A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Dan Colley is a theatre maker with a particular focus on devised ensemble work, theatre-for-young-audiences and large-scale spectacle. As artistic director of Collapsing Horse (2013-19) he directed nine original productions, a series of ten radio plays, an exhibition in the National Museum, and toured to New York, London, Edinburgh, Bergen, Moscow, and 15 Irish venues. He was also co-artistic director of the Kilkenny Cat Laughs comedy festival from 2017-19. Collapsing Horse’s final production, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings was nominated for two Irish Times Theatre Awards and four Dublin Fringe Awards, including ‘Best Production’. Dan directed, and with Fionnuala Gygax, co-created TWENTY FIFTY, an online interactive theatre piece part of DUETS in Dublin Fringe 2020. Dan directed and co-wrote Lost Lear, a sold-out show in Dublin Theatre Festival 2022. Other directing credits include Me Michael by Tara McKevitt, and a short as part of Fourteen Voices From the Bloodied Field for the Abbey Theatre and Danse Macabre, a large-scale processional street theatre piece for Macnas.

In 2015, Dan was the creative producer of TWENTY FIRST the Dublin Fringe's 21st birthday project. His dramaturgy credits include WillFredd, Sugarglass, Louise White, and Macnas. Dan trained as a youth theatre facilitator with Youth Theatre Ireland and has run workshops and classes in the Lir, Trinity College Dublin, LA LGBT Center's Homeless Youth Services, and in schools, youth theatre groups, and with communities nationally. Dan was awarded the Arts Council's Next Generation Bursary Award in 2016. He is Theatre Artist in Residence in the Riverbank Arts Centre, a member of the Project Arts Centre, and on the board of the Dublin Fringe Festival.

Riverbank Arts Centre aims to enrich the imagination and creativity of our audience by working in partnership with international, national and local artists to deliver an accessible and consistently high quality arts program in an intimate environment. They provide a multi-disciplinary program which includes theatre, cinema, comedy, music, dance, workshops and visual arts. With an extensive outreach and schools’ program, and programming of high quality theatre and workshops for younger audiences, Riverbank is also committed to promoting early engagement with and access to the arts. www.riverbank.ie