and teacher she completed her MA in contemporary dance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at Limerick University. From 2009–2010 Amy was in residence at Daghdha Dance where she further developed her practice, taught classes and workshops. She created site-specific, dance theatre and collaborative performance works. As a choreographer she has worked with the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Dance House Glasgow and Ishka Theatre Company. Based in London she performed at the BAC, Lilian Baylis Theatre, Stratford Circus, Laban, and The Place and has held street dance contracts internationally in London, Copenhagen, and Dubai.
Amy has performed in Unfringed Festival, 2010 and Catherine Street Cultural Dig, 2011 Limerick. She completed a national tour of Shelagh Stevenson’s hard hitting play Five Kinds of Silence as Janet and most recently held a Dance Ireland residency in order to develop a dance theatre piece; MAss for the ISSTC held in Limerick. Since 2007 she has attended developmental summer residencies at Senzala Capoeira Academy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whilst regularly training at events all over Europe and continues to experiment with the style in her dance practice.
Absolut Fringe Wild Card
Place kindly funded by Absolut Fringe
Tom lane is a composer, singer and muli-instrumentalist living in Dublin. Born in Bristol in 1984, he studied composition at Balliol College Oxford, the London Royal Academy of Music and the Berlin University of the Arts. Recent work includes live music for two pieces at the 2011 Dublin Dance Festival: Listowel Syndrome by Emma Martin and Ten: White-Grey Studies in movement Liv O'Donoghue. He also composed Experimental Evensong for the choir of Christ Church Cathedral which was performed at the 2010 Absolout Fringe and COROKINESIS for the 2011 Fringe Festival.
Ruth Lehane trained at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin; and Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris. Having completed her studies in France, she spent a year touring Spain, playing various roles with Bantam Theatre of Barcelona.
Since returning to Ireland, Ruth’s theatre work has included: Arrah-Na-Pogue, The Misogynist and The Silver Tassie (Abbey Theatre); Dog, Moby Dan and Blowfish (Barabbas...the Company); The Chairs and The Bald Soprano (Blue Raincoat); Tales from Ovid (Theatreworks); Two for Dinner for Two and Ferry Tales (Carpet Theatre Company); Slaughter (Semper Fi Theatre Company); Diamonds in the Soil (Macnas); and The Beggar’s Opera and Home Free (Lombard Street Studio).
International theatre credits include: Bruised (Tinderbox, Belfast); The Tinker’s Wedding and In the Shadow of the Glen (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); The Travelling Teller (Cahoots NI); and The Mysteries (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry). Ruth has also played the role of Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (Friends of the Italian Opera Theatre in Berlin); and in a one-woman show, Circus Dances, (The Irish Arts Centre, New York).
Film and television work includes: Supine Rhyme for Artsquad; and Fair City for RTE. Radio includes 10!9!8!7!6!7!8!9!10! by Kevin Gildea (winner of the PJ O’Connor Radio Drama Award); and Know Your Station by Jinx Lennon
Caitríona McLaughlin is originally from Carndonagh, Co. Donegal. Currently based in London, her recent directing work includes:- Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (Bard Summerscape), NewYork Jult 2011; & Irish Blood English Heart by Darren Murphy at Trafalgar Studios London’s West End, from May 2nd 2011, transfer from The Union Theatre London, March 2011. Bottom of the World by Lucy Thurber at The Atlantic Theatre in New York September 2010. Judgement Day by Oden Von Hovarth at Bard Summerscape, Opera Festival in New York, July 2010. Still, The Blackbird Sings, The Playhouse and tour, March 2010. Killers and Other Family, Rattlestick Theatre, New York September 2009.
Caitriona has a particular interest in new writing and development and is Associate Director at The Playground Studio. She was awarded a Clore Fellowship in 2007 and spent time on secondment to the Royal Court Theatre in 2008/09. During her time there Caitriona developed her dramaturgical skills through participating in script meetings. She was responsible for researching the feasibility of finding a second home for the Royal Court and found a shop unit at the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, which in now the site of The Royal Court’s Theatre Local Project.
