Text: "IRISH ARTS CENTER"
Two people sitting in a messy, undone bed.

© Ros Kavanagh

Irish Arts Center presents

CONVERSATIONS AFTER SEX

A THISISPOPBABY PRODUCTION
U.S. PREMIERE
FEBRUARY 22–MARCH 11, 2022

Run time: 85 minutes


Writer: Mark O'Halloran
Director: Tom Creed

CAST:
 Kate Stanley Brennan
Fionn Ó Loingsigh
Clelia Murphy

Sound Design: Ivan Birthistle
Music Composition: Emma O’Halloran
Set & Costume Design: Sarah Bacon
Lighting Design: Sarah Jane Shiels
Movement & Intimacy Director: Sue Mythen
Assistant Director: John King

Producer: Carla Rogers
Production Manager: Adam Fitzsimons
Producing & Marketing Assistant: Emily Brennan
Producing Intern: Kaileigh Powell

U.S. PRODUCTION CREDITS

Stage Manager: Olivia Drennan
Assistant Stage Manager: Aoife Hough
Light Board Operator: Peter Lopez
Technical Director: Michael Harbeck 
Wardrobe Head: Kathe Mull
Head Electrician: Sarazina Stein 
Electricians: Emily LaRochelle, Peter Lopez, Nicole Malancea, Terysa Malootian, Aaliyah Stewart, Claudia Zajic 
Carpenters: Rebecca Bickley, Bryant Blackburn, Michael Harbeck, Nicholas Santasier, Finneas Weeks

THISISPOPBABY TEAM:
Adam Fitzsimons
Jennifer Jennings
Phillip McMahon
Laura Rigney
Carla Rogers
Niall Sweeney

Please note: This performance contains brief full nudity, themes of an adult nature, and references to suicide.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States.

Call 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org/.

Logo containing a black circle, a black sphere and the words 'Dead centre'.
Logo with stencil-effect text: Irish Arts Center
Logo of a hot pink circle with white symbol next to text: Cultúr Éireann / Culture Ireland

About the Cast & Crew

Mark O’Halloran (writer) is a writer/actor from Ennis, Co. Clare. He has worked with many of the major theatre companies in Ireland. On screen he has appeared in numerous films, most notably as one of the eponymous heroes in ADAM & PAUL (which he also wrote), and the lead role of MP in History’s Future directed by Fiona Tan. Most recently he appeared in Shane Meadow’s Channel 4 drama, The Virtues, for which he won Best Supporting Actor at the IFTA awards 2020. He will be appearing in the upcoming feature, The Miracle Club, alongside Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, and Laura Linney. Writing credits include: The films GARAGE and Adam & Paul, the television series PROSPERITY; a Spanish language feature set in Havana Cuba, and Rialto which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. His television work includes scripting several episodes of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. His work has been seen at Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Telluride and Sundance film festivals. For the stage he wrote the play TRADE, contributed text to the award-winning LIPPY, and co-wrote Beckett’s Room for Dead Centre at The Gate Theatre. In 2021 he premiered two new plays, Conversations After Sex, at the Dublin Theatre Festival, (which won Best New Play at the Irish Theatre Awards 2022), and a stage adaptation of Bergman’s The Silence at the Stadsteater in Göteborg, Sweden.

Tom Creed (director) is one of Ireland’s leading opera and theatre directors, with a particular focus on new plays and operas by emerging and established writers and composers. His productions have been seen at all the major Irish theatres and festivals, and internationally in over 30 cities on three continents.

He is an associate artist of Thisispopbaby and has directed Conversations After Sex (nominated for Best Director, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards), Sure Look It, Fuck It, I Am Tonie Walsh, Trade and All Over Town (with Calipo Theatre Company) with the company.

His production of Watt by Samuel Beckett with the Gate Theatre and acclaimed Irish actor Barry McGovern was presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Perth International Festival, the Barbican Centre in London, the Public Theatre in New York and on tour in the USA. He directed a new production of Watt which opened at Melbourne International Arts Festival in October 2018.

