Board, Founding Directors & Patrons

Board

  • Lorraine Maye is currently the Director of Cork Midsummer Festival, one of Ireland’s largest multidisciplinary arts festivals. Using the city as the stage and inspiration, the Festival supports the development and presentation of new work by artists at all stages of their careers and collaborates directly with communities to realise participative projects. She has a wealth of experience in festivals and events, having worked in a variety of roles for events both nationally and internationally including the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in Belfast, Cork Film Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Temple Bar Cultural Trust. She holds a H.Dip in Arts Administration from NUI,G and a Diploma in Public Relations from the PRII.

    (Appointed as Chair, 25 January 2024; Appointed to the Board, 9 December 2020)

  • Andy Arnold has spent most of his career running building-based theatre companies – mainly in Scotland.  He spent 17 years as Founder and Artistic Director of The Arches, Glasgow followed by 15 years as Artistic Director of Tron Theatre, Glasgow.  In both organisations he championed Irish theatre.  In 2012 he directed the world premier stage version of James Joyce’s Ulysses (adapted by Dermot Bolger) and has staged British and Scottish premieres of plays by Tom Murphy, Sebastian Barry, Enda Walsh, Brian Friel, Marie Jones, Beckett, O’Casey, and many more.  He has also worked in association and co-production with various Irish theatre companies and theatre artists.   Apart from making his own work, Andy has focused much of his time in developing opportunities for, and nurturing the talents of, emerging theatre makers. Andy now lives in Galway working as a freelance director and consultant in Ireland, Scotland, and internationally.  

    (Appointed 16 April 2024)

  • Jane Brennan has been an actor for over 40 years and has worked with all the major Irish theatre companies. Recent work includes: DruidShakespeare: Richard III, (Druid/Abbey Theatre/Lincoln Centre, 2018), The Beacon by Nancy Harris, (Druid/ Gate Theatre, 2019) and she directed ‘Daniel Carroll/14 Voices from the Bloodied Field’, (Abbey/Croke Park 2020). Jane also co-founded b*spoke Theatre Company with fellow actor Alison McKenna, producing work from 2001-2009.

    Her film and TV work includes the Academy Award nominated and BAFTA winning Brooklyn, Herself, A Good Woman is Hard to Find, Intermission, The Tudors, Striking Out, Love/Hate and Hidden Assets. She received an Irish Times Theatre Award, Best Actress, for Alice Trilogy, written and directed by Tom Murphy and an Irish Film and Television Award, Best Supporting Actress, for Brooklyn.

    (Appointed 31 August 2022)

  • Padraic Ferry is currently a board member of Druid Theatre Company and Inner City Renewal Group.

    Previously, he was chairman of Galway Arts Festival and Macnas Theatre Company. He is founder and managing partner of Ferrys Solicitors.

    (Appointed 27 January 2022)

  • Michelle Hoctor has been working for over two decades – in both the public and private sector – across the spectrum of communications including digital comms, public affairs and marketing. Most recently she held the position of Director of Communications, Advocacy and Marketing at Engineers Ireland, the professional body for 25,500 engineers, driving its programme of work around communications, policy, marketing, sectoral engagement, public affairs, and its Government-funded STEM outreach programme in schools. She also worked as a Government Press Adviser for over four years, including for the Minister for Arts at the then Dept. of Arts, Sport and Tourism. She was employed by the Arts Council as its Press Officer and as its Acting Director of Communications; in RTÉ as a Press Officer (RTÉ Radio 1) and at Music Network. She holds a BA and a H.Dip in Arts Admin (UCD) and has qualifications in European humanities and in management. She is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Irish Studies at UCD.  Michelle was a member of the 1987 National Youth Theatre. She is a member of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland. 

    (Appointed 01 September 2021)

  • Dr. Barry Houlihan is an Archivist at University of Galway, specialising in archives and heritage of Irish theatre. Barry has worked on the preservation and digitisation of numerous archives of Irish theatres and theatre companies, as well as curating various exhibitions on the history and practice of theatre in Ireland and internationally. Published works include the books Navigating Ireland’s Theatre Archive Theory, Practice, Performance (2019) and Theatre and Archival Memory: Irish Drama and Marginalised Histories 1951-1977 (2021). Barry is a Committee member of the Irish Society for Theatre Research, the Irish Society for Archives, and is editor of the journal Irish Archives.  

