Our Team

Willie White

Artistic Director and Chief Executive

Willie White was appointed Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011. Previously, he worked at RTÉ, Ireland’s public service broadcaster, from 1998-2002 and was Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre, Dublin from 2002 to 2011.

Willie has been a member of the Culture, Recreation and Amenity SPC of Dublin City Council since 2010 and a Council member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce since 2015. He was a board member of IETM, an international performing arts network based in Brussels, for 7 years and its President from 2013-2017. In 2008 Willie was awarded the Jerome Hynes Clore Leadership Fellowship.

Originally from Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, Willie now lives in Phibsboro with his family. He is an enthusiast for cycling, yoga and sea swimming. Is breá leis Gaeilge. Il parle français assez bien.

Maria Fleming

General Manager

Maria joined Dublin Theatre Festival in 2018 as General Manager. As Theatre Programmer at The Ark Maria curated the Family Season at Dublin Theatre Festival from 2012 to 2017. She was Special Events Co-ordinator in 2010 and 2011 where she particularly enjoyed hosting post show discussions. Maria has over 20 years' experience working as a general manager, producer, programmer and arts consultant with Ireland’s leading companies and theatre artists, including Barabbas, Druid Theatre Company, Hot For Theatre, Donal O’Kelly Productions and Irish Modern Dance Theatre. Maria is passionate about social justice and in 2017 travelled twice to the island of Chios in Greece to volunteer with refugee support group CESRT (Chios Eastern Shore Response Team).

Stephen McManus

Director of Programme and Production

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.

Dearbhail O'Sullivan

Assistant General Manager

Dearbhail is a performing arts professional with a speciality in marketing, finance and administration. In just over a decade she has worked with a variety of large scale public festivals including dlr Festival of World Cultures, Street Performance World Championship (now Laya Healthcare City Spectacular) and St. Patricks Festival and prior to that with Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire and Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray. Dearbhail first held the seasonal role of Marketing Assistant in 2012, returning to the festival team as Administrator in 2013 and promoted to Assistant General Manager in 2015. Dearbhail is a graduate of the inaugural year of IADT’s BA (Hons.) Business Studies with Arts Management.

Fiona Garvan

Development Executive

Fiona joined the Dublin Theatre Festival team as Development Assistant in 2015. In addition to her current role of Development Executive, Fiona is part of the Business to Arts Fundraising Fellowship programme in partnership with the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Prior to DTF, Fiona’s professional experience includes film festivals, private event and party planning. She has held a number of production roles in film festivals, including the Media That Matters Film Festival, New York, Dingle International Film Festival, Kerry, and Darklight, Dublin. Fiona loves film, yoga, clean cooking and being by the sea as much as possible.

Vlatka Jeh

Audience Engagement and Sales Manager

After joining Dublin Theatre Festival in 2018 as Box office Manager, Vlatka now works as Audience Engagement and Sales Manager. Before moving to Ireland in 2016, she worked in marketing and project management for over 15 years, specializing in theatre and film festival marketing and production. As an associate for some of the most visited cultural events in Croatia like Zagreb Film Festival, Mediteran Cinema, ZagrebDox and Ulysses Theatre, her experience spans across different fields – production and programme, marketing, volunteer and artist liaison management. She is passionate about research, strategic planning and sustainable audience development and has a soft spot for low budget/high maintenance site-specific theatre.

Derval Mellett

Marketing and Development Manager

Derval joined Dublin Theatre Festival in 2019 as Marketing & Development Manager. She was based in London for ten years after training as an actress in Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In that decade she was Production Manager with Giudecca Productions, a founding member and casting director with The Faction as well as being part of their rep ensemble for many years. Since returning to Dublin five years ago, she has been running her award winning food business, Delish Melish. She is currently working her way through Irish Times ‘100 Best Places to Eat in Ireland’. Only fifty five more to go.

Grace Lobo

Marketing Assistant

Grace joined the Dublin Theatre Festival team as the Marketing Assistant in July of 2019. Previously she has worked in production at NBCUniversal and in development at Bruce Cohen Productions. She is a 2018 graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC where she studied Business and English and sometimes pretended to have an understanding of politics. In addition to working for DTF, Grace is involved in stand up comedy and improvisational theatre.