Other theatre work includes: Shibari (Abbey Theatre); Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, Life is a Dream, Attempts on her Life (nominated for Best Director, Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards), Dream of Autumn, 4.48 Psychosis (Rough Magic); The Bluffer’s Guide to Suburbia, Deep, Mimic (Ray Scannell); Futureproof (The Everyman/Project Arts Centre); Lady Windermere’s Fan, Summerfolk, Anatomy of a Suicide, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Skriker, Buddleia, O Go My Man, Into the Woods (The Lir); Berlin Love Tour, The Heights, The Art of Swimming, The Train Show, Dark Week, Soap!, Crave, Integrity (Playgroup); Broken Croí/Heart Briste (Manchán Magan); The Coming World (Making Strange).

Opera and music theatre work includes: Trade, Mary Motorhead (Beth Morrison Projects/Irish National Opera); Maria Stuarda, Griselda, The Tales of Hoffmann (Irish National Opera); Elsewhere (Straymaker/Abbey Theatre); The Hunger (BAM/Abbey Theatre); Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Paris/Opera Collective Ireland), Private View (Muziektheater Transparant); Acis and Galatea, Susanna’s Secret, The Human Voice (Opera Theatre Company); Una Santa Oscura (Project Arts Centre/Dublin Theatre Festival); air india [redacted] (Turning Point Ensemble, Vancouver); Mavra, The Bear (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica, Mavra, Renard (Royal Irish Academy of Music). He participated in the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme at Aldeburgh Music and the Opera Creation Workshop at the 2020 Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Tom was previously festival director of Cork Midsummer Festival, theatre and dance Curator of Kilkenny Arts Festival and associate director of Rough Magic Theatre Company. He is a member of the Expert Advisory Committee of Culture Ireland and a board member of Theatre Forum and GAZE Film Festival, and was a member of the steering committee of the National Campaign for the Arts from 2016 to 2022.

He recently completed an MFA in art in the contemporary world at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and is Curator for Ireland’s representation at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial.

tomcreed.org

Kate Stanley Brennan (performer) is a performer and creative from Dublin, and currently a THISISPOPBABY associate artist. Theatre work includes Colic (Hatch), Girl On An Altar (Kiln London/Abbey Theatre), SHIT (THISISPOPBABY), Treaty (Fishamble), Conversations after Sex – ITTA nomination for Best Actress (THISISPOPBABY), her self-penned show WALK FOR ME (Project Arts Centre), Restoration (Shaun Dunne), Evening Train (Everyman Palace), RIOT (THISISPOPBABY), The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/Abbey Theatre), Crestfall – ITTA nomination Best Ensemble (Druid), The White Devil (Shakespeare’s Globe), Hedda Gabler, The Risen People, Terminus, Saved, Playboy of the Western World (Abbey Theatre), The Night Alive (Lyric /Gaiety), Wuthering Heights, Salome (Gate Theatre), Witness, Best Man, ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot – ITTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Love and Money, ITTA nomination for Best Actress (Project Arts Centre/Everyman), Yerma (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Sanctuary Lamp (Arcola Theatre London). Film/TV includes TWIG (Blu Ink Films/Janey Pics), PANTO (Producer, Director, Writer Deadly Films/Screen Ireland Actor As Creator), Burn It All (CopperAlley), KIN (Townsend Film/AMC), Cherry (Kate’s directorial debut, CopperAlley), Float like a Butterfly (Samson) Fading Away (Filmbase), Inspector Jury (IJ Prods), Chasing Green (Hallmark), Doll House, winner of Best Ensemble Acting Odessa Film Festival (Visit Films ), Raw, Fair City (RTÉ), The Tudors (HBO). Kate makes music under the name MissKate. She has directed her last three music videos, TOOK THE LIFE, GET ME, and a collaboration with Lux Alma, IN THE PLACE. Previous releases include WALK FOR ME (EP Jan 2019 written by Kate and produced by MathMan) and MissKate and the Higher State (EP released 2013).

