This week Carole chats to Dr Deirdre Flynn, a lecturer in 21st century literature at MIC Limerick. She has a background in journalism and Theatre and worked in NUI Galway, UL and UCD. They talk about precarious employment for those working in the arts, and in academia.

This week Carole chats to actor Sean Fox. Sean trained at LAMDA, after spending a year in the Bow Street Academy for Screen Acting in Dublin. Since graduating, he has frequented the stage and screen in both the UK and Ireland, most notably Taken Down directed by David Caffrey and written by Stuart Carolan and Jo Spain, Jimmy's Hall directed by Ken Loach, Taming of the Shrew at the Globe, The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin and Holby City.

With the CAO Change of Mind coming up, this week Carole chats to Róisín Burke and Aoife Gleeson who have recently completed the BA CATS course and are here to talk about their time at MIC. They chat about their favourite parts of the course from the small class sizes to fantastic placement opportunities. They also discuss their upcoming positions as President and Vice President of Mary Immaculate Student's Union.

This week Carole chats to Caitríona Daly, a writer from Dublin. Her plays include Panned, Test Dummy (Irish Times Theatre Award Best New Play Nominee 2016) and Normal (Dublin Fringe 2017: Fishamble New Writing Award Nominee and First Fortnight Nominee). She is currently under commission with The Abbey Theatre and Fishamble: The New Play Company.

This week Carole chats to Ann Blake, a Limerick performer, playwright, director, podcaster and musician. She works freelance and collaboratively with organisations such as  Gúna Nua Theatre Company, Beyond The Bark, Narrative 4, Ormston House, as well as institutions such as UL and MIC.

Welcome back, everyone! This week Carole chats to Dr. Ciara Murphy who is currently a Lecturer of Creative Arts Teaching and Learning at NUIG. Ciara was a researcher on the Gender Counts Report that came out of the #WakingTheFeminists movement, and on the new #WTF 5 Years On Report. She’s on today to chat about all things feminism and gender equality in Irish theatre.

This week on Irish Theatre at Play, we're delighted to be joined by Dr Fiona McDonagh, who is a lecturer here in the Drama Department at MIC. She is a theatremaker, deviser, academic, and general legend. She has been with the BA CATS programme since it's inception in 2015. Her research specialisms lie in the fields of Theatre for Young Audiences, Theatre in Education, and Community Theatre. She's with us here today to chat all things TYA, and why theatre is so important for young people, particularly during a pandemic. And, if you listen closely, you might even hear a cameo from one of her wonderful dogs!

Gill Lambert is an award winning scenographer, performance designer and theatre maker currently based in Dublin. She holds an MFA in Scenography from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She is currently designing the BA CATS first and fourth year shows in the Lime Tree theatre. Her work revolves around the body of the spectator, paradoxes of proximity and position, and participation in relation to the construction of space and design. She’s here this week to chat about all things designing, and her work with with the BA CATS.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Irish Theatre at Play. This week we are joined by Ryan Goodfellow, a third-year student of the BA in Contemporary & Applied Theatre Studies at MIC. Ryan is the producer of Irish Theatre At Play and a student that is keenly interested in the area of Sound Design for Theatre. We talk all things sound design, the student theatre experience, and dropping watermelons from a two-story height to simulate the crushing of a human head! Great stuff!

Welcome back to Irish Theatre At Play! We are delighted to be joined this week by Dr. David Clare for an episode centred around theatre history, specifically within an Irish context.

His books include the monographs Bernard Shaw's Irish Outlook (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Irish Anglican Literature and Drama: Hybridity and Discord (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming) and the edited collections The Gate Theatre, Dublin: Inspiration and Craft (Carysfort/Peter Lang, 2018) and The Golden Thread: Irish Women Playwrights (1716-2016) (2 vols., Liverpool UP, forthcoming). His essays have appeared in several edited collections plus the following journals: the Irish Studies Review, the New Hibernia Review, the Irish University Review, SHAW: The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies, Studies in Burke and His Time, the Irish Review, the Eugene O'Neill Review, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, the James Joyce Literary Supplement, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, the Irish Literary Supplement, the Journal of Beckett Studies, Irish Archives, the Irish Jurist, and Emerging Perspectives.

At Mary Immaculate College, Dr. Clare teaches various modules related to theatre history, contemporary Irish and world drama, the intersection of music and performance, playwriting, and theatre business. While at NUIG between 2012 and 2016, he taught on the modules “Theatre and Globalization”, “Beckett on Page and Stage”, “C.S. Lewis and Irish Children's Literature”, “Studies in Modern Irish Literature”, and "Irish Drama from Wilde to O'Casey". Dr. Clare has also taught at University College Dublin, the institution where he completed his MA and PhD; between 2010 and 2013, he taught on the modules “Nineteenth-Century Gothic”, “Victorian to Modern Literature”, “Twentieth-Century Drama”, and “Memory and the Irish Stage”.

We hope you enjoy the episode! If you would like to get in touch you can reach us at our email: [email protected] or through our Instagram @irishtheatreatplay.