Conversations After Sex

Kate Stanley Brennan (performer) is a performer and creative from Dublin, and currently a THISISPOPBABY associate artist. Theatre work includes Colic (Hatch), Girl On An Altar (Kiln London/Abbey Theatre), SHIT (THISISPOPBABY), Treaty (Fishamble), Conversations after Sex – ITTA nomination for Best Actress (THISISPOPBABY), her self-penned show WALK FOR ME (Project Arts Centre), Restoration (Shaun Dunne), Evening Train (Everyman Palace), RIOT (THISISPOPBABY), The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith/Abbey Theatre) Crestfall ITTA nomination Best Ensemble (Druid), The White Devil (Shakespeare’s Globe), Hedda Gabler, The Risen People, Terminus, Saved, Playboy of the Western World (Abbey Theatre), The Night Alive (Lyric /Gaiety), Wuthering Heights, Salome (Gate Theatre), Witness, Best Man, ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot – ITTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Love and Money, ITTA nomination for Best Actress (Project Arts Centre/Everyman), Yerma (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Sanctuary Lamp (Arcola Theatre London). Film/TV includes TWIG (Blu Ink Films/Janey Pics), PANTO (Producer, Director, Writer Deadly Films/Screen Ireland Actor As Creator), Burn It All (CopperAlley), KIN (Townsend Film/AMC), Cherry (Kate’s directorial debut, CopperAlley), Float like a Butterfly (Samson) Fading Away (Filmbase), Inspector Jury (IJ Prods), Chasing Green (Hallmark), Doll House, winner of Best Ensemble Acting Odessa Film Festival (Visit Films ), Raw, Fair City (RTÉ), The Tudors (HBO). Kate makes music under the name MissKate. She has directed her last three music videos, TOOK THE LIFE, GET ME and a collaboration with Lux Alma IN THE PLACE. Previous releases include WALK FOR ME (EP Jan 2019 written by Kate and produced by MathMan) and MissKate and the Higher State (EP released 2013).

Fionn Ó Loingsigh (performer): Theatre credits include The Last Return (Druid), Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre), Conversations After Sex (THISISPOPBABY), The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (Pan Pan Theatre/Abbey Theatre), The Plough and the Stars (The National, London), Juno and the Paycock (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Deadly (Peacock Theatre, Dublin), Juno and the Paycock (Liverpool Playhouse and Bristol Old Vic), Desire Under the Elms (Corn Exchange, Smock Alley Theatre), Disco Pigs (DU Players) - for which he won Best Actor at the ISDA Awards 2009, bedbound (The New Theatre), and The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Samuel Beckett Theatre). Television credits include Witness Number Three (Channel 5), Tin Star S3 (Sky Atlantic), Darklands (Virgin Media One), Trigonometry (BBC), Broken (BBC), Moonfleet (Sky), Trivia S2 (RTÉ), Jack Taylor: The Dramatist (TV3), Raw S4 (RTÉ). Film credits include Her Name Is, Wren Boys (Nominated for Best Short Film at the 2018 BAFTA Awards), Delinquent Season, Cardboard Gangsters (Nominated for Best Supporting Actor-Film at the 2018 IFTA Awards), Waterloo Warriors, Get Up and Go, Out of Here, What Richard Did, Rhinos.