Fionn Ó Loingsigh (performer): Theatre credits include The Last Return (Druid), Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre), Conversations After Sex (THISISPOPBABY), The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (Pan Pan Theatre/Abbey Theatre), The Plough and the Stars (The National, London), Juno and the Paycock (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Deadly (Peacock Theatre, Dublin), Juno and the Paycock (Liverpool Playhouse and Bristol Old Vic), Desire Under the Elms (Corn Exchange, Smock Alley Theatre), Disco Pigs (DU Players) - for which he won Best Actor at the ISDA Awards 2009, bedbound (The New Theatre), and The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Samuel Beckett Theatre). Television credits include Witness Number Three (Channel 5), Tin Star S3 (Sky Atlantic), Darklands (Virgin Media One), Trigonometry (BBC), Broken (BBC), Moonfleet (Sky), Trivia S2 (RTÉ), Jack Taylor: The Dramatist (TV3), Raw S4 (RTÉ). Film credits include Her Name Is, Wren Boys (Nominated for Best Short Film at the 2018 BAFTA Awards), Delinquent Season, Cardboard Gangsters (Nominated for Best Supporting Actor-Film at the 2018 IFTA Awards), Waterloo Warriors, Get Up and Go, Out of Here, What Richard Did, and Rhinos.

Clelia Murphy (performer) is perhaps best known for playing the role of Niamh Brennan in RTÉ’s flagship television drama series Fair City, a role she played for 22 years before leaving the show in 2017. Since then, she has been based between Ireland and the UK. Most recently she has just completed filming series 2 of The Madam Blanc Mysteries written by Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent for Channel 5 and Acorn TV, and Jane Seymour’s Harry Wilde, another Acorn TV original. Clelia also plays the part of Maeve Ludlow in the BBC’s drama series Doctors. Most recently on stage, Clelia played the role of Bernie in Stephen Jones’ Summerhill, a Glass Mask Theatre Production, Susan in Claudia Carroll’s Secrets of Primrose Square, a Pat Moylan/Draoícht production, and Baroness Elsa von Schraeder in the UK & Ireland Tour of The Sound of Music for Bill Kenwright Productions. Other stage credits include Toffee by Ultan Pringle for the New Theatre, Valley of The Squinting Windows, The Mullingar Arts Centre, the Voice of The Announcer in Olivier Award-winning playwright and performer, Pat Kinevane‘s Before for Fishamble, Gym Swim Party by Danielle Galligan & Gavin Kostick for Dublin Fringe Festival, Maeve Binchy’s Light a Penny Candle a Breda Cashe national tour, BOOM by Isobel Mahon, John Murphy’s touring musical Elvis is My Daddy, and Spring Awakening directed by the internationally acclaimed György Vidovszy for DYT. Clelia is also an original ensemble member of Dublin’s Glass Mask Theatre. Film and television credits include the role of Kathleen Buckley in the award-winning feature film Danny Boy directed by Ferdia Mac Anna, Bernard Dunne’s Mythical Heroes for RTE, Vivienne de Courcy’s Dare to be Wild, Jack Conroy’s The Gaelic Curse, and The Badgeman Conspiracy directed by John Sheridan and Paul Valentine. Clelia also worked on GRABBERS for Samson Films, Parallel Pictures’ The Gift of the Magi, and Stephen Kane’s award-winning The Crooked Mile. In 2015 Clelia co-produced and starred in Jennifer Davidson’s award-winning short Waiting For Tom directed by Ruth O’Looney, which was selected to screen at the Galway Film Fleadh, Cork, Foyle, Dingle and Chicago film festivals. It also screened in the Irish Film Festival London where it won for Best Short. Radio work includes John Boorman’s The Hitlist, Bill Hugh’s Grace, Joe O’Byrne’s CRANE, Catherine Brennan’s The Guilty Heart, KINSEY ONE THROUGH FIVE by Veronica Coburn, all for RTE Radio, and most recently the role of Ella Young in Danny Brennan’s The Morrigan directed by Marrisa Aroy. Clelia is also one of Ireland’s most experienced voiceover artists with a career that has seen her lending her voice to some of Ireland’s biggest brands and best-loved shows. Clelia trained with the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin Youth Theatre and also holds an MA in screenwriting for IADT. Conversations after Sex is Clelia’s debut with THISISPOPBABY.

