I am available for facilitation/teaching/dramaturgical work throughout the year. I prefer longer-term engagements to one-off workshops or masterclasses, because I like to work with artists from the start of a project to a complete draft - or better yet, production.

ARTICULATE, the programme I designed and led for Youth Theatre Ireland between 2020 and 2023, is an exemplar. Year 1 was a 9-month facilitation for a cohort of 20 young writers, during which they wrote a first draft of an original play. Group sessions were monthly, supported by email correspondence in the intervening time.
In year 2 work on those plays continued, and was supplemented by BRIEF - a more specialised series of workshops exploring how you write a play when you don’t have carte blanche. How do you approach writing for a specific cast size? For a specific actor? For a specific forum? For a specific audience? How do you make sure you see what you need to during auditions? How do you work with a director without stepping on each other’s toes? What do you look for or ask for in a contract?
Year 1 was thematics; year 2 was pragmatics; in year 3, we invited expressions of interests from all participants in ARTICULATE to write the 2023 National Youth Theatre ensemble play. Following an interview process, playwright/designer Eimear Hussey was commissioned. I worked as her dramaturg from auditioning to development to drafting to production. The NYT ensemble got a play written by a writer just a little older than them; Eimear got a first full production in the national theatre. On both sides of that equation, it was integral to the vision of ARTICULATE that we model the excellence that young talented artists are capable of when adequately supported.
Not every project can be three years long; but this is the level of thoroughness/progression I aspire to offer. Where there isn’t the scope to do so yet, I’m interesting in trying to build it.

Some artists I have worked with as a dramaturg/collaborator: Brigid Leahy, Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng, CN Smith, Dominic O’Brien, Erin Fornoff, Felicia Olusanya, Fionntán Larney, Gillian Buckle, Hazel Clifford, Samuel Yakura, Marty Breen, Nessa Matthews, Wren Dennehy,

Some institutions I have worked with as a facilitator/teacher: Birkbeck, University of London; Dublin Fringe Festival; National University of Ireland, Galway; Soho Theatre; University College Dublin/Gaiety School of Acting; Technological University Dublin; Trinity College Dublin/The Lir Academy; Youth Theatre Ireland.

(Header photo by Ros Kavanagh, from Like We Were Born To Move by Eimear Hussey.)