Emmet Kirwan is an award-winning actor and playwright from
Tallaght in Dublin. He studied drama and theatre studies at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin.

Over the last twenty years Emmet has worked and collaborated as both actor and writer with both THISISPOPBABY and Fishamble: The New Play company. THISISPOPBABY has commissioned Emmet to write this new work What If We Get To Be Happy, and previously the poetry sections of both of their smash hit shows RIOT and WAKE and he has collaborated many times with Phillip McMahon on both of their work, including Straight to Video, Alice in Funderland, and Dublin Oldschool which was developed as part of the Fishamble/Dublin Fringe/ITI Show in a Bag initiative. He first worked with Fishamble on Gary Duggan’s Monged over twenty years ago this year, and has worked on Tiny Plays for Ireland and America in New York and Washington DC, and The Leap, as an actor with the company since. This is his first time collaborating with the company as a playwright.

In this anniversary year also, Emmet has had a long and incredible artistic partnership with Project Arts Centre. They have supported him throughout his career both as an actor and playwright and have staged or co-produced all of his plays. It is an incredible honour to bring this new work home to the Project Arts in it’s 60th year.

Emmet has worked in Irish and English Theatre performing many times on stages such as Project Arts Centre, The Abbey Theatre, The Gate, Donmar Warehouse, The National Theatre of Britain, and The Soho, as well as working with leading theatre companies such as Rough Magic, Fishamble, THISISPOPBABY, Guna Nua, Story Tellers, Semper Fi Barabbas, Island, Performance Corporation amongst many others.

He has numerous film and television credits most recently the films Magpie and Spilt Milk, and KIN season 3.

His most recent work as a writer and performer is Accents. A spoken word verse play in a musical collaboration with Eoin French (who performs as Talos) and directed by Claire O’Reilly of Malaprop theatre company. It was produced by Cian O’Brien and Caoimhe Whelan for COBA Productions. This played two sell out runs in Project Arts Centre and embarked on a sell out
nationwide tour in 2025. It was the first play to debut at the recently reopened Ambassador Theatre. His multi-character video shop set, hit comedy play Straight to Video, was produced by Landmark Productions and Project Arts Centre.

As a playwright performer Emmet’s play Dublin Oldschool directed by Phillip McMahon won the Stewart Parker award for playwriting, it was produced by Project Arts Centre and did seven
sell out runs there before touring internationally and transferring to The Dorfman in The National Theatre for a sell out run. It was adapted into a feature film with Element Pictures and opened in
Irish and British cinemas in 2018 and international festivals including the London BFI. It returned to The Olympia Theatre in 2024.

Emmet also wrote the poetry sections and performed in THISISPOPBABY’S RIOT, which has played Vicar Street in Dublin and toured internationally to The Sydney theatre festival and Skirball New York. His poem Heartbreak is taken from this show and was adapted in to a short film that won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Short Film.

Other writing includes the radio drama Wild West (2018) for BBC 4, (nominated for Best Radio Drama Award 2019 from The Writers Guild of Ireland) and Queen of The Pyramids (2019) for
Landmark Productions. He was also funded by the Arts Council to develop his play The
Last Partholonian a play based on the first cycle of Irish Mythology. It received a performed reading directed by Oonagh Murphy.

He is also known for writing and starring in the RTÉ 2 comedy series Sarah and Steve for Accomplice television.

Jim Culleton is the Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. His productions for Fishamble have won Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards.

Jim has also directed for the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, 7:84 Scotland, Project, Amharclann de hÍde, Tinderbox, Passion Machine, the Ark, Second Age, Dundee Rep, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, Little Museum of Dublin, Fighting Words, Soho Theatre, Scripts Festival, and Baptiste Programme.  He has directed audio plays for Audible, BBC, RTÉ Radio 1, and RTÉ lyric fm. He has directed for Vessel and APA (Australia), TNL (Canada), Solas Nua, Mosaic, and Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Odyssey (LA), Origin, Irish Arts Center, New Dramatists, and 59E59 (Off-Broadway), as well as for Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway.  Jim has taught for NYU, NUI, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, UM, UMD, JNU, and TCD.

