PLAYWRIGHT / ACTOR
Rena Bryson is a Galway based theatre maker who wrote Vlogger and plays Mia.
After graduating from Performing Arts at IT Sligo Rena worked as an actor in the West of Ireland in productions including Bob Kelly’s The Big Wall, Dark Daughter Productions & Costume Hire’s Mother Loss, The Rabbit’s Riot Theatre Company’s Welcome to Wonderland and NoRopes Theatre Company’s Flash Theatre.
Now based in Galway she is the co-founder of Eva’s Echo Theatre Company and completed a master’s degree in Theatre and Drama at NUI Galway last year. Rena assistant directed and performed in the company’s first production the award winning Match.
Last year she performed in Jungle Door, a play she wrote for it’s original staging in Sligo as part of the Where We Are Now LGBT+ Theatre Festival. This production was shared with Galway audiences as part of Galway Community Pride in August as a fundraiser for Amach LGBT Galway. In November she played various comedic characters in Dayshift.
By day Rena works in digital marketing for Galway Actors Workshop and the Galway International Arts Festival. She enjoys drinking copious amounts of coffee and spending time with her dog Tiger.
DIRECTOR
Hazel Doolan was a graduate of Performing Arts at IT Sligo in 2015. She found herself at home in the works of Wilde, Chekhov and Shakespeare while inspired by the practices of Stella Adler and Stanislavski. Hazel performed in Sligo’s rustic theatre scene including performances in Bob Kelly’s The Big Wall and made an appearance on Hardy Bucks Season Three.
She made her debut in Galway theatre as Mrs Eynsford Hill in Pygmalion which staged November 2016. As Co-founder of Eva’s Echo Theatre Company she wrote, directed and played Caroline in the award-winning Match in July 2017. Hazel played Yasmine in an exciting dramatic play The Way It Is by Donna Hoke, Playwright at the O’Donoughe Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance in February 2018 while also co starring as Michelle in Jungle Door during the Where We Are Now Festival 2018, this production was revisited when produced for Galway audiences during last year’s Galway Community Pride. Most recent projects include directing sell out production Dayshift by Darren Donohue and sharing independent works during Eva’s Echo’s open mic Christmas fundraiser in aid of Jigsaw Galway. Hazel continues to write independently and hopes to have new work emerging soon.
ACTOR
Leona de Búrca is from Galway and returned home from travelling and teaching in South East Asia this time last year and have been acting ever since!
She has loved acting for as long as she can remember and completed Speech and Drama exams since the age of 4 with Thames Valley University. This lead to receiving her teaching diploma with Irish board of Speech and Drama. Most recent performances include performing as Cinderella with the 2018 production of Chaplins Pantomimes” Cinderella ” touring West London.
Followed by performances in Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin and The Brockley Studio Theatre London as ” Rachel ” in Home You Go Productions ” Family Tree.”
ACTOR
Conor O’ Dwyer is a Dublin-based Galwegian and a graduate of the Full-Time Programme for Screen Acting at Bow Street Academy (2016/2017).
Conor played the leading role of Mr. Day in Eva’s Echo’s last production Dayshift. Conor will make his television debut in a co-starring role on BBC’s upcoming crime drama ‘DUBLIN MURDERS’ which will be airing later in the year.
Conor has worked on a number of short films including Maria Doyle Kennedy’s ‘A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAY’, Oonagh Kearney’s “FIVE LETTERS TO THE STRANGER WHO WILL DISSECT MY BRAIN’, Anthony Assad’s ‘PANIC ATTACK’, Liam Prenter Morris’s “AUDIO JACK’ and most recently a short film called ‘STOP’ which Conor wrote, directed and had a leading role in. Other than acting, Conor is a proud father of a Labrador mix called Leo and loves reading, swimming and travelling in his spare time.
DESIGNER
Deirdre Bolger is a production designer from Co. Mayo. She studied films and documentary at GMIT (Official) She has directed several short documentaries and short films and has worked with RTE as a set dresser.
STAGE MANAGER
Elizabeth Flaherty is a passionate theatre and film maker. She acts, writes, directs and creates theatre and film. She has an Associate Diploma in Performing Speech and Drama from Trinity College London. She trained in Advanced Acting and Musical Theatre with Bull Alley in Dublin.
She has performed in many musicals, plays and films. Some of her theatre credits include Tessa in ‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’. Prince Edward in ‘Henry VI Part III’, and Felicity Cunningham in ‘The Real Inspector Hound’. She has written plays, directed and performed with The Theatre Room Galway. She has just started a blog Secrets of Rainbows
She is delighted to be back again working with Eva’s Echo Theatre. Last year she directed ‘Jungle Door’ put on in the Where We Are Now LGBT+ Theatre Festival and directed this production again for Galway Community Pride 2018. She was then the Sound/Lighting Designer for ‘Dayshift’ and is super excited to work with this company again as Stage Manager for ‘Vlogger’.
Most recently she was the director, writer and producer on team ‘Smile Time’ for the 48 Hour Film Challenge 2019 with Little Cinema Galway and Galway City of Film.Her hobbies include watching Disney movies, performing musical numbers on the streets and sprinkling fairydust wherever she goes…
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Cornelius Dwyer is a Galway based theatre maker. He works as often as he can in as many fields as he is able having worked extensively both on and off stage as actor, director, production manager, stage manager, designer, lighting and sound.
Having debuted at the age of 11 in Dreamstuff Theatre’s A Midsummer Nights Dream, he has worked in theatre for most of his life, notably starring in and tour managing the national tour of the award winning In Light of Salt Rings They Drew with Strive Theatre. He studied Drama and Theatre Studies in UCC, working with Strive and Lantern Productions throughout his degree, before moving
to London to work on the West End as a technician in the Tristan Bates theatre.
Currently Cornelius is a freelance technician working in Galway and is attached to Diffused Theatre Company as general technician.
VIDEOGRAPHER
Piotr is a photographer and filmmaker living in Galway. The main theme of his work is the documentation of social events and shows. You can often find him taking pictures behind the scenes in a theatre or on the film set.
Eva's Echo 