Irish Theatre Institute is thrilled to announce the selected artists for the 2025 Offsite @ CoisCéim Residencies. This unique programme offers theatre makers whose work embraces movement and physical expression, dedicated space and resources to explore, experiment, and develop their practice. 

The 2025 residencies feature a dynamic group of emerging and established artists from theatre, opera, physical theatre, and interdisciplinary performance, reflecting the diversity and vitality of contemporary Irish creative communities. 

This offer went out through an open call. Thank you to the artist panel for their time and generous consideration: Osaro Azams and Grace Morgan.  

Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) and CoisCéim Dance Theatre celebrate a decade of collaboration in 2025, continuing their shared commitment to professional development.

2025 Offsite @ CoisCéim Residency Artists 

Aoife Cassidy
Residency Dates: 9 – 13 June 2025 
Aoife graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2021–2024) with a BA (Hons) in Acting: Contemporary and Devised. They have received the Lilian Baylis Award and Nellie Watson Scholarship. Aoife has collaborated with artists such as Nicole Charles, Neil Bartlett, Caitríona McLaughlin, and Jessica Dromgoole. As a devising actor and contributing writer, Aoife’s work with The PappyShow, Emily Aboud, Tom Creed, Tonderai Munyevu, and Pan Pan Theatre explores innovative storytelling, blending devised performance and writing to create dynamic theatre experiences. 

Kate Guelke 
Residency Dates: 11 – 15 August 2025 
Northern Irish opera-maker Kate Guelke is a recipient of the Anne O’Donoghue Award and an INVEST artist with Theatre and Dance NI. She has been awarded the ACI Opera Bursary and Stage Directors UK Opera Bursary. As Artistic Director of Spark Opera, Kate leads a company recognised by the National Lottery Award NI Arts and the MAC ‘Hatch’ programme. She has directed for NI Opera, Spark Opera, and Stage Beyond. Recent projects include participation in Synchromesh — the European Symposium for Audio Drama — and an artist residency with Halle Opera. Kate is developing Looking at the Woman in a Bomb Blast (premiering 2026) and an adaptation of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian for BBC Radio 4 (2025). 

Hidden & Forbidden Collective (led by Siún O’Kane) 
Residency Dates: 18 – 22 August 2025 
Founded in 2024 by Siún O’Kane, trained at the Centre Performing Arts College and Musical Theatre Academy, London, this Dublin-based collective focuses on community and experimental theatre. Their debut production, WHITE-KNUCKLED, was selected for the Scene+Heard Festival 2025. The collective uses the Offsite residency to develop Love Letters, a new physical theatre piece blending movement and storytelling to explore connection and intimacy. 

Mai Ishikawa 
Residency Dates: 25 – 29 August 2025 
Japanese theatre-maker and poet Mai Ishikawa is based in Dublin. She has translated several plays for full productions and is an accomplished tap dancer and performer with credits including Festival d’Avignon, KYOTO EXPERIMENT, and World Puppet Theatre Festival Bangkok. Mai won the Unohana Prize in the 8th Kyoto Writing Competition and was shortlisted in the Westival International Poetry Competition 2024. Her poetry appears in The Stony Thursday Book, Banshee, and others. Her theatre work fuses poetic dialogue with physical movement, creating moments that suspend time and reveal the extraordinary in everyday life. 

David Ferreira-Alves 
Residency Dates: 10 – 14 November 2025 
Brazilian-born, Dublin-based artist David Ferreira-Alves explores identity, loss, and cultural memory through collaborative devised performance. Recent works include Terminus (2023), The Absconding, and A Dip into David’s Soil (2024). Currently, David is developing a new piece examining soil as material and metaphor, engaging personal, ecological, and cultural histories. His work is grounded in the body as a site of knowledge and resistance, exploring themes of belonging and transformation through layered, embodied storytelling. 

Colette Cullen 
Residency Dates: 17 – 21 November 2025 
Playwright Colette Cullen’s recent works include LOVE AND OTHER PROMISES (The New Theatre, June 2025), a follow-up to the sell-out WHEN RACHEL MET FIONA (2023). She won the Bealtaine Touring Award 2025 for TENDER MERCIES, which toured nationally. Her play FINGERS CROSSED was produced at Keller Theatre, Giessen, as part of ‘Zeitgeist Irland 24’. Colette’s audio dramas are available internationally, and she has contributed writing to RTE’s FAIR CITY. 

Panellists 

Osaro Azams 
Osaro is a multi-award-winning artist whose work explores the relationship between guttural voice and poetry. She is currently developing The Opposite of Queer Trauma, a dance performance premiering at Cork Midsummer Festival 2025. Osaro’s multidisciplinary work is noted for its visceral, poetic intensity. 

Grace Morgan 
Grace is a director and maker working across theatre and opera. She is co-artistic director of tasteinyourmouth (Dublin Fringe Artists in Residence 2024) and studio director for Irish National Opera. Her directing credits include The 24hr Plays (Abbey Theatre, 2025), Hysterically Shopping! (Dublin Theatre Festival+ 2024), Suor Angelica (Wexford Festival Opera, 2023), and You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) (Edinburgh Fringe 2024). Grace has toured internationally and was previously Associate Artistic Director of Pan Pan theatre.