Slingshot Residency 2026

We are thrilled to announce the Slingshot Residency participants that will be joining us in Festival House in 2026!

Welcome Nessa Matthews, David McGovern, Mai Ishikawa, Dylan McGloin and Liam Rees

Nessa Matthews is an actor (LAMDA MFA Dist), writer, maker and director from Co. Louth. She is a member of the NTA/GalPal Collective’s Writer’s Club 2025 and a Maven at The Mill for 2026. She is currently developing DOOMSCROLLER with support from the Art Council. It had its first work in progress in 2024 and was shortlisted for RTÉ Storyland 2025.

David McGovern is a theatre-maker, writer and multidisciplinary artist. His work interrogates modern life; with themes of care, desire, post-internet living and rejection. Performance work includes Shredder (2025), We Regret to Inform You (2024) and Corrupting Care (2022). He is a recipient of the Arts Council’s Next Generation Artist Award.

Mai Ishikawa is a Japanese theatre-maker, translator and poet. She has translated several plays into Japanese. Her poems have appeared in The Stony Thursday Book, Banshee, Channel, Ink Sweat & Tears, Beginnings Over and Over etc. Her experimental theatre piece Constriction, written and performed by herself, premiered in DFF 2025.

Dylan McGloin is an Irish theatre artist and performance designer working across movement, scenography, and ensemble-led creation. His practice centres on Theatre of Heaven, a devising method using poetry to create visual and physical worlds through improvisation, exploring how body, space, and atmosphere shape storytelling beyond words.

Liam Rees is a theatre director making work in Ireland, the UK, and internationally. He’s an Associate Artist with Dead Centre, was selected for TalentLAB at the Theatres de la Ville de Luxembourg, and his works The Enlightened and The Land That Never Was played in Ireland, the UK, and Germany.