Clelia Murphy (performer) is perhaps best known for playing the role of Niamh Brennan in RTÉ’s flagship television drama series Fair City, a role she played for 22 years before leaving the show in 2017. Since then she has been based between Ireland and the UK. Most recently she has just completed filming series 2 of The Madam Blanc Mysteries written by Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent for Channel 5 and Acorn TV, and Jane Seymour’s Harry Wilde, another Acorn TV original. Clelia also plays the part of Maeve Ludlow in the BBC’s drama series Doctors. Most recently on stage, Clelia played the role of Bernie in Stephen Jones’ Summerhill, a Glass Mask Theatre Production, Susan in Claudia Carroll’s Secrets of Primrose Square, a Pat Moylan/Draoícht production, and Baroness Elsa von Schraeder in the UK & Ireland Tour of The Sound of Music for Bill Kenwright Productions. Other stage credits include Toffee by Ultan Pringle for the New Theatre, Valley of The Squinting Windows, The Mullingar Arts Centre, the Voice of The Announcer in Olivier Award-winning playwright and performer, Pat Kinevane‘s Before for Fishamble, Gym Swim Party by Danielle Galligan & Gavin Kostick for Dublin Fringe Festival, Maeve Binchy’s Light a Penny Candle a Breda Cashe national tour, BOOM by Isobel Mahon, John Murphy’s touring musical Elvis is My Daddy and Spring Awakening directed by the internationally acclaimed György Vidovszy for DYT. Clelia is also an original ensemble member of Dublin’s Glass Mask Theatre. Film and television credits include the role of Kathleen Buckley in the award-winning feature film Danny Boy directed by Ferdia Mac Anna, Bernard Dunne’s Mythical Heroes for RTE, Vivienne de Courcy’s Dare to be Wild, Jack Conroy’s The Gaelic Curse and The Badgeman Conspiracy directed by John Sheridan and Paul Valentine. Clelia also worked on GRABBERS for Samson Films, Parallel Pictures’ The Gift of the Magi and Stephen Kane’s award-winning The Crooked Mile. In 2015 Clelia co-produced and starred in Jennifer Davidson’s award-winning short Waiting For Tom directed by Ruth O’Looney, which was selected to screen at the Galway Film Fleadh, Cork, Foyle, Dingle and Chicago film festivals. It also screened in the Irish Film Festival London where it won for Best Short. Radio work includes John Boorman’s The Hitlist, Bill Hugh’s Grace, Joe O’Byrne’s CRANE, Catherine Brennan’s The Guilty Heart, KINSEY ONE THROUGH FIVE by Veronica Coburn, all for RTE Radio, and most recently the role of Ella Young in Danny Brennan’s The Morrigan directed by Marrisa Aroy. Clelia is also one of Ireland’s most experienced voiceover artists with a career that has seen her lending her voice to some of Ireland’s biggest brands and best-loved shows. Clelia trained with the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin Youth Theatre and also holds an MA in screenwriting for IADT. Conversations after Sex is Clelia’s debut with THISISPOPBABY.

Mark O’Halloran (writer) is a writer/actor from Ennis, Co. Clare. He has worked with many of the major theatre companies in Ireland. On screen he has appeared in numerous films, most notably as one of the eponymous heroes in ADAM & PAUL (which he also wrote), and the lead role of MP in History’s Future directed by Fiona Tan. Most recently he appeared in Shane Meadow’s Channel 4 drama, The Virtues, for which he won Best Supporting Actor at the IFTA awards 2020. He will be appearing in upcoming feature, The Miracle Club, alongside Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, and Laura Linney. Writing credits include: The films GARAGE and Adam & Paul, the television series PROSPERITY; a Spanish language feature set in Havana Cuba, and Rialto which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. His television work includes scripting several episodes of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. His work has been seen at Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Telluride and Sundance film festivals. For the stage he wrote the play TRADE, contributing text to the award-winning LIPPY, co-wrote Beckett’s Room for Dead Centre at The Gate Theatre. In 2021 he premiered two new plays, Conversations After Sex, at the Dublin Theatre Festival, (which won Best New Play at the Irish Theatre Awards 2022), and a stage adaptation of Bergman’s The Silence at the Stadsteater in Göteborg, Sweden.

