DECADENT THEATRE COMPANY - Key Persons
Ali was last seen on screen in The Windermere Children (BBC). She last appeared on stage in Driving Home for Christmas at the Lyric Theatre.
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director
- Director of Theatre at Galway Arts Centre
Andrew is the director of Theatre at Galway Arts Centre and the Artistic Director of Decadent Theatre Company. He also works as a freelance theatre director. Most recently Andrew directed ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan' and The Lieutenant of Inismore by Martin McDonagh for Gaiety productions in 2019/2020.
As the head of theatre at Galway Arts Centre Andrew has directed over 70 productions for Galway Youth Theatre. Some highlights include: ‘Frank Pig Says Hello' and ‘The Adventures of Shay Mouse' by Pat McCabe, ‘The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, ‘Portia Coughlan' by Marina Carr, ‘Lovely Betty' by Mark O'Halloran, ‘Our Country's Good' by Timberlake Vertenbaker, the Irish premieres of ‘Midsummer', 'Monster In the Hall' and ‘Yellowmoon' by David Greig, ‘Autobahn' by Neil La Bute, ‘Talking To Terrorists' by Robin Soans, 'Tejas Verdes' by Fermin Cabal, ‘Country Music' by Simon Stephens, 'Consensual ‘ by Nina Raine and the world premiere of ‘Teacher' by Christian O'Reilly
Recent directing credits for Decadent Theatre include: The World premieres of ‘A Thing About December' by Donal Ryan and ‘A Love Like That' by Billy Roche. ‘Eden' by Eugene O'Brien, ‘The Mai‘ by Marina Carr, ‘Someone Who'll Watch Over Me' by Frank McGuinness, ‘Pumpgirl‘ by Abbie Spallen, ‘The Weir' by Conor McPherson, ‘The Pillowman' by Martin McDonagh, ‘The Dead School' by Pat McCabe, ‘Vernon God Little' by Tanya Rhonder, ‘Defender Of The Faith' by Stuart Carolan, ‘A Skull In Connemara' by Martin McDonagh (3 Irish Times Nominations), ‘Port Authority' by Conor McPhearson (for which he was nominated as Best Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards), ‘Doubt' by John Patrick Shanley (2 Irish Times Nominations), ‘Faith Healer' by Brian Friel (Decadent /Townhall Galway), ‘The Seafarer' by Conor McPhearson, ‘The Cavalcaders' by Billy Roche (Decadent/ Nomad Theatre Network), the world premieres of ‘Here We Are Again Still' by Christian O'Reilly and ‘Character' by Mark Dillon, Country Music by Simon Stephens, Blackbird by David Harrower.
Brendan Foreman has many years experience designing print and digital for leading Irish agencies and the cultural sector. He was resident graphic designer with the Abbey Theatre for 8 years and a director of Graphiconies - a design studio specialising in the cultural and social sectors - for 10 years. Brendan is also involved with music promotion and production, having programmed the Guinness Temple Bar Blues Festival and managed music tours in Ireland and the UK. He designs and publishes an occasional music fanzine - Blue Navigator - and releases albums on its off-shoot record label. In 2021 he produced ‘Snockument', a limited edition vinyl LP tribute to American folk artist Michael Hurley, featuring Yo La Tengo, Calexico, Cat Power and others. www.brendanforeman.com
Brian Patrick Friel was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams.
Recognised for early works such as Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Faith Healer, Friel had 24 plays published in a career of more than a half-century. He was elected to the honorary position of Saoi of Aosdána. His plays were commonly produced on Broadway in New York City throughout this time, as well as in Ireland and the UK. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play Translations was the company's first production. With Field Day, Friel collaborated with Seamus Heaney, 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney and Friel first became friends after Friel sent the young poet a letter following publication of his book Death of a Naturalist.
Friel was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the British Royal Society of Literature and the Irish Academy of Letters. He was appointed to Seanad Éireann in 1987 and served until 1989. In later years, Dancing at Lughnasa reinvigorated Friel's oeuvre, bringing him Tony Awards (including Best Play), the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. It was also adapted into a film, starring Meryl Streep, directed by Pat O'Connor, script by Frank McGuinness.