Ivan Birthistle (sound design) is head of the Sound Dept. at the Lir National Academy Of Dramatic Arts. He has been working as a composer and sound designer in theatre for over twenty years and has worked with nearly every major theatre company in Ireland. He has also played in many bands over the years, most notably Schtum and Nina Hynes and the Husbands, and has released several records. Past work includes: Conversations After Sex, Money, Sure Look It, Fuck It, (THISISPOPBABY); Epiphany (Druid); Joyce’s Women, Monsters Dinosaurs Ghosts, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, No Escape, Playboy of the Western World, Saved, Alice Trilogy, True West (The Abbey); Tribes (The Gate); Dublin Old School (Project Arts Centre); Creditors (C Company); Wolf And Peter, Agnes, Pageant, Touch Me (Coiscéim); Dockers, The Absence of Women, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Homeplace, Dancing at Lughnasa, True West (The Lyric); Haughey/Gregory, Swing, The Great Goat Bubble, Tiny Plays For Ireland (I+II), End Of The Road, Rank, Noah and the Tower Flower, Monged (Fishamble); The Motherfucker With The Hat (Orion Productions); The White Piece (IMDT); Re-energize, Over The Wire (Derry Playhouse); Driving Miss Daisy, The Field (Lane Productions); Class, All in the Timing (Innis Theatre Co.); The Sanctuary Lamp (B’spoke); This Is Our Youth, Wedding Day at the Cro- Magnons’, Roberto Zucco (Bedrock); Ladies and Gents, God’s Grace, Adrenalin and Slaughter (Semper-Fi). Ivan has also designed many shows for the Lir, most recent productions include Distinguished Villa and The Laramie Project.

Adam Fitzsimons (production manager) is a theatre and festival production manager. He is THISISPOPBABY’S production manager. Adam started as Ents manager in Students union in NUI Galway, before moving on to work with Druid Theatre Company, Decadent Theatre, and Macnas. He has toured extensively both in Ireland and abroad with theatre and art installations, and managed parades, concerts, and festivals. He has worked as production manager with ANU Theatre, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and, Branar Theatre amongst others. Adam is the head of production for Galway International Arts Festival, where he specializes in transforming unused buildings and empty halls into art galleries, concert venues, and theatre spaces.

Jennifer Jennings (THISISPOPBABY) is a theatre and festival maker based in Dublin. She is co-founder and co-director of acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY, arts director of Beyond the Pale Music Festival, and artistic director in residence at UCD’s Creative Futures Academy. For THISISPOPBABY, highlights include co-directing the recent smash-hit WAKE (Judges’ Special Award Dublin Fringe 2022), the international sensation RIOT (Best Production, Dublin Fringe 2016); directing Shit by Patricia Cornelius and family show Absolute Legends for Lords of Strut; curating Where We Live Festivals 2018 & 2020, Queer Notions Arts Festival 2009 & 2010, POPTENT at Electric Picnic 2008-2010 and WERK performance art club (The Abbey Theatre, IMMA and Melbourne Festival); and producing Panti’s High Heels in Low Places (World Tour 2015-2017 / Soho Live films 2018), Sure Look It, Fuck It, by Clare Dunne and Alice in Funderland - A New Musical by Phillip McMahon and Raymond Scannell. Previously Jennifer has been artistic director of Neon Lights Music & Arts Festival (Singapore), arts program director of Harvest Music Festival (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane), head of programming at Abbotsford Convent Melbourne and, program director for Dublin Fringe Festival.

John King (assistant director) is a director and theatre-maker based in Dublin. With theatre and sound collective Murmuration, he has made the headphone shows One Moment Now (Bewley’s), You’re Still Here (Dublin Fringe, co-presented by the Abbey Theatre at Dublin Castle), Will I See You There (Dublin Fringe), and Summertime (Dublin Fringe, Drogheda Arts Festival, Young Curators’ Festival at the Abbey Theatre). Other directing work includes The Cyclone Kid (Bewley’s), The Overcoat (Omnibus Theatre and OSO Barnes), and a rolling collaboration with London-based performance artist Joseph Morgan Schofield on work that has been presented across the UK. John is an associate artist of Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., where his previous work includes side-walks (co-written with Jeremy K Hunter) and somewhere in the future dark (Atlas Performing Arts Centre). He has been an assistant director for Irish National Opera and at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. on their 2018-2019 season. 

