Producer Working Group
In the next few months, Theatre Forum will become Ireland’s Performing Arts Forum. Our vision is to be a forum that supports artists, arts workers, and organisations to build a better connected, more diverse, and stronger community.
As an active connector across the arts community Theatre Forum/Performing Arts Forum recently sent out an Open Call to join our Producer Working Group. This working group will be a regular opportunity for producers to share knowledge, resources and expertise with each other and strategise about the opportunities and challenges specific to their role in making and producing work. Theatre Forum/Performing Arts Forum is also cognisant of its responsibilities to offer policy makers and funders an overview of the strategic issues faced by its members across all parts of the sector.
In addition to this, the Producer Working Group will assist us in designing events and resources for a wider Producer Group. If you’d like to hear more about these initiatives as they develop you can join our Producer mailing list.
The Producer Working Group is: Michelle Cahill, Breda Cashe, Emma Coen, Sara Cregan, Orla Flanagan, Kath Gorman, Lynnette Moran, Laura MacNaughton, Heather O’Sullivan, Heather Rose.
Other Working Groups: We have an existing Arts Centres Working Group. Later in 2024, we will set up an Independent Artist Working Group and a Festivals Working Group.
Producer Working Group
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Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill is a freelance producer based in Dublin working with a range of artists making contemporary performances. She is passionate about collaborating across all genres to realise artistic ideas. In the last 8+ years she has produced new works for independent artists at some of Ireland’s major festivals and venues and supported work that has toured to the UK and Europe. She spent six years working as line producer & associate producer (part-time) with the award-winning dance theatre company Junk Ensemble. Michelle was a participant of Branar’s Meitheal Programme in 2023 that supported artists and producers marking work for children and young audiences.
She has also worked with a range of arts organisations; she was assistant producer, then producer with Tipperary Dance International Festival (2019-2021); Participant Producer for Dance Ireland’s Cruinniú na nÓg programme (2021) and Programme Co-ordinator at Shawbrook (2014-2021). In 2023, she took on the administration of Gap Day, a support programme for freelance artists in association with Mermaid Arts Centre. She trained as a professional dancer and choreographer, and she brings 20+ years’ experience across performance, community dance engagement and dance education to her practice.
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Breda Cashe
Breda Cashe is one of Ireland’s leading commercial theatre producers. For over twenty years she has produced shows throughout Ireland, The West End, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and France. Included in these productions are the world premiere of The Shawshank Redemption, The Wyndham’s Theatre, West End, Alone It Stands, Duchess Theatre West End and Triple Espresso, The Arts Theatre, West End. In Ireland shows included I Keano, Driving Miss Daisy and The Field. These shows were co-produced with her partner in Lane Productions, Pat Moylan. Independently, she has produced shows presented at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, The Olympia Theatre, Dublin, The Dublin Theatre Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe, and the Wexford Opera House most notably Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, Little Gem by Elaine Murphy and Holy Mary by Eoin Colfer. In August 2021 she co-produced The Dead with The Performance Corporation, an opera based on the James Joyce short story.
Her most recent production, Circle of Friends is her third World Premiere adaptation of Maeve Binchy’s novels. She presented Minding Frankie and Light a Penny Candle at the Gaiety Theatre before embarking on nationwide tours with both shows. She is currently coproducing a new production of Tuesdays with Morrie with Pat Moylan for a run at the Gaiety from 16 April and is developing Artemus Fowl – The Musical written by Eoin Colfer with music by Liam Bates which will be presented in 2025. She is also a member of the board of The Everyman Theatre, Cork.
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Emma Coen
Emma Coen is a producer working in theatre, performance art, contemporary dance and film. She is based in Ireland and a graduate of the Lir Academy.With Pan Pan, Emma has produced world premieres and toured existing work to some of the world’s most prestigious festivals and theatres. Prior to joining Pan Pan, Emma was company producer with field:arts and worked at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, where she produced new productions both in house and on tour. Emma’s film work includes Frank Sweeney’s Few Can See which premiered at EVA International 2023 and won the Tiger Short Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2024; as well as the multi-award winning series, Mespil in the Dark.
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Sara Cregan
Sara Cregan is Producer with Rough Magic, one of Ireland’s leading independent theatre companies. She is also Producing Consultant with Once Off Productions.
Prior to joining Rough Magic in 2021, she was Associate Producer with Landmark Productions for a decade. She has worked across a vast range of productions spanning every possible context including festivals, venues of all sizes and even theatre for one.
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Orla Flanagan
Orla Flanagan has twenty five years of producing, programming and arts management, experience in live performance. She currently works with Once Off Productions, which provides creative and flexible supports to a range of independent performing artists. She was previously Director at glór, in Ennis for six years – and led a wide range of projects and artists’ initiatives alongside a dynamic multi-genre programme.
Prior to this, Orla worked as Theatre Producer at Brighton Dome & Festival, where she programmed 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. Previously she was General Manager at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill.
Before moving to the UK, Orla was Producer & General Manager at Fishamble: The New Play Company, and from 2001-2005 was Literary Officer at the Abbey Theatre. 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 participated in the 10-month Arts Management Fellowship programme at the John F. Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C.(2007-08), for which she was awarded a Fulbright. She recently undertook a Creative Producing for Film & TV course with Film in Limerick. Orla is based in east Clare.
