Following a massively successful call out which resulted in over 90 applications, we are proud to announce the following nine artists as participants on our inaugural Acorns Programme:
Aoife Sweeney O’Connor, Alice Malseed, Dorothy Duffy, Danielle James, Gráinne Curistan, Karen Quinn, Isaac Quinn, Shannon Welby and Genevieve Hulme-Beaman.
All nine artists will receive either a €2000 or a €1000 bursary and will be supported with creative conversations and dramaturgical support from our Writer in Residence. They will receive free tickets to our curated artistic programme and will workshop and develop their work here with us at An Grianán Theatre.
Such a tremendous response to our bursary call out reflects the increasingly great need for financial support for artists in both The North-West and beyond. An Grianán Theatre is committed to supporting artists of all career stages to develop their work here and calls for increased investment and support for artists both in the North-West and nationally.
Please read on for more information about our nine Acorns and what they’ll be getting up to this year.
Aoife Sweeney O’Connor is an award-winning performer, maker and writer from Donegal. Their debut autobiographical theatre cabaret piece ‘An Evening with Wee Daniel’ had a sold-out run at Dublin Fringe Festival 2024. The play won the inaugural Theatre Lovett Award and was nominated for the Bewley’s Little Gem Award. It will tour later this year. Aoife is the host and producer of the celebrated queer cabaret EGG. Their show ‘EGG: The Proclamation of the Irish Republegg’ sold-out the National Stadium and won the Beyond the Pale Award at Dublin Fringe 2023. A trained actor and graduate of the Bow Street Academy, Aoife has appeared in acclaimed independent comedy ‘Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up’, Galway Film Fleadh Best Animation winner ‘To Break a Circle’ and Stacey Gregg’s ‘Disco Dykes’. Aoife was selected as a 2024 Artist in Residence at Dublin Fringe Festival, and chosen for the Transforming Stages programme with Outburst Arts Festival and X-Pollinator 2024. They are a recipient of the Axis Assemble Bursary and the Arts Council Agility Award. Their work has received support from Dublin Fringe, An Grianan Theatre, Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Xnthony and Daniel O’Donnell himself.
Aoife, along with their collaborators Anna and Paul, will be developing a Mary From Dungloe musical during their time on The Acorns Programme.
Alice Malseed is a theatre maker, writer and producer based in Belfast. She is currently part of Six In The (Virtual) Attic with I.T.I., and The Mavens Programme. Her work has appeared across the UK, Ireland, in Sri Lanka and New York.
Alice as a part of the programme will begin seed development on her new play exploring the why and how of choosing to have children today.
Dorothy Duffy is a Donegal based actress, writer & director. She began her acting career in The Magdalene Sisters which was directed by Peter Mullan.
Her work in theatre includes Grief (National Theatre), Some Voices (The Young Vic) & Molly Sweeney (Lyric Theatre). She’s worked on various TV productions for ITV & BBC. Her latest film work includes Mike Leigh’s recent film ‘Peterloo’ and Irish language film Fréwaka directed by Aislinn Clarke.
In 2024, she completed her first short film ‘Morning After’ which she wrote, directed and produced with the aid of a €10,000 bursary from The Donegal Film Office.
The Acorns Programme will support Dorothy to begin writing her new play Free Thinking State about a middle aged woman wondering what faith is for her today.
Danielle James is an award-winning Irish playwright and performer based in london. Her writing has been compared to Sarah Kane and Anthony Neilson and has been described as “exquisitely written”, “bold and passionate” and “triumphant”. Her short-play ‘people watching people’ was shortlisted for the Lyric Theatre Bill Cashmore Prize, and her play ‘Schizogenesis’ was longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Prize. She is currently developing work with the Royal Court Theatre, and her work has previously been seen at Riverside Studios, Camden People’s Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre. She has worked with artists such as Florence and the Machine, Shania Twain, Cyndi Lauper, Jules Buckley, and Tom Rasmussen.
Danielle will be workshopping her new play Schizogenesis, a play about cows, colonialism and Portsalon.
Gráinne Curistan is an actor, writer and singer from Donegal. A graduate of the MPhil in Theatre & Performance TCD, Axis Assemble Artist 2023 & Founder & Artistic Director of At Large Theatre Company which operated from 2010 to 2020. Gráinne has been writing, performing and producing for theatre for over 15 years and has toured both nationally and internationally. Writing credits include; The Meeting – Edfringe 2016, Anecdotal Evidence – Scene & Heard 2017, Birth Story – TCD European Research Night 2023. Acting Credits include; Animal Farm 2. The Moosical – Scene & Heard 2025, One Giant Leap Present; Show Jumps (rehearsed reading) – Scene & Heard 2025, Man of Straw (short Film) 2024, Birth Story – TCD 2023, A Little Heart -Scene & Heard 2019, Nowhere Now – Edfringe 2017.