Jacinta Sheerin attended Dublin Youth Theatre for many years, appearing in numerous productions including Wake Up Sleeping Beauties, Mirroring Angels and The United Colours of Domino. Jacinta went on to receive a BA in Theatre Studies from the University of Ulster, Coleraine. She worked as a freelance drama facilitator for several years before completing an MA in Dramatherapy from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Jacinta was employed by Mountjoy Men's Prison, Dublin as a drama teacher and directed many pieces with the inmates. Most recently Jacinta performed a leading role in the feature film, Sea Side Stories. The movie is currently touring festivals and due for general release soon. Jacinta, now based in London, has also trained with Custom Practice in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in Commedia Dell 'Arte with The Corn Exchange in Dublin. Jacinta most recently performed sonnets as part of The Globe Theatre's Sonnet Walk; a promenade piece performed in various locations across London. Waiting for IKEA, co-written by and starring Jacinta, recently received its UK premiere in London. Waiting for IKEA debuted at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2007 and was the first show to sell out in advance of opening in the history of the Fringe Festival. The show has toured all over Ireland to capacity venues since then.
Aoife Spillane-Hinks directorial credits include The Yellow Wallpaper (Then This Theatre/ABSOLUT Fringe); Plaza Suite (Rough Magic); Hamlet (Second Age); Boston Marriage (Gate Theatre/Dublin Theatre Festival); True Enough! (Making Strange/ABSOLUT Fringe); Serious Money (Rough Magic AIB SEEDS Showcase); Yesterday an Incident Occurred (Dublin Youth Theatre); All Dressed Up to Go Dreaming (Pope Joan/Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe); La Casa Azul (Mephisto/Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe).
Aoife acted as associate director to Alan Stanford on Jane Eyre (Gate Theatre), and assistant director to Tom Murphy on The Sanctuary Lamp (b*spoke), to Tom Creed on Una Santa Oscura (Project Arts Centre), to Lynne Parker on Benefactors (b*spoke), and to Tom Creed on Life is a Dream (Rough Magic).
Aoife trained as a director on the Rough Magic/ AIB SEEDS programme. She holds a BA in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University and an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from NUI Galway.
Maeve Stone, originally from Limerick, graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in Theatre and English. She founded Spilt Gin three years ago with playwright James Hickson. Maeve is currently working on the company's fifth production You Can't Just Leave -There's Always Something, a site-specific, collaboratively written play that will run as part of ABSOLUT Fringe 2011.
Directing credits with Spilt Gin include Andy Warhol's Nothing Special (Project Arts Centre as part of THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON), Soh (Smock Alley Theatre for the ABSOLUT Fringe 2010) and most recetly Taste, (as part of THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: Volume II at Project Cube and in the Solsitice Festival, Cork in June).
She recently served as assistant director to Aoife Spillane-Hinks on Hamlet (Second Age, Helix), to Jimmy Fay on The Colleen Bawn (Project Arts Centre), to Tom Creed on Una Santa Oscura (Project Arts Centre), and on short films by Oonagh Kearney, Her Mother's Daughters (RTE, Dance on the Box). Maeve is a participant of the 'Power of Words' programme at Project Arts Centre.
Louise White is an actress and theatre maker. She trained at both Trinity College Dublin and The Oxford School of Drama. This is her third year presenting as part of ABSOLUT Fringe with fellow actress Kate Nic Chonaonaigh. All Things Considered it’s a Nice Place to Start (2011), From the Heart (2010) – nominated for 3 ABSOLUT Fringe awards and Nurse Me (2009), Louise has also appeared in Serious Money (Project Arts Centre as part of Rough Magic AIB SEEDS).
Work of note in London includes Sir Nobonk (Tour) and Unclay a work in progress (showing @ Young Vic both for Bagg Theatre Company), Diagnosis Superstar (The Soho Theatre), Ali to Karim (Alamut International), The Bald Prima Donna (The Etcetera Theatre).
Prior to that her Dublin Credits include Far Away, (Bedrock Theatre Company) and H (after Hamlet) (Loose Cannon). Louise recently worked with director Dee Roycroft on her project Starman Fisher.
Karl Watson is a visual designer and theatre maker, and co-founder of creative collective Come As Soon As You Hear, who make club nights, pervasive games and interactive theatre. He has a BA in Visual Communication and also likes surfing and cycling.
He really loves rewardingly uncomfortable theatre experiences and the role of the audience is at the heart of all of his work, he likes to allow/force them to emotionally connect slash physically interact wherever possible. Or feed them hot cake.
Recent work includes SPURT (commissioned for Solstice at Cork Midsummer Festival), which featured a set of thirty live gold fish and one (or two...) dead ones, BANG SHOOT BLAST (Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and Theatre Machine Turns You On), and TRAIN OF THOUGHT with a pregnant lady in a paddling pool. Currently he's working on Playback Theatre performances imaginatively titled PLAYBACK AS SOON AS YOU HEAR.