Ellen Kirk is an Irish production designer working across theatre and film.

Recent theatre credits include Set & Costume Design for Crisis Actor and Konstantin by Lauren Jones, directed by Eoghan Carrick (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2026; Dublin Theatre Festival, 2025); Costume Design for Raising Her Voice by Pea Dinneen, directed by John King (Best Production Winner, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2025); and Set Design for 0800-CUPID by Emer Dineen, directed by Philip McMahon (Dublin Theatre Festival, 2024; subsequent tour). Other work includes Illness as Metaphor by Dead Centre, This Solution written by Shaun Dunne and directed by Claire O’Reilly and Brokentalkers’ Masterclass, winner of a Scotsman Fringe First.

In film, Kirk was Production Designer on Everybody Digs Bill Evans, directed by Grant Gee, which premiered in competition at Berlinale 2026 and won the Silver Bear for Best Director. She also designed Room Taken dir. TJ O’Grady Peyton shortlisted for an Academy Award, 2025. Kirk received a Special Mention for the Aer Lingus Discovery Award at DIFF 2022. She is co-founder and designer with Murmuration, Resident Artists at Project Arts Centre (2024–27).

Sarah Jane is a lighting designer whose interest in light began as a member of Dublin Youth Theatre. She collaborates with a wide range of companies across theatre, dance, opera, and installation.

Upcom­ing pro­duc­tions include Wake (THISISPOPBABY), La Voix humaine, Bluebeard’s Castle and Carousel (Wermland Opera, Karlstad, Sweden).

Recent cred­its include Disco Pigs, directed by Enda Walsh, at the Every­man The­atre, Cork; Mered­ith (Gate The­atre, as part of Dublin The­atre Fes­ti­val); Pretty Vacant (Per­for­mance Cor­po­ra­tion); Kafka’s Doll (The­atre Lovett); Saoirse (An Taibhdhearc); The White­headed Boy (Abbey The­atre); Cun­ning Lit­tle Vixen (Irish National Opera); Dénoue­ment and Our New Girl (Lyric The­atre, Belfast); The Mir­ror Stage (Bro­kentalk­ers); Octo­pus Chil­dren (THISISPOPBABY); L’elisir d’amore (Irish National Opera); The Bor­row­ers (Gate Theatre).

Other projects include This Shit Happens All The Time (Lyric Theatre); Conversations After Sex (THISISPOPBABY); All the Angels (Rough Magic); Book of Names (ANU); Hansel and Gretel (INO, Theatre Lovett and the Abbey Theatre); This Hostel Life (INO); The Veiled One (Junk Ensemble); Children of the Sun (Rough Magic and the Abbey Theatre); A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Collapsing Horse).

Teho Teardo is a musician, composer and sound designer with an interest in developing the possible connections between electronic and acoustic sounds.

He wrote and produced three albums and two eps with Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende
Neubauten). Collaborated with Stuart Staples (Tindersticks), Lydia Lunch, Cop Shoot Cop, Alexander Balanescu, Wire, Mick Harris, Mario Brunello, Jim Thirlwell, Erik Friedlander and
many others.

Teho is also one of the most active Italian composers for cinema and has created
many soundtracks for renowned directors such as Marco Bellocchio, Paolo Sorrentino, Daniele Vicari, Andrea Molaioli, Gabriele Salvatores, Roberto Faenza.

His soundtracks have won him many major awards and great critical acclaim. The
compilation album Music, film. Music includes incidental film music from the international hit and Cannes jury prize winner Il Divo by Paolo Sorrentino, for which he also won the David di Donatello Prize, Italy’s most prestigious prize, as well as the Ennio Morricone Prize at the Italian Film Festival.
Morricone himself presented the prize and said of Teho’s music:  ‘Experience tells me that sooner or later those who seek will find and in the passages between searching and finding there are
important moments, moments such as the ones we hear on this beautiful album’.

With actor Elio Germano Teho realized several theatre plays: Paradiso XXXIII, Viaggio al termine della notte, Il sogno di una cosa, la guerra com’è.