Carl was a founding member of Decadent and trained at Academy of Sound in Dublin. He has worked on over one hundred theatre productions, with venues and companies including The Abbey, The Gaiety, ANU Productions, The Lyric Theatre Belfast, Rough Magic, HOME Manchester, Fishamble, Prime Cut, Theatre Lovett, HotForTheatre, Guna Nua, Loose Canon, Peer to Peer, Siren, Broken Crow, Randolf SD and Theatre Makers. He has been nominated three times for the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Sound Design. He also composes music and sound design for TV and video games. Game titles include Curious George, Curious about Shapes and Colors, Jelly Jumble, Too Many Teddies, Dino Dog and Leonardo and His Cat. TV credits include sound design for 16 letters (Independent Pictures/RTE) and SFX editing and foley recording for Centenary (RTE).
Job Titles:
- Professor of Creative Writing at University College Dublin
Frank McGuinness is Professor of Creative Writing at University College Dublin. A world-renowned, award-winning playwright, his first great stage hit was the highly acclaimed Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. Other plays include The Factory Girls, Someone Who'll Watch over Me, Dolly West's Kitchen, The Match Box, The Hanging Gardens and the musical play, Donegal. Other work includes adaptations of classic plays by Lorca, Chekov, Brecht, Ibsen, Sophocles, Ostrovsky, Euripides, Racine and de Molina; dramatisations of Joyce and du Maurier; and numerous screenplays. He has published two novels - Arimathea (2013) and The Woodcutter and His Family (2017).
Ger has worked with Decadent Productions for over 15 years as a scenic artist. He also creates sets and visual artworks for many diverse theatre and film productions in Ireland and internationally.
He is an established visual artist, exhibiting regularly, with paintings in numerous public and private Collections in Ireland, Europe and U.S.A. Recent art project credits include: Still Point solo exhibition, Green Fuze Gallery, Westport, Mayo; Stations of the Cross commission, Knock Basilica, Mayo; G.I.A.F / Enda Walsh, Rooms project, Galway & New York; European Capital of Culture/Liverpool Lantern Co; Spectacle, Aarhus, Denmark; R.H.A. Annual Exhibition, Dublin, paintings.
Gerry Barnes is the Executive Producer of Decadent Theatre Company. Gerry was Executive Director of Cork Opera House from 1989 to 2010 during a major expansion of its artistic programme. He oversaw the development of the The Half Moon Theatre as well as a refurbished Opera House during the unfolding of the capital expenditure programme from 1993 to 2009. During his tenure Gerry worked with his Board of Directors to upgrade the artistic quality and range of a programme which included touring co-productions with Town Hall Theatre Galway directed by Andrew Flynn (The Lieutenant of Innismore, The Lonesome West, Juno and the Paycock). He has to date produced the Decadent Theatre national tours of A Skull in Connemara, The Pillowman, Vernon God Little, The Dead School, The Weir, Eden, The Thing About December and A Love Like That. Gerry has programmed and produced plays for the Cork Theatre Company, Storytellers Theatre Company, the Belltable Arts Centre, and Cork Midsummer Festival.
Sara is a Tunisian-American designer who holds a degree in film, with a concentration on Costume & Production Design from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA. After working in Japan for 5 years with the Tokyo International Theatre Company costuming multiple shows such Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Flea in Her Ear, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Night Must Fall, Macbeth, and The Diary of Anne Frank, she moved to Ireland in 2017.
To date, Sara has over 25 credits to her name in Irish film, TV, advertising and theatre. As well as working on feature films (Here Are The Young Men, There You'll Find Me) and television shows (Rig 45) she has also worked with several award-winning short films, including Coco Dreams In Blue (FilmBase), and The Secret Box (KTC). In theatre, most recently she designed A Love Like That (Decadent) and She Kills Monsters and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (No Drama Theatre).