Phillip McMahon (THISISPOPBABY) is a playwright and director based in Dublin. Writing credits include Once Before I Go, Come On Home, Town Is Dead, Alice In Funderland, Pineapple, Elevator, Investment Potential, All Over Town, and Danny & Chantelle (still here). Directing credits include Straight to Video and Dublin Oldschool by Emmet Kirwan, Town Is Dead for The Abbey Theatre, Insane Animals by Bourgeois & Maurice, Not A Funny Word by Tara Flynn, and Money by Peter Daly. He has made and toured a number of smash hit shows with longtime collaborator, drag superstar Panti Bliss, and was co-producer and co-writer on Conor Horgan’s esteemed documentary The Queen of Ireland for Blinder Films. Philip recently co-created a dance theatre work, Party Scene, with longtime collaborator, choreographer Philip Connaughton. Phillip is co-founder and co-director of theatre production company THISISPOPBABY, wherein he was co-creator and co-curator of the THISISPOPBABY performance venue at Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival, Queer Notions cross arts festival, WERK Performance/Art/Club, and Where We Live festival of performance and ideas. Phillip has created and directed many works within THISISPOPBABY, including international hit, RIOT, and more recently, WAKE at Dublin’s National Stadium. Phillip was a former writer in association at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He is currently artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, and is research fellow at the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, London.

Sue Mythen (movement and intimacy director) works as a movement director for various companies in Ireland, Europe and Canada. Her work at The Abbey, National Theatre of Ireland includes: Translations, The Weir, I Girl, Citysong, On Raftery’s Hill, Crestfall (with Druid), Oedipus, Shadow of a Gunman (with The Lyric), RUR, Hedda Gabler, Twelfth Night, Plough & the Stars, Heartbreak House, 16 Possible Glimpses, The House, The Rivals, Pygmalion and Major Barbara. Other work includes To the Lighthouse (Everyman), Conversations After Sex, (THISISPOPBABY), Our New Girl (Gate Theatre), Asking For It (Landmark/Everyman/Gaiety/Birmingham Rep.), Flights (Project), Private Peaceful (Pavilion/US Tour), The White Devil (Shakespeare’s Globe), and The Heiress (Gate Theatre). Sue has a long collaboration with ANU which includes The Lost O’Casey, (for which she won an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Movement Direction 2019), Sin Eaters, On Corporation Street, Sunder, Pals and Angel Meadow. Movement for opera includes: Elektra (Canadian Opera Company), Radamisto (NI Opera), Semele (RIAM), Il Ballo delle Ingrate (RIAM/Abbey), and Dead Man Walking (Gaiety). On film, Sue worked on Northanger Abbey (ITV Drama), History’s Future (CineArtNederland), and has worked as an intimacy coordinator on Good Sex (Dead Centre), Flora & Son (Figment), The Dry (Element Pictures), Normal People (Element/BBC), Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix), Modern Love (Amazon), Kin (Bron/RTE) and Smother (RTE/BBC). Sue is head of movement at The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin.

Laura Rigney (THISISPOPBABY) is an Irish arts manager and cultural producer. She has worked extensively in the arts and non-profit creative organizations leading, developing, and providing consultancy in areas of creative and business development, arts management, festivals and event management. She is general manager with THISISPOPBABY. Recent producing credits include: If These Wigs Could Talk by Panti Bliss and Haunted by Tara Flynn. Previously Laura was executive director of Design Galway, development & amp; partnership manager with Galway 2020 - European Capital of Culture, fundraiser with Galway International Arts Festival and marketing & amp; development manager with Macnas - Spectacle & Street Performance Company. She has worked as a consultant in areas of strategic and creative development for Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Tulca Festival of Visual Arts and Traditional Irish Music Festival, and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.

