BrokenCrow is a creative think-tank and production company, founded in 2011 by Ronan FitzGibbon. It is a company powered by an ensemble of skilled practitioners. We collaborate to create work that challenges, engages and entertains audiences. As an ensemble we assist and support one another in the realisation of theatrical projects, so that at any given time we can have between two and four projects in various phases of development. Creative collaboration is at the core of our process. We believe it is enriching to engage with different artistic perspectives and regularly assist artists and projects from outside the group.
Our seven members span three cities, Cork, Waterford and Dublin. We enjoy regular contact via online discussions and meet in the different cities throughout the year to develop ideas, plan projects, and create. Several venues have been very generous in accommodating our practice sessions. BrokenCrow are very grateful to The Theatre Development Centre, Garter Lane, A Little Room, FringeLab, Graffiti Theatre and the Everyman for their continued support.
Our first production, Mantle, enjoyed a sell out run in the Granary Theatre in April 2011. Our second production, Madame Chavelle, was staged in October 2012 in Ballyvolane House, Co. Cork. In 2013 we staged Hang Up in Cork’s first Home Festival. This is an original work written by a Cork poet (Adam Wyeth) and developed with the aid of BrokenCrow. We also staged the Irish Premiere of Bug by Tracey Letts in the Half Moon Theatre, followed by Adam Wyeth’s Lifedeath at the SHOW Festival @ TDC. In 2014 we staged Enter Juliet in the Everyman (with the help of the Arts Council) and Prospect House at SHOW. In 2015 we enjoyed a very successful run of The Secret Garden at the Everyman Theatre. We are currently developing several other scripts with writers from both inside and outside of the Ensemble. This includes a stage adaptation of short stories by Kevin Barry: Dark Kingdom for the 2016 Cork MidSummer Festival.
We are ambitious, hard working, open to experimentation and game for a laugh. We believe that our body of work reflects our great love for the craft and art of theatre.
The BrokenCrow Ensemble are:
Deirdre Dwyer
Deirdre is a set and costume designer, and director. She is a graduate of UCC (Drama and Theatre Studies), and has a post graduate diploma in Theatre Design from The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and is currently completing her masters. She participated as the designer in Rough Magic Seeds3. She has been a member of the BrokenCrow ensemble since 2012 and has designed costume for BrokenCrow’s production of Mantle, Bug (set and costume) and Enter Juliet. In 2015, she directed and designed The Secret Garden at The Everyman Palace Theatre. Currently, she is working on Dark Kingdom, an adaptation of the short stories of Kevin Barry for Cork Midsummer festival 2016.
Previous work includes designs for:
Friars Walk, Intersections, Gile na Gealai-Melody of the Moon, Graffiti Theatre Company, Lally the Scut, Tinderbox Theatre Belfast. Lovers, Everyman Palace Theatre, Between Trees and Water, Painted Bird Productions, Jezebel, Rough Magic. Flat Pack, Ulysess Opera Theatre Company. The Scarlet Letter, Conflicted Theatre Company, Witches, Ruairi O Donovan Dance, Bug, Mantle, Enter Juliet BrokenCrow, Love All, Cheery Wilde Productions Clonmel Junction Festival and National Tour, Berlin Love Tour, Playgroup, Dublin, Birmingham and Cork, Melmoth the Wanderer, Big Telly, Portstewart and National Tour, Dancing at Lughnasa, Dealers Choice, LAMDA, London, West Side Story, Honk, Cork Opera House, August Osage County, Bute Theatre, Cardiff.
She has also designed for Waterford Spraoi, Clinic Media, Moocow Productions, Making Strange, Half/Angel and Little Red Kettle.
Ronan FitzGibbon
Ronan is a stage designer and writer, based in Waterford. Ronan originally trained as a sculptor before moving in to set design. He founded BrokenCrow Theatre Company in 2011. His second play, Mantle was the company’s first full production and sold out its April 2012 run in the Granary Theatre. His third and fourth scripts, Enter Juliet and Prospect House were performed in the Everyman and Theatre Development Centre respectively in 2014. His first script, Madame Chavelle was produced by Theatre Makers in 2010. Ronan is currently working on two scripts.
Over the last fifteen years he has worked with companies such as Corcacorca, Graffiti, Ex Machine, Asylum, Bowler Hat, Spraoi, MCD, Hammergrin and for numerous festivals. In that time he developed skills as a Set Designer, Set Constructor, Puppeteer, Tour Manager, Production Manager, Stage Manager (occasional actor!) and Director.
He recently started A Little Room (Theatre Development Centre) in Waterford with Nicholas Kavanagh.
Ronan’s theatre making is all about creating a shared vision and the joy of collaboration.
George Hanover
George is a Dublin based actor and theatre maker. She has been a member of BrokenCrow since the beginning in 2011. George has starred in a number of BrokenCrow productions, most recently as Agnetha in Prospect House, written by Ronan Fitzgibbon and directed by Eadaoin O’Donoghue. Other BrokenCrow credits include Bug by Tracy Letts, directed by Frank Prenderghast, Mantle, by Ronan FitzGibbon, directed by Julie Kelleher and Madame Chevalle, written and directed by Ronan Fitzgibbon.
