Jim Culleton

Artistic Director & CEO

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. 

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Eva Scanlan

Executive Director

Eva Scanlan is the Executive Director at Fishamble: The New Play Company. Current and recent producing work includes Outrage by Deirdre Kinahan; The Treaty by Colin Murphy and Embargo by Deirdre Kinahan, both as part of the Decade of Centenaries; The Alternative by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney; On Blueberry Hill by Sebastian Barry on the West End, Off-Broadway, and on Irish and international tour; Fishamble’s award-winning plays by Pat Kinevane Before, Silent, Underneath and Forgotten on tour in Ireland and internationally; The Humours of Bandon by Margaret McAuliffe; Maz and Bricks by Eva O’Connor; Inside the GPO by Colin Murphy; Tiny Plays for Ireland and America at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC and the Irish Arts Centre in New York; and Swing by Steve Blount, Peter Daly, Gavin Kostick and Janet Moran on tour in Ireland, the UK, and Australia.

Eva produces The 24 Hour Plays: Dublin at the Abbey Theatre in Ireland (2012-present), in association with the 24 Hour Play Company, New York as a fundraiser for Dublin Youth Theatre. She has worked on The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals at the Gramercy Theatre in New York. Previously, she was Producer of terraNOVA Collective in New York (2012-2015), where she produced Underland by Ally Collier; terraNOVA Rx: Four Plays in Rep at IRT Theater; the soloNOVA Arts Festival; the Groundworks New Play Series; Woman of Leisure and Panic (FringeNYC), P.S. Jones and the Frozen City by Rob Askins, among other projects. She has worked on events and conferences at the New School, the Park Avenue Armory, and Madison Square Garden.

Gavin Kostick

Literary Manager

As Literary Manager at Fishamble, Gavin works with new writers for theatre through a variety of courses, script development workshops and award-winning schemes. Gavin is also an award-winning playwright. His works have been produced nationally and internationally. Favourite works for Fishamble include The Ash Fire, The Flesh Addicts and The End of The Road. Works for other companies 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'Teilly 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. He has recently completed a new version of The Odyssey, supported by Kilkenny Arts Festival.

Laura MacNaughton

Producer

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. She is Co-founder and Creative Producer of Exit Pursued by a Bear, a theatre company for young audiences. Their first work Our Little World (2022), was commissioned in response to the impact of Covid on primary school children. Laura is a drama facilitator and director with Belvedere College Drama Department. Most recently she directed Bringing Down The House by Todd Wallinger. She currently sits on the Arts Council Peer Panel for Theatre and the Producers Working Group for the Performing Arts Forum.
Laura is the Producer at Fishamble: The New Play Company and previous producing credits include In Two Minds (2023) and Taigh Tŷ Teach (2024) and BREAKING (2024).​​

Sarah Bragg-Bolger

General Manager

​Sarah is from Canada. She is Dublin Youth Theatre’s Executive Director, as well as Chair to Youth Theatre Ireland’s board. Her arts work includes stage management and administrative roles with the Lambert Puppet Theatre, the Gate Theatre (Dublin), Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh), the Toronto International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Dublin Theatre Festival.  

Evie McGuinness

Assistant Producer

Evie Mc Guinness 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 with The Abbey, The Gate, Landmark, Rough Magic, Pan Pan, Collapsing Horse, The Local Group, Brokentalkers, This Is Pop Baby and Livin' Dred. Her previous 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)

Allie Whelan

​Marketing, Outreach, and Engagement Manager

Allie Whelan is the Marketing, Outreach and Engagement Manager at Fishamble: The New Play Company. Allie has worked on Mustard, King, In Two Minds, Breaking, Outrage, Heaven, Fight Night and The Black Wolfe Tone with Fishamble. She has previously worked in marketing, communications and social media roles with Dublin Fringe Festival (2021-2024), Poetry Ireland, Landmark Productions (Straight to Video, Walking with Ghosts, Ulysses 2.2, and Krapp's Last Tape), Pan Pan (The Sudden, The Patient Gloria, The First Bad Man, Cascando and History Play), Glass Mask Theatre (Describe the Night, Country Music, Mother and Child and Celebrity), The RDS Visual Art Awards (2021-2024) and Music Network Ireland (2022-2023 Spring Touring Season).
Allie also works as a designer, photographer and occasionally as a chef.

Eimear Hussey

Literary Assistant 

Eimear Hussey is a playwright and costume/stage designer for theatre. Her recent writing credits include Like We Were Born to Move (Peacock Theatre, 2023), a show commissioned by Youth Theatre Ireland for their 2022-23 National Youth Theatre ensemble, and Tales of the Inventor and the Pirate, written as part of Draíocht Blanchardstown’s NEST Project (Draíocht, 2024). She’s currently writing a new play for young audiences called Threadcrumbs, with support from an Arts Council Agility award. As a designer she has worked with emerging companies including Gifthorse Theatre, Lemonsoap Productions, and Salt Water Theatre. Her recent design credits include ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS’ (Pearse Centre, 2024), and ‘Dog Shit’ (The New Theatre, 2023). She has worked as an costume assistant/associate and costume maker on productions led by established theatre companies including the Abbey Theatre, Dead Centre, Druid, Brokentalkers, Gaiety Entertainments, CoisCéim, and the ARK. She is a former member of Dublin Youth Theatre and the National Youth Theatre. She was a member of the Royal Court Theatre’s Script Panel in 2021, a BUZZ Lab artist in Bremen 2022, and a New Generation artist for Schoene Aussicht, Stuttgart 2024. Eimear first worked with Fishamble as an intern in 2022 as part of her undergraduate degree, and is delighted to be back. Eimear is looking forward to reading your scripts as part of the team.

Images by Nathan Snow