    (Appointed 16 April 2024)

  • Esosa Ighodaro is a Nigerian/Irish writer, director and vocalist. She makes work for stage and screen. Her work aims to highlight black talent and tell more varied stories of the black experiences in Ireland, using humour to explore more serious themes.  Esosa is a Resident Artist at Axis Arts Centre where she is developing new work over a 3 year residency. She is an Associate Artist with Civic Theatre, Tallaght where her work will focus on supporting more artists of colour to engage with the Irish Arts sector to create new work that speaks to their lived experience. Esosa is a 2024 Resident Director at the Abbey Theatre, where she is engaged in a programme to grow her craft and skillset as theatre director.  Esosa’s work for screen has been screened at film festivals across Ireland, US and Southern Africa, winning an audience choice award. Work for TV and film is currently in development.  

    As a vocalist, Esosa works in a wide range of styles, in particular earning acclaim for her soulful renditions of traditional Irish music – soul ceol! She recorded her debut album You Won’t Believe It after touring extensively as a solo artist as well as a guest and backing vocalist. She has worked with a range of artists from local Gospel Choirs to Stevie Wonder.  

    (Appointed 16 April 2024)

  • Rebecca Mairs is a Development Executive and Dramaturg with over ten years’ experience in film, television and theatre development.  She currently works for the award-winning Kennedy Films across their slate of documentary, television drama, and feature film projects.  She was previously Literary Manager for the Lyric Theatre Belfast (The Stage’s UK Theatre of the Year 2023), where she managed their commissions and talent development initiatives, including five iterations of the New Playwrights Programme.   Past collaborations include: the Young Playwrights Programme with Fighting Words; Writing Without Borders with Rage Productions Mumbai; A Play for Ireland with Fishamble; Taking The Stage: Mexico with the British Council; and Film4/The Peggy Ramsay Foundation.  Rebecca sits on the Irish Theatre Institute’s Playography Advisory Panel and the Board of Commedia of Errors Theatre Company.  

    (Appointed 16 April 2024)

  • Professor Chris Morash became the inaugural Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin in 2014 and was appointed as the Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer of Trinity College Dublin in 2016. His work on Irish culture extends from his pioneering 1996 study, Writing the Irish Famine, to his 2002 History of Irish Theatre (which won the Theatre Book Prize), to A History of the Media in Ireland (2009). His most recent works are Mapping Irish Theatre (with Shaun Richards, 2014), and The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre (co-edited with Nicholas Grene, 2016). Prior to his appointment to Trinity, Chris Morash worked in Maynooth University. He was the first chair of the Compliance Committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (2009-2014), and was elected to Membership of the Royal Irish Academy in 2007. Originally from Canada, he is married with three adult children.

    (Appointed 31 August 2022)

  • Shane O’Reilly, is an actor and a writer and is currently a resident artist at The Dean Arts Studio in Dublin. Shane has made a lot of work about and with the Deaf Community in Ireland which is inspired by his growing up as a proud CODA (Child of Deaf Adults).  

    His recent theatre writing work includes: Gold in the Water (Project Arts Centre, Mermaid Arts Centre); Swansong (Barnstorm Theatre Company); Windowpane (The Abbey Theatre – Dear Ireland); The Water Boys (Equinox Theatre); Näher…closer, nearer, sooner (Liz Roche Company); FOLLOW, FARM and CARE (co-created with WillFredd Theatre) and The Matador (Fringe: Show in a Bag).  

    Shane’s film writing and directing includes: The Water Boys (KCat), PAL (Culture Night 2020); Näher (co-created with Liz Roche and directed by Alan Gilsenan). 

    Shane has worked as a dramaturg in both dance and theatre with Aisling Byrne (Run of the Mill), Jean Butler (What We Hold), Liz Roche (Dēmos, Here Trio), Emma Martin (Birdboy), Emma O’Kane (Jockey) and Paul Curley (Bake!) among others.  