George has worked on many productions with numerous theatre companies, including Painted Bird Productions, Corcadorca, Conflicted Theatre, The Everyman, Cork Opera House and more. George’s agent is Tom O’Sullivan, the actors agent. Her work on film has won her an award for best actress at The Underground Film Fest 2010 . George has experience working for both television and radio and recently was cast in the lead role of Gerard Stembridge’s latest feature length film, The Randomer.
Over the course of three years George worked with Graffiti Theatre on Beag, an early years integrated arts project and was appointed Lead Artist for the final year. She set up Project Cloud: with Fiona Kelleher and Inge Van Doorslaer creating Cloud an interactive early years arts experience as part of the Midsummer Festival 2014. George is currently project consultant and manager for Think Visual
Gavin McEntee
Gavin McEntee is a director and theatre maker, based in Dublin. He holds a B.A in Drama and Theatre studies from UCC. He is Co-artistic Director and founding member of Conflicted Theatre and has been a member of BrokenCrow Theatre Company since 2013.
Gavin has directed a number of BrokenCrow productions, including Enter Juliet, by Ronan Fitzgibbon for the Everyman Theatre Cork in 2014 , Hang Up, by Adam Wyeth for HOME Fest and Galway theatre Festival in 2013 .
His directing credits for Conflicted Theatre include Come dine with Charles Mee, for Cork Midsummer Festival 2015, The Scarlet Letter for Cork Midsummer Festival 2013 and 18-35. At present, Gavin is writing his first play, The Old Fruit Market and collaborating with Corcadorca in that process. He is also developing Neon Western with Conflicted Theatre and learning how to be a lighting technician.
Eadaoin O’Donoghue
Eadaoin is an actor and director. She trained at Jacques Le Coq International Theatre school, Paris and has been a member of BrokenCrow since 2012. She has performed in Brokencrow productions of Mantle, BUG, and Enter Juliet. As part of SHOW festival at The Triskel Arts Centre, she directed Lifedeath and Prospect House. She is currently working on “Dark Kingdom”, an adaptation of Kevin Barry short stories for Cork Midsummer 2016.
Other performing credits include:
Losing Steam, Woyzeck, A Winters Tale with Corcadorca Theatre, Dradin in love, Tribe Theatre, Cleansed, Granary Theatre, The Scarlet Letter, Conflicted Theatre, Rhinocerous, Blue Raincoat Theatre.
Assistant directing credits include: The Strange Undoing of Prudentia Hart, Everyman Palace, Faust Everyman Palace, Desolate Heaven, Everyman Palace.
Rosie O’Regan
Rosie is a Cork based actor with a background in dance and art. She joined BrokenCrow Theatre Company in 2014 and is currently lead artist on their production Dark Kingdom, an adaptation of Kevin Barry stories for Cork Midsummer Festival 2016.
Rosie’s agent is Halina Froudist of Actors and Movers. Her work in film won her a best actress award at the L.I.T film festival 2012 and her theatre credits include work produced by Corcadorca, Conflicted Theatre, The Everyman, Meridian, Cyclone Repetoire and more. She was a founding member of oikos, a performance group that created performances influenced by Butoh and Body/Weather practices, for Home festival in 2013 and The Winter Warmer festival in 2014. Rosie is also a member of Snatch Comedy Improv, with whom she performs regularly.
In 2014 she worked for Graffiti as an early years artist on their Beag project . Her experience on radio includes two plays for RTE Junior. Rosie was on the board of TDC from it’s beginning to April of 2014, and is on the board of OBhéal (Corks weekly poetry event) since 2009 . She has an artist studio in the old FAS building, where she is currently working on a body of images through the medium of petal and leaf collage. She created the cover image for Virtual Tides, Paul Casey’s second poetry collection.
Aideen Wlyde
Aideen is an actor and writer, who has just embarked on a practice-research PhD at the University of Limerick, looking at representations of Irish-Judaism and Inter-culturalism in contemporary Irish theatre. She trained at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, and holds a MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from UCC.
Aideen is also a member of the BrokenCrow ensemble since 2015. Her play Levin & Levin was developed as part of the Fishamble New Play Clinic in 2014, and she recently completed a course in Holocaust Education at TCD. She was awarded the Artists Development Bursary by Tipperary County Council in 2012, and an Arts Council Travel & Training Award in 2010.
Theatre includes: “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart” and “Matched” for Everyman; ”Come Dine with Charles Mee” for Conflicted; “LifeDeath” for BrokenCrow; “Where in the World Is Frank Sparrow?” for Graffiti; “Love All” for Cheerywild; “Big Sister, Little Brother” for Barnstorm; “Lifeboat” and “Othello” for Cork Opera House. Film and TV and radio includes: Red Rock (2016); Penny Dreadful (Season 2); Davin (Graham Jones); Nietzsche No.5 (short); Book on One (RTE Radio One).
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