Before joining Dubin Theatre Festival as Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Róise Goan worked as the artistic coordinator at VIERNULVIER in Ghent, Belgium and as artistic director and co-CEO of Artsadmin in London, UK. She has worked variously as an artist, producer, programmer and dramaturg in the performing arts. 

Róise studied Drama and Theatre at Trinity College Dublin and graduated in 2004. From 2008-2013 she was director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, where she founded Fringe Lab. Thereafter she founded The Local Group, making occasional contemporary performance projects in off-the-grid locations in Ireland, alongside freelance work as a programmer and consultant. In addition to her work in the performing arts, she has written for television, most notably for the TG4 series Aifric. 

photo credit: An Van Gijsegem

Jennifer has worked on an ongoing basis with multiple leading and emerging Irish theatre companies, and across a range of festival contexts. 

She has stage managed at the Abbey Theatre, Project Arts Centre, The Complex, Smock Alley Theatre, and across Ireland, with an emphasis on new writing and dance. 

She has made work, toured with shows, sold tickets, guided audiences to their seats, and liaised closely with artists – both at home, and from Edinburgh to Australia. 

She enjoys pop music, poetry and spending time in nature. 

After graduating from University College Cork with a Master’s degree in English and a Bachelor’s degree in Film & Screen Media, Cian has worked in theatre for the past number of years, stage managing and directing shows in the Cork Opera House and Firkin Crane Theatre while also acting as a Front of House manager for the Cork Midsummer Festival and as part of the Dance Cork Firkin Crane team.

Cian has also spent a number of years as the administrator for the Performers Academy Cork, one of Cork’s leading stage schools and also holds a diploma in Speech and Drama Teaching from the London College of Music. In his free time, Cian can usually be found in some sort of theatre or cinema!

Having joined the Dublin Theatre Festival Team as the Office Assistant, Cian has now moved into the role of Festival Administrator.

Stephen spent the early part of his career as a freelance Lighting Designer working in Ireland and the UK. In 1998, he joined Riverdance’s Liffey Company, and as Stage Director and Company Manager, toured throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia. He has worked as a freelance Company Manager and Consultant Producer. He has been Director of Programme and Production at Dublin Theatre Festival since 2007. As Stage Director of the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics World Summer Games, Stephen gave the cue to light the Olympic Flame.

Dee was most recently General Manager at Dublin Fringe Festival, delivering four festivals from 2020. Prior to this she was General Manager at The Complex in Smithfield. She previously held Development & Fundraising roles at The National Concert Hall and Irish Architecture Foundation. She has extensive experience in producing and management in London with companies such as Lone Twin and Mall Galleries. 

Since graduating with a degree in Visual Arts Practice from IADT in 2008, Sharon has developed a professional arts practice with a particular emphasis on sculpture. She has exhibited her work throughout Ireland and internationally. More recently, Sharon has held a variety of roles for arts festivals and organisations including International Literature Festival Dublin, Dublin Chinese New Year Festival, Dublin International Film Festival and Project Arts Centre. She has been part of Dublin Theatre Festival’s seasonal box office team since 2017. In her spare time, Sharon enjoys cookery, reading and has a passion for yarn, enjoying crafts such as knitting and crochet.

Mary joined DTF in 2022 as a part-time Bookkeeper.  Having previously worked in travel and education in the UK Mary returned to Ireland in 2014 and has enjoyed working at various festivals in Dublin.  

She also has a craft business making items out of driftwood and loves all things nautical.  She is a keen sea swimmer which ties in nicely with collecting driftwood. 

Appointed 2019

Aisling Blake is a Sales Director in Facebook. From 2009 to 2018 she worked at Core; Ireland’s largest Marketing Communications Group, as Managing Director of Radical, Core’s digital agency before becoming Chief Digital Officer of Core in January 2018. A graduate of UCD, Aisling also holds an MSc in Marketing Practice from the UCD Michael Smurfit Business School and an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice from the University of Ulster. Aisling has more than 15 years’ experience in digital marketing and communications and has also served as Chair of the Online Marketing Group of the Irish Internet Association. She is also a Board member of the Irish Heart Foundation.

Appointed 2022, elected Chairperson October 2023

Úna Carmody is a consultant in the arts and culture, with a special interest in audience development and strategic planning. Recent clients have included The Arts Council, for whom she researched and wrote the COVID response document “Survive Adapt Renew”; Central Bank of Ireland, National Museum of Ireland and the RDS. Prior to becoming a consultant Úna worked in a variety of theatre marketing roles, including for the Abbey, Gaiety and Gate Theatres, and was Marketing Manager of the DTF in 1991. She has also been CEO of the Helix, and worked from 2001 – 2004 for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has also served on a number of arts boards and was Chair of Dublin Fringe Festival.