    As an actor Shane has performed with The Abbey Theatre, The Gate Theatre, Rough Magic, Landmark, Barnstorm and Prime Cut along with other Irish and international companies in productions such as: Peter Pan, Gatsby, Hamlet, An Ideal Husband, Private Lives (Gate Theatre), The Dead, Oedipus, Me Michael, Seven Jewish Children, One Good Turn, Richard II, 14 Voices from the Bloodied Field (Abbey Theatre), Madhouse (Una McKevitt & PJ Gallagher), Woyzeck in Winter (Landmark Productions), Signatories (Verdant Productions), Conquest of Happiness (Prime Cut/East West Productions), Override (White Label), Jack, Song From The Sea, Murder Of Crows, Boy with a Suitcase (Barnstorm Theatre Company). 

    (appointed 28 August 2024) 

Founding Directors

  • Siobhán Bourke is the founding Director of Irish Theatre Institute where she worked alongside Jane Daly to promote and support Irish theatre makers and companies through international networking and showcasing, artist mentoring, conferencing and publications.

    Siobhán, together with Jane Daly, was instrumental in leading the Irish Playography project (2002). She developed the theatre research parameters to map the Irish theatre repertoire of new plays, designed the database framework, and published reports on both English and Irish-language plays. This work culminated in the Playography IRELAND catalogues. A generation of Irish theatre professionals contributed to the project by entering theatre information and testing the sites.

    In 2017, Siobhán and Jane were jointly awarded the Special Tribute Award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in recognition of their essential work with Irish Theatre Institute and their individual long-standing commitment to Irish theatre. Siobhán co-edited Stage & Screen Design Ireland 2007- 2014 for Irish Design (ID) in 2015. She was a founding member of Rough Magic Theatre Company (1984) where she worked as Executive Producer until 1998 having produced 50 shows, many of which toured around Ireland and internationally. In 1999, Siobhán edited the Rough Magic: First Plays anthology.

    Parallel to her theatre work, Siobhán is a successful Film and TV Producer with her company Saffron Pictures, co-owned with Kathryn Lennon. Productions include the award-winning and critically-acclaimed dramas Whistleblower (RTÉ) and Love is the Drug (RTÉ) and most recently, a major six-part TV drama Acceptable Risk. Siobhán has served on several boards including the National Theatre Society, the Dublin Theatre Festival,  Project Arts Centre and Dublin City Council Culture Company, and was also on the cultural relations committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs. As an occasional lecturer she has taught on several arts and culture-related courses including the Drama and Theatre Studies MPhil in Trinity and UCD’s MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management.

  • Jane Daly was a Co-Director of Irish Theatre Institute from 2001 to 2021 where she worked with Siobhán Bourke to promote and support Irish theatre makers and companies through international networking and showcasing, artist mentoring, conferencing and publications.

    Jane, together with Siobhán Bourke, was instrumental in leading the Irish Playography project (2002). She developed the theatre research parameters to map the Irish theatre repertoire of new plays, designed the database framework, and published reports on both English and Irish-language plays. This work culminated in the Playography IRELAND catalogues. A generation of Irish theatre professionals contributed to the project by entering theatre information and testing the sites.

    In 2017,  Jane and Siobhán were jointly awarded the Special Tribute Award at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in recognition of their essential work with Irish Theatre Institute and ​their individual long-standing commitment to Irish theatre.

    Born in Dublin and living in Galway, Jane has worked in the professional arts sector since 1984. ​She worked for Dublin Theatre Festival and MayFest, Glasgow’s International Arts Festival before becoming General Manager/Producer of Druid where, over eight years, she produced 30 shows, many of which toured both nationally and internationally. On leaving Druid in 1996, she set up Jane Daly Arts Management which provides project management, strategic planning and facilitation services to arts organisations​, local authorities and third level theatre programmes. ​She was acting Drama Officer at the Arts Council in the late 90’s and, more recently, was Programme Manager for Galway’s successful bid to be​come the European Capital of Culture in 2020. She also served on the Board of the Abbey Theatre.

Founding Patrons

Brian Friel
Playwright (1929-2015)
Tom Hickey
Actor (1944-2021)
Garry Hynes
Theatre Director
Tom Murphy
Playwright (1935-2018)
Phyllis Ryan
Actress, Independent Theatre Producer (1920-2011)

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