Carla Rogers (producer) is a creative producer and arts marketer with a passion for supporting artists and teams to make playful, challenging and thoughtful work, Carla is a founding member of and producer for MALAPROP Theatre and has been working with THISISPOPBABY since 2017. She has worked independently with theatre and dance artists such as Outlandish Theatre, Sibéal Davitt, Veronica Dyas, and on such festivals as WHERE WE LIVE, LIVE COLLISION and THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON Vol. 5. Selected producing credits include WAKE, Party Scene (THISISPOPBABY 2022), Where Sat the Lovers and Minseach (Dublin Fringe 2021), 1,000 Miniature Meadows (Dublin Fringe Festival 2020), and Not A Funny Word. She has produced tours of MALAPROP’s work to Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Paris, Beijing, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Darwin. Other roles include marketing manager, artist liaison, project manager, and researcher. She has also worked with Project Arts Centre, Irish Theatre Institute, Youth Theatre Ireland, Dublin International Film Festival, Landmark Productions, United Fall and The Ark, a Cultural Centre for Children. Carla has a BA in modern Irish and film studies, an MA in cultural policy and arts management, and is a member of the steering committee for the National Campaign for the Arts, Ireland.

Sarah Jane Shiels (lighting) began designing lighting in Dublin Youth Theatre, completing M.Sc in interactive digital media 2021, a BA in drama and theatre Studies 2006 (Trinity College Dublin) and the Rough Magic Seeds3 program 2006-2008. From 2010-2017, she was co-artistic director of WillFredd Theatre. She is delighted to be an associate artist with THISISPOPBABY for 2022/23.

Niall Sweeney (THISISPOPBABY) was no sooner out of school when he started an eternal relationship with the social, political and transformational power of dressing up and having fun. As part of a ground-breaking collective that emerged in Dublin during the 1980s-90s, he forged cross-disciplinary projects in art, design, technology, activism, and nightclubbing – invigorating over 35 years of Dublin’s heart beat with graphic ephemera and radical spaces – including Elevator (1993/98), Powderbubble (1996-98), Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (2002-09), and most notably Alternative Miss Ireland (1987-2012). In 2000, he founded the multi-award-winning creative studio, Pony Ltd, London, with electronic musician & designer Nigel Truswell, where they produce work internationally. Niall’s practice blurs the gamut of art, design, print, theatre, film, performance, installation, music, publishing and writing. He has been design & art director with THISISPOPBABY since its very beginnings, working and collaborating on almost every production, and with whom he staged his own performance works, including Dancing at the Crossroads: Glamour Rooted in Despair (2009), Revolver (2010) and Lights Out for the Territories (2012), and has further presented works in Dublin, London, New York, Sarajevo, Beirut and Brno. His collaborative nine-screen film-work and accompanying award-winning publication, Made In Dublin (2019), with photographer Eamonn Doyle, composer David Donohoe and writer Kevin Barry, has been exhibited in Dublin, London, Madrid, Barcelona, and Antwerp; and his posters for Pantibar Dublin are included in the permanent collections of Zurich Design Museum and Chaumont International Poster Festival. Niall was recently commissioned by Irish Museum of Modern Art to create large-scale outdoor installations and performances in the RHK formal gardens (Club Chroma Chlorologia, 2019-2022). With work published, exhibited, performed, collected, and screened across the cosmos, Niall is always ready for the chance of a dance.

*ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) The U.S. stage managers employed in this production are member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the U.S. AEA was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote, and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers, and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatres as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. actorsequity.org


About THISISPOPBABY

Since 2007, THISISPOPBABY has been ripping up the space between popular culture, counterculture and high art; providing vehicles for our associate artists’ dreams as well as an exhilarating and diverse access points to the arts for audiences. Our shows and events have won major awards and thrilled hundreds of thousands of people across Ireland, the UK, Australia, The United States, Canada and beyond. Recent highlights include: Setting the city alight with the smash-hit, critically acclaimed WAKE (Judges’ Special Award, Dublin Fringe Festival 2022); Winning Best New Play for Conversations After Sex by Mark O’Halloran (Irish Theatre Awards 2021); Winning Best Production (Dublin Fringe Festival 2016) and touring the world with RIOT; a sold- out world tour and accompanying film of Panti’s High Heels in Low Places in 2015; and Where We Live Festival in 2018 as part of St Patrick’s Festival, Dublin. 

