Board of Directors

Julie is Artistic Director/CEO at Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre. Her background is in performance, directing and producing. She holds a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies and English, and an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from UCC.

Julie joined the board of Theatre Forum Ireland in September 2016 and joined the board of Graffiti Theatre Company in September 2017. She also sits on the Irish Playography Panel at Irish Theatre Institute.

She was Artistic Director of The Everyman, Cork from 2014 to 2020. She has worked as an actor, director & producer with numerous Irish arts organisations and companies, including Painted Bird, Conflicted, BrokenCrow, Kinsale Arts Week, Cork Midsummer Festival, Hammergrin, Corcadorca, Meridian, Dublin Theatre Festival, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, The Performance Corporation, Gare St. Lazare, Once Off Productions, Landmark Productions, and Siren Productions.

Recent directing credits include: The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh (2018), Bluetooth by Rachel Thornton (2018), Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (2018 remount, associate director), Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel (2017), The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness (2016), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig (2015), Lovers by Brian Friel (2015), all for The Everyman.

Recent producing credits include the world premiere of Mick Flannery’s Evening Train musical (2019), the Landmark/Everyman co-produced world premiere of Asking for It by Louise O’Neill (2018), the world premiere of Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (2017) and the Irish premiere of Futureproof by Lynda Radley (2017), all for The Everyman.

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Tom Creed is a theatre and opera director, festival director and independent producer, originally from Cork and now based in Dublin. He has been a member of the voluntary steering committee of the National Campaign for the Arts since 2016, who have worked to ensure the survival and recovery of the arts sector during the pandemic.

He has directed with the Abbey, Gate, Irish National Opera, Thisispopbaby, Rough Magic, his own company Playgroup, and many other Irish companies and performers. His work has been seen at the Paris Opera, the Barbican in London, the Edinburgh, Perth and Melbourne International Festivals, and BAM and the Public Theatre in New York.

He has been Festival Director of Cork Midsummer Festival, Theatre and Dance Curator of Kilkenny Arts Festival and Associate Director of Rough Magic. He is on the board of GAZE Film Festival, and was previously on the board of Macnas and Dublin Fringe Festival.

Sara is a Dublin based producer.

She is currently joint Senior Producer with Once Off Productions, a new national theatre producing platfrom providing structured, supportive and creative services to independent theatre artists.

She is also Producer with Rough Magic Theatre Company, one of Irelands leading independent theatre companies.

From 2011 to 2021 she was Associate Producer with Landmark Productions, working across a wide range and scale of productions.

Orla has twenty years of arts management, producing and programming experience. She has been Director of glór in Ennis, a thriving arts centre with a 505-seat theatre, a 60-seat studio, gallery and café, since 2016.

Prior to joining glór Orla was Theatre Producer at Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival since January 2012. Here she programmed a large range of UK and international theatre and circus for Brighton Festivals 2012-2016, collaborating with Guest Directors Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Rosen, Hofesh Shechter, Ali Smith and Laurie Anderson.  She also led an innovative year-round theatre programme and a range of artist development initiatives at Brighton Dome. Previously she was General Manager at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill (2011).

Before moving to the UK, Orla was Producer & General Manager at Fishamble: The New Play Company for five years, where she produced ten world premiere productions which toured Ireland and internationally. Orla participated in the Arts Management Fellowship programme (2007-08) at the John F. Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C., for which she was awarded a Fulbright.

Orla was Literary Officer at the Abbey Theatre from 2001-2005. Whilst at the Abbey she received funding to develop her dramaturgy skills at the Sundance Theatre Lab, Utah, and the Schaubuhne’s Festival of International New Drama, Berlin. Orla worked as Marketing Administrator at the National Concert Hall upon graduation from University College Dublin with a BA in English and Philosophy.