Tom Creed (director) is a theatre and opera director based in Dublin. His extensive work as a theatre director includes productions with the Abbey Theatre, Gate Theatre, THISISPOPBABY, Rough Magic, Playgroup (which he co-founded in 2003) and a range of independent Irish companies, which have played in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. He was nominated for Best Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2007. His productions of Watt by Samuel Beckett with acclaimed Irish actor Barry McGovern have been presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Perth International Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Barbican Centre in London, the Public Theatre in New York and on tour in Ireland and the USA. Recent productions include extensive work in new writing, including Conversations After Sex and TRADE by Mark O’Halloran, Sure Look It, Fuck It by Clare Dunne and I Am Tonie Walsh by Phillip McMahon and Tonie Walsh, all for THISISPOPBABY, The Bluffer’s Guide to Suburbia, Deep and Mimic by Ray Scannell, and Shibari by Gary Duggan, at the Abbey Theatre as part of the 2012 Dublin Theatre Festival, major contemporary plays by Martin Crimp, Jon Fosse, Christopher Shinn and Michel Tremblay, classic plays by Shakespeare and Calderón, devised and site-specific work including Berlin Love Tour, which was presented in Dublin, Cork and Birmingham. Most recently he has directed Summerfolk, Anatomy of a Suicide, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Skriker, Buddleia, O Go My Man and Into the Woods with graduating acting students at Dublin’s Lir Academy and ZOONOSIS created with Cal Folger Day and Rising created with Helena Enright for Dublin Youth Theatre.

Ivan Birthistle (sound design)  is head of the Sound Dept. at the Lir National Academy Of Dramatic Arts. He has been working as a composer and sound designer in theatre for over twenty years and has worked with nearly every major theatre company in the country. He has also played in many bands over the years, most notably Schtum and Nina Hynes and the Husbands, and has released several records. Past work includes: Conversations After Sex, Money, Sure Look It, Fuck It, (THISISPOPBABY); Epiphany (Druid); Joyce’s Women, Monsters Dinosaurs Ghosts, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, No Escape, Playboy of the Western World, Saved, Alice Trilogy, True West (The Abbey); Tribes (The Gate); Dublin Old School (Project Arts Centre); Creditors (C Company); Wolf And Peter, Agnes, Pageant, Touch Me (Coiscéim); Dockers, The Absence of Women, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Homeplace, Dancing at Lughnasa, True West (The Lyric); Haughey/Gregory, Swing, The Great Goat Bubble, Tiny Plays For Ireland (I+II), End Of The Road, Rank, Noah and the Tower Flower, Monged (Fishamble); The Motherfucker With The Hat (Orion Productions); The White Piece (IMDT); Re-energize, Over The Wire (Derry Playhouse); Driving Miss Daisy, The Field (Lane Productions); Class, All in the Timing (Innis Theatre Co.); The Sanctuary Lamp (B’spoke); This Is Our Youth, Wedding Day at the Cro- Magnons’, Roberto Zucco (Bedrock); Ladies and Gents, God’s Grace, Adrenalin and Slaughter (Semper-Fi). Ivan has also designed many shows for the Lir, most recent productions include: Distinguished Villa and The Laramie Project.

Adam Fitzsimons (production manager) is a theatre and festival production manager. He is THISISPOPBABY’S production manager. Adam started as Ents manager in students union in NUI Galway, before moving on to work with Druid Theatre Company, Decadent Theatre and Macnas. He has toured extensively both in Ireland and abroad with theatre and art installations, and managed Parades, concerts and festivals. He has worked as production manager with ANU Theatre, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and Branar Theatre amongst others Adam is the head of production for Galway International Arts Festival, where he specializes in transforming unused buildings and empty halls into art galleries, concert venues and theatre spaces

Jennifer Jennings (THISISPOPBABY) is a theatre and festival maker based in Dublin. She is co-founder and co-director of acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY, arts director of Beyond the Pale Music Festival and artistic director in residence at UCD’s Creative Futures Academy. For THISISPOPBABY, highlights include co-directing the recent smash-hit WAKE (Judges’ Special Award Dublin Fringe 2022), the international sensation RIOT (Best Production, Dublin Fringe 2016); directing Shit by Patricia Cornelius and family show Absolute Legends for Lords of Strut; curating Where We Live Festivals 2018 & 2020, Queer Notions Arts Festival 2009 & 2010, POPTENT at Electric Picnic 2008-2010 and WERK performance art club (The Abbey Theatre, IMMA and Melbourne Festival); and producing Panti’s High Heels in Low Places (World Tour 2015-2017 / Soho Live films 2018), Sure Look It, Fuck It by Clare Dunne and Alice in Funderland - A New Musical by Phillip McMahon and Raymond Scannell. Previously Jennifer has been artistic director of Neon Lights Music & Arts Festival (Singapore), arts program director of Harvest Music Festival (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane), head of programming at Abbotsford Convent Melbourne and program director for Dublin Fringe Festival.