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Kath Gorman
Kath Gorman is an experienced creative producer, programmer and arts management consultant who has worked in both Ireland and the UK across venues, festivals and resource organisations. She is the founder/creative director of Promenade since July 2021. Promenade is a recent awardee of the Arts Council’s Creative Production Supports Scheme 2024 & 2025. Past roles in Ireland include; Head of Participation & Engagement, Artistic Curator & Associate Producer for Cork Midsummer Festival and Director of Kinsale Arts Week; and in London include, Director of Jacksons Lane and Lead Producer at BBC Blast for their creative learning festivals (various London locations). She is passionate about increased support for producers and artist self-producers. Past board memberships include: Cork Printmakers, Little Angel Theatre and Total Theatre.
Past producer credits include: FML (CAMPO/Cork Midsummer Festival), Record (Dylan Tighe/Cork Midsummer Festival), Hungry Tea (Mark Storor/Creative Connections/Cork Midsummer Festival), Cork Ignite (National Sculpture Factory/Create), Union Black (Irish presentation at Cork Midsummer Festival), I Can Colour Between the Lines (Mark Storor/Cork Midsummer Festival), La Cocina Publica (Teatro Container/Cork Midsummer Festival) and The Day Crossing Farm (Marie Brett/Cork Midsummer Festival).
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Lynnette Moran
Lynnette Moran is a Creative Producer & Festival Director specialising in Live Art, Theatre, Visual Art and Digital platforms; with distinct experience of producing collaborative & socially engaged arts practice & large scale national and international commissions. In 2009 Lynnette established Live Collision, Ireland’s leading annual curated festival of Live Art in Ireland.
Lynnette has been Creative Producer with ANU productions & Louise Lowe since 2013. She is one of two core producers on all productions by the company. Together ANU have created 32 seminal works: public art commissions, gallery installations, and museum interpretations. Building a global reputation for creating transformative experiences in unconventional locations and authentic historical sites. ANU in partnership with Landmark Productions and MoLI, curated and presented the unprecedented Ulysses 2.2 funded by Arts Council’s Open Call award.
In 2020, Lynnette co-founded and is Director of field:arts – a creative production support pilot funded by Arts Council Ireland. field:arts cultivates growth, sustainability and ambition across the independent contemporary arts sector in Ireland by prioritising the fundamental relationship between the Creative Producer and Artist. Lynnette currently produces the work of independent artists – Amanda Coogan, Maïa Nunes and Yusuf Mufutau.
Previously, Lynnette was founder & Lead Producer for CAPP (Collaborative Art Partnership Programme) an unprecedented four year transnational partnership across six European countries and nine partner organisations co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union focusing on collaborative & socially engaged practice and commissions across Europe between (2014 – 2018). Lynnette began her career in London, cutting her teeth with some of the UK’s leading arts organisations including LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) and BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) where she developed her practice as a Creative Producer. She holds a BA Hons Degree in Fine Art and an MA in Performance Art from Goldsmiths College, London.
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Laura MacNaughton
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 Progammer. Laura has worked at a senior level in multiple arts organisations, these include The Gate Theatre, The 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 and she currently sits on the Arts Council Peer Panel for Theatre. Laura is the Producer at Fishamble: The New Play Company and credits include In Two Minds(2023) and Taigh Ty Teach (2024).
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Heather O'Sullivan
Heather O’Sullivan (she/her) is an actor, writer and producer from Dublin. She graduated from Mountview Academy in 2021. She co-runs cabaret company @hellodiscoland, who were resident artists at the Omnibus Theatre in 2023. They were longlisted for the Bold Elephant Devising Award 2023 and have received support from Arts Council England. Discoland have produced theatre at the Kings Head Theatre, Camden People’s Theatre, Omnibus Theatre and in store cabarets for Urban Outfitters Europe.
As an actor, Heather has performed in venues at home and internationally including The Irish Rep, The Cell NYC, and the Edinburgh Fringe. She has voiced numerous audiobooks, most notably, An Post Irish Book of the Year, The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray. She has also provided voiceover for Google, Spotify, Bumble, CBBC, Travelodge and H&M among many others. She is part of X-pollinator 2024 and most recently, line produced Amanda Coogan’s new show Possession at the Project Arts Centre.
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Heather Rose
Heather Rose is a creative producer based in rural Sligo with a particular interest in work for young people, immersive work and work that pushes boundaries. She runs Rose Producing and was creative producer for Super Paua 2020-2023, a theatre collective making work for young people. Recent work includes Pegasus the Clothes Horse by Alison Ní Mháirtín (National Opera House), Small Wonders by Púca Puppets (Mill Theatre, Droichead and national touring), Éist by Mary-Lou McCarthy (Westport Town Hall), Whodunnit? The Great Art Robbery! (Dublin and Melbourne Fringes), Super Paua Stories (commissioned audio stories), Snapshot by Miriam Needham (Hawk’s Well Theatre and national tour), and The Lonsdale Project by SIan Ní Mhuirí (Riverbank Arts Centre). Prior to moving to Ireland in 2019 she produced for the Pleasance Theatre and the house touring network in the UK, and spent 8 years as a touring stage manager- highlights include the Edinburgh Fringe, the West End, and the Sydney Opera House. In her free time she enjoys reading, travelling, singing, and spending time with her two children.