The Acorns Programme will support Gráinne to develop for production her new play, Saving For A Helicopter, a play about inherited illness, ancestry, working class identity and growing up in Letterkenny.
Karen ‘K.M.L.’ Quinn is an award-winning Irish writer, as well as a director and writing consultant, recognised for her achievements in screenwriting.. In 2022, she was selected for the BBC Writersroom Voices cohort, a program that highlights emerging writing talent. Her accolades include being longlisted for the Mammoth Screen TV Writer’s Award in 2021 and twice shortlisted for the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award by the International Emmy Committee in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, she won the Northern Ireland Comedy Writers program organised by Grand Scheme Media and was shortlisted for the Jameson First Shot competition. Additionally, she was shortlisted for the Red Planet Prize in 2014.
Quinn’s work has been showcased both nationally and internationally, and she has published children’s stories that have been broadcast on television and included in short story collections. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at Ulster University.
In 2024, Quinn wrote and directed the short comedy film “Operation Pablo,” which follows a young girl who befriends a stray dog during the pandemic. The film has been featured in various film festivals, including the Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Karen during her time on The Acorns Programme will be hosting a development workshop for her new play, The Things I Wish I Knew Before.
Isaac Quinn (he/they) is a playwright, performer, and theatremaker based in Strabane, Co. Tyrone. His past credits include the Transforming Stages programme (Outburst Queer Arts Festival) and being a finalist for the George B Miller award (Scripts Ireland), as well as The Pride Monologues (Foyle Pride). He recently produced and co-directed a development workshop of his play ‘Writing Exorcise’ with funding from the University of Atypical.
The Acorns Programme will support Isaac to begin writing his new monologue play, Retardant, which explores neurodiversity, ableism, queer identity and coming of age today.
Shannon Welby is a screenwriter and playwright from Donegal. Her screen work includes being part of the writer’s rooms for award-winning BBC drama ‘Blue Lights’ and recently for a new series for Two Cities and RTÉ, writing an episode of Cartoon Network series ‘Goat Girl’, and being a shadow writer on Kiwi-Irish thriller ‘The Gone’. Shannon has an original comedy project in development with Hat Trick Productions and BBC. Her latest short is in post-production, funded by Screen Ireland.
Last year nominated for Galway Film Fleadh’s ‘Bingham Ray New Talent’ Award, Shannon’s accolades include selection for the prestigious BBC Writers’ Voices programme, reaching the top 1% of 4,287 scripts for BBC Writers’ Open Call, development with RTÉ Storyland, Screen Ireland Spotlight TV Comedy, Screen Ireland Focus Shorts and Virgin Media Discovers Final 30. Shannon was selected to feature on this year’s BFI London Film Festival Industry Panel spotlighting six emerging screenwriters.
In theatre, Shannon was last year selected for Smock Alley Theatre’s Rachel Baptiste Programme, a prestigious programme which gives Black Irish/Irish writers of colour the tools to learn the craft of playwriting. Subsequently, an early draft reading of Shannon’s Donegal-set comedy play opened to a hugely positive audience reaction at Dublin Theatre Festival.
Shannon’s bursary will support her to write a new draft of her play The Island Pilot Scheme, which explores the story of three teachers on an island off the coast of Donegal.
Genevieve Hulme-Beaman is an award winning actress, writer and director. Her play Pondling, which she wrote and starred in, won The Stewart Parker Trust Award 2014, a Scotsman Fringe First Award and a Dublin Fringe Festival Best Actress Award. Her other acting credits include Joyce’s Women and You Never Can Tell at The Abbey Theatre, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings for which she was nominated for a further best performer award at the Dublin Fringe Festival, The Seagull with The Corn Exchange Theatre Company, Pride & Prejudice at the Gate Theatre, The Country Girls at Chichester Theatre and The Taming Of The Shrew at The Globe in London. Her screen work includes appearances in The Woman In The Wall and Strike – Troubled Blood for the BBC and Nowhere Fast for RTÉ. She trained at the Gaiety School of Acting and the Philippe Gaulier School Paris. She is currently at work writing her new stage play.
Genevieve will be developing a new follow up play to her both national and international smash hit, Pondling, and the bursary will support her to present a work in progress version of the play this Summer.