John King (assistant director) is a director and theatre-maker based in Dublin. With theatre and sound collective Murmuration, he has made the headphone shows One Moment Now (Bewley’s), You’re Still Here (Dublin Fringe, co-presented by the Abbey Theatre at Dublin Castle), Will I See You There (Dublin Fringe), and Summertime (Dublin Fringe, Drogheda Arts Festival, Young Curators’ Festival at the Abbey Theatre). Other directing work includes The Cyclone Kid (Bewley’s), The Overcoat (Omnibus Theatre and OSO Barnes), and a rolling collaboration with London-based performance artist Joseph Morgan Schofield on work that has been presented across the UK. John is an associate artist of Solas Nua in Washington, D.C., where his previous work includes side-walks (co-written with Jeremy K Hunter) and somewhere in the future dark (Atlas Performing Arts Centre). He has been an assistant director for Irish National Opera and at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. on their 2018-2019 season. 

Phillip McMahon (THISISPOPBABY) is a playwright and director based in Dublin. Writing credits include Once Before I Go, Come On Home, Town Is Dead, Alice In Funderland, Pineapple, Elevator, Investment Potential, All Over Town and Danny & Chantelle (still here). Directing credits include Straight to Video and Dublin Oldschool by Emmet Kirwan, Town Is Dead for The Abbey Theatre, Insane Animals by Bourgeois & Maurice, Not A Funny Word by Tara Flynn and Money by Peter Daly. He has made and toured a number of smash hit shows with long time collaborator, drag superstar Panti Bliss, and was co-producer and co-writer on Conor Horgan’s esteemed documentary The Queen of Ireland for Blinder Films. Philip recently co-created a dance theatre work, Party Scene, with long time collaborator, choreographer Philip Connaughton. Phillip is co-founder and co-director of theatre production company THISISPOPBABY, wherein he was co-creator and co-curator of the THISISPOPBABY performance venue at Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival, Queer Notions cross arts festival, WERK Performance/Art/Club and Where We Live festival of performance and ideas. Phillip has created and directed many works within THISISPOPBABY, including international hit, RIOT, and more recently, WAKE at Dublin’s National Stadium. Phillip was a former writer In association at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He is currently artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, and is research fellow at the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, London.

Sue Mythen (movement and intimacy director) Sue works as a movement director for various companies in Ireland, Europe and Canada. Her work at The Abbey, National Theatre of Ireland includes: Translations, The Weir, I Girl, Citysong, On Raftery’s Hill, Crestfall (with Druid), Oedipus, Shadow of a Gunman (with The Lyric), RUR, Hedda Gabler, Twelfth Night, Plough & the Stars, Heartbreak House, 16 Possible Glimpses, The House, The Rivals, Pygmalion and Major Barbara. Other work includes To the Lighthouse (Everyman), Conversations After Sex, (THISISPOPBABY), Our New Girl (Gate Theatre), Asking For It (Landmark/Everyman/Gaiety/Birmingham Rep.), Flights (Project), Private Peaceful (Pavilion/US Tour), The White Devil (Shakespeare’s Globe) and The Heiress (Gate Theatre). Sue has a long collaboration with ANU which includes The Lost O’Casey, (for which she won an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Movement Direction 2019), Sin Eaters, On Corporation Street, Sunder, Pals and Angel Meadow. Movement for opera includes: Elektra (Canadian Opera Company), Radamisto (NI Opera), Semele (RIAM), Il Ballo delle Ingrate (RIAM/Abbey) and Dead Man Walking (Gaiety). On film Sue worked on Northanger Abbey (ITV Drama), History’s Future (CineArtNederland) and has worked as an intimacy coordinator on Good Sex (Dead Centre), Flora & Son (Figment), The Dry (Element Pictures), Normal People (Element/BBC), Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix), Modern Love (Amazon), Kin (Bron/RTE) and Smother (RTE/BBC). Sue is head of movement at The Lir Academy, Trinity College Dublin.