Teho created the music for several plays by Enda Walsh, Ballyturk, Arlington, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, Medicine. He won 2 Irish Theatre Awards for those works and had several nominations.

Other theatre work includes Ingiuria, a collaboration with Socìetas raffaello Sanzio, the Balanescu Quartet and Blixa Bargeld.

Helen’s recent design credits include: Caroline : New Musical (Ipswich New Wolsey); Coven : New Musical (The Kiln Theatre);

Productions for Enda Walsh: SAFEHOUSE (Abbey Theatre); Medicine, Arlington and Ballyturk (Landmark Productions & GIAF); Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Complicité : Wayward); Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist and The Last Hotel (Landmark Productions & Irish National Opera)

Black Sheep for (Curious Directive); MAM (Teac Damsa); The Nico Project (MIF); NNF Launch 2019 (Chris Bulzini – Wirewalk); Salomé (RSC Swan);  The Suicide (Lyttelton, National Theatre);

Helen has also worked with Theatre Royal Stratford East, Royal Court, GIAF, Unicorn Theatre, Watermill Theatre, Mark Thoma , Cheek by Jowl, & Wildworks

Helen was awarded Irish Times Theatre Awards – Best Soundscape 2022 for Medicine and Best Sound Design 2014 for Ballyturk.

Laura MacNaughton has worked in the professional arts sector for over twenty years in theatre, film and Dance. She has worked primarily as a General Manager, Producer and Programmer. Laura has worked at a senior level in multiple arts organisations, these include The Gate Theatre, Dublin Dance Festival and The O’Reilly Theatre. Laura is a drama facilitator and director with Belvedere College Drama Department.

Director credits include Sherlock (2024) Bringing Down The House (2025) and HOPE SPRINGS (2026).

Laura currently sits on the Producers Working Group for the Performing Arts Forum. She holds a Science Degree from Trinity College Dublin and is a classically trained musician and Associate of Trinity College London in music performance.

Laura is the Producer at Fishamble: The New Play Company and previous Fishamble credits include In Two Minds (2023), Taigh Ty Teach (2024) BREAKING (2024), The Black Wolfe Tone (2025), The Leap (2025), REFUGE (2026) and For Dolores (2026)

Evie is the Assistant Producer for Fishamble: The New Play Company.

Her previous work with the company includes The Black Wolfe Tone, The Leap and The Navigator Project. She is Line Producer for Brokentalkers covering their international touring in 2025 and 2026 as well as new production The Mirror Stage. She has worked as a stage manager for theatre for the last ten years. She graduated with a distinction from The Lir Academy’s Stage Management and Technical Theatre course in 2016. She has worked as a stage manager with The Abbey, The Gate, Landmark, Rough Magic, Pan Pan, Collapsing Horse, The Local Group, Brokentalkers, This is Pop Baby and Livin’ Dred both nationally and internationally. Her previous stage management work includes MASTERCLASS by Brokentalkers (Dublin Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, RISING Festival, Sydney Theatre Festival), A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings by Dan Colley (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, National Tour, Imaginate, Auckland Arts Festival) and Lost Lear by Dan Colley (Dublin Theatre Festival, National Tour, Aotearoa Festival.)

Ois O’Donoghue is an award winning Theatre Maker, Writer, Producer and Co-Founder of Jaxbanded Theatre. Her debut play HYPER premiered at the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival and was nominated for both the Fishamble New Writing Award and The George Fitzmaurice Award, before touring to the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received a nomination for the Popcorn X BBC Writers New Writing Award. In 2024 Ois was named Director of the Year by The Arts Review for her work on HATE F%#K by Jodie Doyle. Her latest piece SUPLEX premiered in Dublin Fringe Festival 2026 and won the Solas Nua New Voices Award. As a Producer, Ois has worked alongside United Fall, Jean Butler, Dan Colley, Martha Knight and Joy Nesbitt. Ois is currently the General Manager of THISISPOPBABY.

