Queer Notions: New Plays and Performances from Ireland

Notes on Contributors

263 Notes on Contributors LOUGHLIN DEEGAN’s first play,The Stomping Ground (1997),was a finalist in the National Association of Youth Drama’s Stage-it competition,and it was subsequently produced by Red Kettle Theatre Company, which also commissioned and produced his second play,The Queen & Peacock in 2000.He has worked for various theatre companies, including Druid and the Belltable Arts Centre, as well as for Rough Magic, where he worked as literary manager and later as executive producer (2003–16). For the Irish Theatre Institute he was editor of the Irish Theatre Handbook and director of the Irish Playography project, a comprehensive database for new Irish plays,from 2000 to 2003.He was appointed artistic director and chief executive of the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2006 and still holds this position. DEIRDRE KINAHAN is artistic director of Tall Tales Theatre Company. She began writing for theatre in 1999 and has written many plays, including Bé Carna (1999), Summer Fruits (2001), Knocknashee (2001), Passage (2001), Attaboy Mr. Synge (2002), Rum & Raisin (2003), Melody (2005), Hue & Cry (2007) and Moment (2009). Plays for children include The Tale of the Blue Eyed Cat (2004), Snow Child (2005), Rebecca’s Robin (2006), Maisy Daly’s Rainbow (2008), and Bogboy (2008) for RTÉ Radio 1. In 2009 Kinahan was the winner of the Tony Doyle Bursary with BBC Northern Ireland and won a bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland for playwriting in 2008. She is under commission to the Abbey Theatre, Semper Fi (Ireland) and RTÉ Radio in 2010. She holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in Modern European Drama. Her plays receive regular production both in Ireland and internationally, and some have been published by Samuel French and Tall Tales/Liberty Press. ÚNA MCKEVITT is a Dublin-based theatre-maker interested in making theatre from everyday life. McKevitt is an associate artist of the Project Arts Centre and a graduate of Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin. In January 2009 she directed Victor and Gord, a durational work in progress devised with Vickey Curtis and Áine McKevitt for Project Brand New 3 at the Project Arts Centre. In June of the same year, she presented an extended version of the performance entitled Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael as part of the Queer Notions Festival, also at the Project Arts Centre. In September 2009, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, she presented a further extended version of this show, Victor and Gord CUBED, which was nominated for the Spirit of the Fringe Award. A new version of the show took place in February 2010 at the Project Arts Centre. PHILLIP MCMAHON began acting with Dublin Youth Theatre, National Youth Theatre, and Australian Theatre for Young People. Since then he has acted with many companies, including THISISPOPBABY, Calipo, RAW, Randolf SD, PanPan, the Abbey/Peacock, Barnstorm, and TEAM. McMahon has directed the performer Panti in three productions : In These Shoes? (2007), All Dolled Up (2007) and A Woman in Progress (2009). Danny and Chantelle (Still Here) is McMahon’s first play, and it won a Spirit of the Fringe Award when first staged at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2006. Other playwriting credits include: All Over Town (2007), Investment Potential (2008) and Pineapple (2010). He has written one short film, Round Here (2007). He is cofounder of the theatre and performance company THISISPOPBABY. McMahon held the position of writer in association at the Abbey Theatre for 2009–10. VERITY-ALICIA MAVENAWITZ was born in Ireland in 1957. She spent part of her childhood in the Middle East. She has also lived in the Netherlands and Greece. Mavenawitz has written scripts for television and radio and has written several stage plays. She was twice nominated for the Oscar Wilde Award for Outstanding Achievement in New Writing for the Theatre, in the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and also worked for a short time as a journalist and critic. Her plays include . . . And Then There Was Me!, nominated for the Wilde award in 2005, and The Drowning Room, nominated for the same award in 2006. Other plays include Counting Saturday (2006), Damelza Eating Apples (2007), The Smokestown Rendezvous (2008) and Abel and His Brother (2009). She is currently working on her first book, entitled The Very Beautiful, and a play, The Panic of Water Rising. 264 Notes on Contributors PANTI began life as the art college...