Appointed 2023

Tom fell for the stage playing Richard III in Belvedere College. In 1985 he joined the National Youth Theatre. He read Drama Studies in Trinity, touring the USA with Irish Universities Theatre Company playing Estragon to Stephen Bradley’s Vladimir. He played a body-snatcher in Gerry Stembridge’s Red Noses at the Project and appeared in several Nighthawks sketches directed by Anne Enright.

He found a knack for making profitable theatre directing his Afternoon of Irish Theatre productions. He was a DTF translator and production manager and produced Irish and international tours of Dermot Bolger’s Lament for Arthur Cleary starring Liam Cunningham. He co-produced a documentary film From Clare to Here about Martin Hayes which aired worldwide.

Tom is now principal of CLINCH, Ireland’s premier privately-owned financial advisory firm for leading creatives, professionals and entrepreneurs. His wife Meav Ni Mhaolchatha is a singer and composer. They have two daughters Anna and Catherine Clinch.

Appointed 2017.

Catriona Crowe is former Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland. She was Manager of the Census Online Project, which placed the Irish 1901 and 1911 censuses online free to access. She is Chairperson of the Irish Theatre Institute, which promotes and supports Irish theatre and has created an award-winning website of Irish theatre productions. She is currently a judge for the Irish Times Theatre Awards. She has worked with ANU Productions on many of its award-winning pieces. She contributes regularly to the broadcast and print media on cultural and historical matters. She presented the RTÉ documentary, Ireland before the Rising, which was shown in February 2016. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Appointed 2022

Andrew Lowe co-founded Element Pictures with Ed Guiney in 2001. Element has offices in Dublin, Belfast and London and works across film and television production. As Founder and Co-CEO, his focus is on production and the financing and commercial exploitation of Element’s slate. Element’s film and tv productions include Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson; Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite; Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter; The Wonder, directed by Sebastian Lelio; Nancy Harris’ The Dry; Normal People and Conversations with Friends, both directed by Lenny Abrahamson.

Before setting up Element Pictures Andrew freelanced as a production accountant and was Head of Business Affairs at the Irish Film Board.  Andrew is Chair of the IBEC (Irish Employers representative body) Audiovisual Federation. In May 2022, Fremantle announced its majority stake in Element Pictures, marking a new and ambitious phase of growth for Element.

Andrew is also a director of a distribution company, Volta Pictures, as well as the Light House Cinema in Dublin and Pálás Cinema in Galway.

Appointed 2022.

Bush Moukarzel is co-artistic director of Dead Centre. Bush has co-authored and co-directed all of the company’s productions, mostly recently The World is Everything That is the Case, at the Burgtheater, Vienna, Bählaams Fest at Ruhtriennale, Germany and an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence at Gothenburg State Theatre, Sweden. Other Dead Centre directing/writing credits include: LIPPY, Chekhov’s First Play, Hamnet, Beckett’s Room (co-production with the Gate Theatre, Dublin), and To Be A Machine (Version 1.0) – a co-production with Dublin Theatre Festival. Upcoming work includes an adaptation of Flights by Nobel-Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk at Burgtheater, Vienna, and an operatic adaptation of Pasolini’s Teorema at Deutsche Oper Berlin in June 2023.

Appointed 2024.

Jimmy Fay is Executive Producer at The Lyric Theatre in Belfast.  He is a former Associate Artist and Literary Director of the Abbey Theatre. He was the founder and Artistic Director of Bedrock Productions with whom he founded the Dublin Fringe Festival in 1995.  This is now established as one of the most important events in the Irish theatrical calendar.

As a director, his work at the Abbey Theatre includes The Risen People, Quietly (also toured to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013 and The Soho Theatre, London), The Government Inspector, Curse of the Starving Class, Macbeth, The Playboy of the Western World, Ages of the Moon, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Seafarer, The School for Scandal, Howie the Rookie, True West, Henry IV, The Muesli Belt, At Swim-Two-Birds, Melonfarmer and The Papar. He won an Irish Times Theatre award for his production of Saved at the Peacock Theatre.

He has a long association with Landmark Productions for whom his productions include Fiona Looney’s Greener and Paul Howard’s sell-out shows, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger, Breaking Dad, and Postcards from the Ledge.