Rena Bryson
Echo Acting Galway
Rena is a theatre artist and actor who holds an honors degree and master’s degree in Theatre studies. She co-founded Eva’s Echo theatre company in 2017 and since then has produced, written, directed, and starred in many of the company’s productions. She enjoys exploring Queer issues, the internet, and mental health in her work.
Her most recent acting projects include Under the night Sky by Treasa Nealon (theatre, historical drama), Latte by Sarah Fahy (theatre, comedy), and the Unholylands by Paddy Duffy (feature film, comedy). This summer she made her International debut performing her play Jungle Door at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is currently developing her latest project Stardom as part of Druid theatre company’s artist residency programme Druid FUEL.
Rena began teaching drama as a teenager as an assistant at Olive Whelan’s School of Speech and Drama as well as implementing drama exercises into her work with the Nóinín Autism Support Group. Following this, she trained as a facilitator while studying for her honors degree in Performing Arts. She drew from her studies and began teaching drama workshops for children and adults with autism for the MWB Autism Support Group as well as facilitating drama workshops for international teenagers at ID Languages. She furthered her education by receiving a master’s in theatre studies at NUI Galway.
In Galway, Rena has taught adults Acting 101 at Galway Actors Workshop and children at Ensemble Academy of Dramatic Arts. She currently teaches at Stage School Ireland, Eastside Community Drama, Phenix Stage School, the Galway Resource Centre and of course Echo Acting. She is passionate about leading students of all ages to make creative discoveries and have autonomy over their creative work.
Hazel Doolan
Echo Acting Athlone
Athlone native Hazel Doolan has a vast theatre background including acting, directing, producing, writing and teaching. Hazel always had a love for the theatre from a young age which led to studying Performing Arts (IT Sligo) where she specialised in the Stanislavski method, physical theatre, Shakespeare and Irish theatre. From there she made T.V. appearances including Hardy Bucks and Ripper Street while partaking in theatre productions in Sligo (The Big Wall by Bob Kelly) and Galway (Pygmalion).
Hazel today co-runs Eva’s Echo Theatre Company in Galway. In their first year they staged ‘Match’ written by Hazel which sold out three nights and won the ‘New Emerging Artist’ award in the Galway Fringe Festival 2017. Through the company she has made acting appearances including Match, The Way It Is (O’Donoghue Centre Galway 2018), Jungle Door (Where We Are Now Festival Sligo 2018, Galway Pride 2018, The Moat Theatre Naas 2020) and Uniform (Galway 2020, postponed until 2021). She directed shows including Match, Dayshift (Town Hall Studio Galway 2018, full run sold out) and Vlogger (Town Hall Studio Galway 2019). She also writes for ‘Working 9 to Art’ documenting the real life behind the scenes of a working artist.
Eva's Echo 