Gavin Kostick is a playwright, literary manager and independent dramaturg.
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His works have been produced nationally and internationally. Favourite works for Fishamble include The Ash Fire, The Flesh Addict, The End of The Road and Invitation to a Journey (with CoisCeim and Crash Ensemble). The Leap is Gavin’s first play for children.
Further works include This is What We Sang for Kabosh, Fight Night, The Games People Play and At the Ford for Rise Productions and Gym Swim Party with Danielle Galligan in co-production with the O’Reilly Theatre. He wrote the libretto for the opera The Alma Fetish composed by Raymond Deane, performed at the National Concert Hall. As a performer he performed Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: Complete, a six hour show for Absolut Fringe, Dublin Theatre Festival and the London Festival of Literature at the Southbank.
Gavin is currently the literary manager of Fishamble: The New Play Company, a tutor in playwriting and dramaturgy in both The Lir Academy and Trinity College Dublin as well as being a core mentor on the Tenderfoot Transition Year programme for young writers at the Civic Theatre.
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Particular favourite projects that Gavin has initiated and delivered with Fishamble include Show in a Bag (with Dublin Fringe and The Irish Theatre Institute), The New Play Clinic, The Dublin Fringe New Writing Award, Tiny Plays for Ireland and A Play for Ireland.
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Both for Fishamble, and as an independent dramaturg, Gavin’s projects and works he has supported have gained significant national and international award recognition including amongst others Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, BBC Stewart Parker Trust, Zebbie Awards, Dublin Fringe Awards, Business to Arts, Olivier, Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Angel and Archangel and New York Critics’ Pick.

His own plays have also received similar national and international award recognition. Gavin has recently completed a new version of The Odyssey, supported by Kilkenny Arts Festival, ClassicsNow.

Jennifer Jennings is a theatre and festival maker based in Dublin. She is: co-founder and co-director of acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY; co-creator/Arts Programme Director of Beyond the Pale Music Festival; and was the inaugural Artistic Director-in-Residence at UCD’s Creative Futures Academy.

For THISISPOPBABY, directing highlights include the smash-hit WAKE (seen recently on London’s West End, Manchester’s Aviva Studios and Sydney Festival), the international sensation RIOT (World Tour 2016-2019; Best Production, Dublin Fringe 2016), Shit by Patricia Cornelius (Best Ensemble nomination, Irish Theatre Awards 2023) and Lords of Strut: Absolute Legends family show (World Tour 2017-2019).

Jenny is co-creator of all of THISISPOPBABY’s festivals, including Where We Live Festivals 2018 & 2020, Queer Notions Arts Festival 2009 & 2010, POPTENT at Electric Picnic 2008-2010 and WERK 2010-2014 (The Abbey Theatre, IMMA and Melbourne Festival).

Producing highlights include Alice in Funderland – A New Musical by Phillip McMahon and Raymond Scannell (2012), Sure Look It, Fuck It by Clare Dunne (2019), and all of Panti Bliss’ theatre work, including the world tours of If These Wigs Could Talk and High Heels in Low Places (World Tours 2015-2025).

Previously Jennifer has been Artistic Director of Neon Lights Music & Arts Festival (Singapore), Arts Programme Director of Harvest Music Festival (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane), Head of Programming at Abbotsford Convent Melbourne, Marketing Director of dlr Festival of World Cultures and Programme Director for Dublin Fringe Festival.

Phillip McMahon is a Dublin-based playwright and director, and co-founder of cultural juggernaut THISISPOPBABY.

His writing credits include Alice in Funderland (THISISPOPBABY/Abbey Theatre), Come On Home and Town Is Dead( Abbey Theatre), and Once Before I Go (Gate Theatre).

As a director, his credits include Dublin Oldschool by Emmet Kirwan, RIOT by THISISPOPBABY, Insane Animals by Bourgeois & Maurice, 0800 CUPID by Emer Dineen, and all of Panti’s live shows.

He most recently co-directed THISISPOPBABY’s international hit WAKE and directed Joanne McNally’s Pinotfile, staged at Dublin’s 3Arena and about to be released as a Netflix special.

His work has been presented at major venues and festivals in Ireland and internationally, including the Abbey and Gate Theatres in Dublin, the National Theatre in London and Sydney Festival.

Once Before I Go is now on Ireland’s Leaving Certificate syllabus, with the play being studied by students nationwide.