“THISISPOPBABY has redefined modern Irish Theatre” — The Irish Times

To learn more, visit thisispopbaby.com.

About Irish Arts Center

Irish Arts Center, founded in 1972 and based in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, is a home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion or appreciation for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America. We present, develop, and celebrate work from established and emerging artists and cultural practitioners, providing audiences with emotionally and intellectually engaging experiences in an environment of Irish hospitality. Steeped in grassroots traditions, we also provide community education programs and access to the arts for people of all ages and ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In a historic partnership of the people of Ireland and New York, Irish Arts Center recently completed construction on a fully-funded $60MM state-of-the-art new facility to support this mission for the 21st century.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gerrard Boyle (Capital Project Steering Committee Chair)
Andrew Breslin
Aidan Connolly
Kristine Covillo
John S. Daly
Robert M. Devlin
Celestine Donaghy
John Duffy
Kathleen Fee
Russell Gioiella
Loretta Brennan Glucksman
Shaun Kelly (Chair)
John Martin
Robert J. McCann
Eileen K. Murray
Shane Naughton (Audit Committee Chair)
Sharon Patrick
James E. Quinn
Pauline Turley

STAFF

Adam Browne (Development Assistant)
Zohra Coday (Programming and Education Assistant)
Aidan Connolly (Executive Director)
Christine Cullen (Director of Administrative Operations)
Manuel Da Silva (Associate Production Manager)
Xavier Dzielski (Grants and External Engagement Coordinator)
Fiona Farrell (Communications and Marketing Associate)
Vivian Fong (Director of Communications and Marketing)
Laney Granito (Special Events Coordinator)
Rachael W. Gilkey (Director of Programming and Education)
Anah Klate (Audience Services Manager)
Barry Ó Séanáin (Director of Development)
Ciara O'Shea (Communications and Marketing Assistant)
Victoria Provost (Executive Assistant to the Director)
Brian Ralston ( Associate Director of Development Operations and Database Administrator)
Jessie Reilly (Director of Education, Family and Community Programming)
Grace Schultz (Artist Services Manager / Resident Stage Manager)
Mac Smith (Production Manager)
Pauline Turley (Vice Chair)
Dennis Walls (Director of Facility Operations)
Kestrel Wolgemuth (Associate Director of Programming)

Tehmina Anjum (Senior Accountant, NCheng)
Desaann Legzim (Senior Accountant, NCheng)
Taylor Panetti (Graphic Designer)
Vera Wong (Senior Accountant, NCheng)
Faizan Younus (Manager, NCheng)
Blake Zidell (Public Relations Consultant, Blake Zidell & Associates)

Mia-Isabella Brea (Development Research Intern)
Keeley Heagerty (Programming and Production Intern)

BOX OFFICE

Lindsey Freeman (House Manager)
Brian Magid (Box Office Associate)
Stephen Peterson (Box Office Manager)
Tylene Soto (Box Office Associate)

FRONT OF HOUSE

Aram Krikorian, Michael Lester, Anne Marie Mascia, Kevin Molica, Sylvia Morsillo, Ronan Rogers, Francis Rosario, Anne Rutter, Joanne Sutton-Smith, Ritai “Ty” Su



14 different logos spread across three rows

Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by government, foundation, and corporate partners including Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; Howard Gilman Foundation; Jerome L. Greene Foundation; the Charina Endowment Fund; the Ireland Funds; the Shubert Foundation, Inc.; the Irish Institute of New York; the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York; the Charles Lawrence Keith & Clara Miller Foundation; Northern Ireland Bureau; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Ireland in New York; British Council; Morgan Stanley; Tourism Ireland; and thousands of generous donors like you.