Following a successful first year of bursaries and artistic support, An Grianán Theatre is excited to announce a second year of our Acorns Programme, an artist-led development initiative which aims to support eight theatre artists of any discipline and career level to buy time, space and creative brain power to dedicate towards a project or idea of their choosing.
The Acorns Programme represents An Grianán Theatre’s continued ambition to develop creative relationships with artists of all career stages. It also affirms our efforts to ensure that our doors are continually open to an ever expanding number of exciting and ambitious artists.
Applicants can apply to take part in one of two strands of The Acorns Programme.
With Strand One, four successful applicants will be awarded a bursary of €1000 to use for an activity or purpose with which they’ve applied.
For Strand Two, four successful applicants will be awarded a bursary of €2000 to use for the activity or purpose with which they’ve applied.
All successful applicants will also be awarded free tickets to selected shows as a part of our professional theatre programme and can avail of four creative conversations or development support sessions with our Artist in Residence and Leadership team.
They will also be enabled to avail of rehearsal, development, writing or thinking space, when available, within An Grianán Theatre.
Who, What, Why
We don’t want to prescribe what we’re looking for here.
What we want to do is allow artists who create work in theatrical contexts to come to us and say:
€1000 right now would help me begin seed development on a new script, or it would allow me to pay for three conversations between myself and a costume designer I’ve been dying to work with or write a few songs for a musical I’ve been dreaming up.
€2000 right now would let me pay actors to come into a room and read my new script or allow me to produce that audio drama I’ve been dying to do or buy me a week in a room to knock out draft 0.5 of that new play I’ve been tinkering with.
What we want is for you to tell us Who you are, What you’d like to do and Why.
We don’t want an arduous application process, we understand these Acorn bursaries are seed funding. Therefore we do not expect an A4 page application or a week’s worth of work to apply. A few lines of thought or a paragraph will do.
To reflect An Grianán Theatre’s commitment to supporting the cultivation of the North-West of Ireland as a dynamic and thriving theatrical hub, we are only seeking applications this year from artists who are based in or have a connection with the North-West of Ireland.
2026 bursaries are not open to applications from those previously awarded an Acorns bursary in 2025.
We also welcome and encourage applications from artists of all gender identities, nationalities, races, cultural backgrounds, ages, religions, languages, different abilities, neurotypes and sexual orientations.
An Grianán Theatre is a fully wheelchair accessible venue.
If it is easier for you to do so, we are also open to receiving a voice note or video application of up to 2 to 3 minutes in length. If you are sending in an audio or visual application, please endeavour, within the time limit, to tell us who you are, what you’d like to do and why.
Applicants must be 18 years of age or over and cannot be currently in full time education.
Please email your application across to submissions@angrianan.com and please attach a short CV or one page theatrical biography alongside your application.
If you have any questions about the programme, or would like to run any thoughts by us, you can contact our Artist in Residence, Ultan Pringle, at ultan@angrianan.com.
Closing Date for applications is the 13th March 2026.
Successful applicants will be chosen by a panel comprising members of the An Grianán Theatre team and all applicants will be notified of the result of the open call by the 27th March 2026.