Laura Rigney (THISISPOPBABY) is an Irish arts manager and cultural producer. She has worked extensively in the arts and non-profit creative organizations leading, developing and providing consultancy in areas of creative and business development, arts management, festivals and event management. She is general manager with THISISPOPBABY. Recent producing credits include: If These Wigs Could Talk by Panti Bliss and Haunted by Tara Flynn. Previously Laura was executive director of Design Galway, development & amp; partnership manager with Galway 2020 - European Capital of Culture, fundraiser with Galway International Arts Festival and marketing & amp; development manager with Macnas - Spectacle & Street Performance Company. She has worked as a consultant in areas of strategic and creative development for Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Tulca Festival of Visual Arts and Traditional Irish Music Festival, and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann

Carla Rogers (producer) is a creative producer and arts marketer with a passion for supporting artists and teams to make playful, challenging and thoughtful work, Carla is a founding member of and producer for MALAPROP Theatre, and has been working with THISISPOPBABY since 2017. She has worked independently with theatre and dance artists such as Outlandish Theatre, Sibéal Davitt, Veronica Dyas, and on such festivals as WHERE WE LIVE, LIVE COLLISION and THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON Vol. 5. Selected producing credits include WAKE, Party Scene (THISISPOPBABY 2022), Where Sat the Lovers and Minseach (Dublin Fringe 2021), 1,000 Miniature Meadows (Dublin Fringe Festival 2020), and Not A Funny Word. She has produced tours of MALAPROP’s work to Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Paris, Beijing, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Darwin. Other roles include marketing manager, artist liaison, project manager, and researcher. She has also worked with Project Arts Centre, Irish Theatre Institute, Youth Theatre Ireland, Dublin International Film Festival, Landmark Productions, United Fall and The Ark, a Cultural Centre for Children. Carla has a BA in modern Irish and film studies, an MA in cultural policy and arts management and is a member of the steering committee for the National Campaign for the Arts, Ireland.

Sarah Jane Shiels (lighting) began designing lighting in Dublin Youth Theatre, completing M.Sc in Interactive digital media 2021, a BA in drama and theatre Studies 2006 (Trinity College Dublin) and the Rough Magic Seeds3 program 2006-2008. From 2010-2017, she was co-artistic director of WillFredd Theatre. She is delighted to be an associate artist with THISISPOPBABY for 2022/23.

Niall Sweeney (THISISPOPBABY) was no sooner out of school when he started an eternal relationship with the social, political and transformational power of dressing up and having fun. As part of a ground-breaking collective that emerged in Dublin during the 1980s-90s, he forged cross-disciplinary projects in art, design, technology, activism and nightclubbing – invigorating over 35 years of Dublin’s heart beat with graphic ephemera and radical spaces – including Elevator (1993/98), Powderbubble (1996-98), Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (2002-09) and most notably Alternative Miss Ireland (1987-2012). In 2000 he founded the multi-award- winning creative studio, Pony Ltd, London, with electronic musician & designer Nigel Truswell, where they produce work internationally. Niall’s practice blurs the gamut of art, design, print, theatre, film, performance, installation, music, publishing and writing. He has been design & art director with THISISPOPBABY since its very beginnings, working and collaborating on almost every production, and with whom he staged his own performance works, including Dancing at the Crossroads: Glamour Rooted in Despair (2009), Revolver (2010) and Lights Out for the Territories (2012), and has further presented works in Dublin, London, New York, Sarajevo, Beirut and Brno. His collaborative nine-screen film-work and accompanying award-winning publication, Made In Dublin (2019), with photographer Eamonn Doyle, composer David Donohoe and writer Kevin Barry, has been exhibited in Dublin, London, Madrid, Barcelona and Antwerp; and his posters for Pantibar Dublin are included in the permanent collections of Zurich Design Museum and Chaumont International Poster Festival. Niall was recently commissioned by Irish Museum of Modern Art to create large-scale outdoor installations and performances in the RHK formal gardens (Club Chroma Chlorologia, 2019-2022). With work published, exhibited, performed, collected and screened across the cosmos, Niall is always ready for the chance of a dance.