Paul Johnson is an arts manager, curator, mentor and dramaturge. He is the former Chief Executive of Dance Ireland. Paul’s background is in dance, theatre, film and multi-media, working as a performer, choreographer and collaborator for a range of companies including Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre, IMDT, Scottish Ballet Steps Out, TAG Theatre Company and Brother Films. He ran his own company MaNDaNCE (1991-2001) and was Choreographer in Residence with Project Arts Centre, documented in Fine Lines on Shifting Ground: Reflections on a Choreographic Process (Project Press, 2000).

A creative and strategic thinker with extensive experience in management, leadership, strategy development, governance and relationship building. He was Artists Services Manager with the Arts Council (2003-2006).  He led on the successful opening of DanceHouse in 2006, and over a 14year period grew the programme and reach to create a public-facing flagship home for dance. His previous board experience includes serving on the Arts Council (2009 to 2013), and for Dance Resource Base NI and Ballet Ireland. He is currently a director trustee of IMDT and Create.

A graduate of DCU, Johnson has earned a BA and MA in Communications & Cultural Studies and is currently undertaking a Professional Certificate in Governance (IPA, Dublin), in addition to working on a range of mentorship and consultancy projects.

Aaron Monaghan, co-founder and now the Artistic Director of Livin’ Dred Theatre Company, is a director as well as a multi-awarding winning actor with numerous theatre, film and TV appearances. He trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Aaron has worked extensively with the Abbey Theatre, and with Druid Theatre Company, of which he is an ensemble member and with which he has toured. He has also worked with companies such as Fishamble, Bedrock, Yew Tree and Livin’ Dred, which he co-founded in 2004. Aaron is a recipient of a Lucille Lortel Award, Manchester Evening News Award, an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award and an OBIE Award for Outstanding Performance.

David is a Cultural Producer, Arts Programme and Educator with over 16 years’ experience working within the Arts & Cultural sector, both as an artist, arts manager and lecturer.  In early 2022 David was appointed to the role of Programme Director and Executive Producer of Carlow Arts Festival.

Between 2018 – 2022 he was the Theatre Programme Manager at VISUAL Carlow, one of Ireland’s leading contemporary Arts Centres. In his role as Programme Manager David was instrumental in developing the organisations artist support and development programme. This programme focused on long term and institutionally embedded modes of support that better served the long-term sustainability of artists and their practices. Working alongside a wide variety of artists David also produced ambitious community engagement and outreach programmes that sought to embed artists practice on local and regional level, to support the development of new audiences for both the institution and the artist’s work. From 2018 – 2021 David also led on VISUAL’s involvement in the Arts & Humanities Entrepreneurship Hub Project, an EU funded project which was established to improve the entrepreneurial capacity of Arts & Humanities graduates through dedicated support and training. His book ‘Our Thriving Tribe; Exploring Entrepreneurship in the Arts’ launched in 2021 and features contributions from a variety of emerging and established Irish artists, practitioners and arts works from across the sector.

He is the former Chairperson of the Strollers Network (2019 -2022) , Ireland’s largest consortium of Art Centres. During is time as chair he led the development and delivery of the of the network’s artist development programme, PROPEL. He has also lectured in Drama and Performance at Carlow College and is Co-Artistic Director & Executive Producer of Carlow Live & Local Music Festival which launched in 2021.  David holds a BA in Drama & Performance form TU Dublin and an MFA in Art in the Contemporary World from the National College of Art & Design.

Elizabeth is the Executive Director of Wexford Arts Centre and has over 20 years experience working in theatre in a variety of roles including producer, company manager, actor, director and stage manager.  Elizabeth has produced productions which have toured nationally and internationally including London, Paris and New York.  Elizabeth worked prior as company manager with Rough Magic Theatre Company and as actor with Irish Repertory Theatre, New York and Irish Arts Center New York as well as Súgan Theatre Boston and Raven Theatre Dublin and founded wrote and directed for Theatre Nua, New York.  Elizabeth also serves on the committee of the Wexford Literary Festival.  She studied arts and literature at Harvard Extension, MA and film at School of Visual Arts, New York and holds an MBA in Professional Arts Management from IT Carlow.