Following a massively successful call out, we are proud to announce the following 11 creative projects as participants in our Acorns Programme 2026: Good Luck Productions (Finn Lockington and Ryley A. Jamison), Máire Morrison, Brenda Kelly, Anna Ní Dhúill, Íde Simpson, Carley Magee, Anda Dencia Luma, Miriam Needham, Ruairi Conaghan, Alice Gavigan and Western Words (Rosaline Callaghan, Jim Simpson, Vin McCullagh, Felicity McCall, Bernadette Kerr, Margo Gorman and Martin Boyle).
All 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.
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.
Carley Magee is a writer and theatremaker from Belfast. Her ethos is to make work that is challenging, intersectionally feminist, and sincere. She is the recipient of the inaugural Lady Gregory Bursary for Playwrights with the Abbey Theatre 2025, and selected for their Next Wave Programme 2025/26. As an INVEST Fellowship recipient with Theatre & Dance NI 2024/2025 allowed her to focus on exploring alternative and international theatre. Currently on the INVEST Programme 2025/2026 to be mentored on creative producing and international touring.
Carley’s bursary will contribute towards supporting her new play, Growing Pains.
Western Words is a collective of late-career professional writers based in the North West, focussed on sharing our work with as diverse as possible an audience. We are enthusiastic examples of and advocates for lifelong writing; we believe passionately that words can and do enhance, change and on occasion save lives. Among us, we have some thirty professionally published titles in fiction, non- fiction, poetry and drama. We claim a group total of some twenty UK and international arts awards. We are cross-border, and among us we represent minority communities and those thriving with adverse medical diagnoses, physical and mental. But, above all, we are fellow writers and lovers of the written and spoken word and its power to engage, enrich and entertain. Founder / Core Members: Rosaline Callaghan, Jim Simpson, Vin McCullagh & Felicity McCall. Joined in 2026 by Bernadette Kerr, Margo Gorman and Martin Boyle.
Western Words will use their bursary to support developing their works for the stage.
Miriam Needham is a theatre-maker and writer based in the northwest. Her plays include Welcome To Your New Upgrade (Winner of the Audience Award at Cork Arts Theatre 2024), Wonder Horse (Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 2024), Hear Me Speak (Hawk’s Well Theatre 2023), and Snapshot (Hawk’s Well Theatre 2021 & National Tour 2022). She has worked as a performer with companies such as Rose Producing, Dead Centre, Blue Raincoat, and Branar. Recent work includes puppeteering in a national tour of FEN by Orla Clogher, and working as a dramaturg and outside eye on Soil Story by Trisha MacLaughlin and Jackie Maguire.
Miriam’s bursary will support the development of her new play for young audiences about aliens trying to find a new planet to live on.
Ruairi Conaghan is an award winning actor and writer from Magherafelt South Derry. As an actor he has played in the West End, Broadway, The National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Abbey Dublin and The Lyric Theatre Belfast. Also many other leading theatres through Ireland, the UK and America. He has an extensive film and TV career including Downton Abbey, The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, Waking the Dead and The Catherine Tate Show. He most recently played David Trimble in Owen McCafferty’s award winning Agreement. As a writer he has just finished touring his own one person show Lies Where It Falls throughout Ireland, Edinburgh and London where it received many 5 star reviews, was chosen by The Belfast Telegraph as one of the Cultural Events Of The Year and was nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award. He is delighted to be working with the wonderful An Grianán theatre as his family are originally from Inishowen.
Ruairi’s bursary will afford him the opportunity to work on his new play set in Inishowen.
Alice Gavigan is a freelance contemporary dancer based between Limerick and North Donegal. She began training in ZoNa Dance Company, and graduated from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, UL, with First Class Honours in Contemporary Dance. In her performance career thus far, Alice has performed throughout Ireland and the UK with “Swing 2.0” (Dr. Phoebe Brown, 2024 – 2026), “I’d like to get to know you” (Company Philip Connaughton – Step Up Dance Project, 2025), and with Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre’s “House” (2024 – 2025). She has also performed in the Triumph of Music (Jeremy Deller, Ruaidhrí Maguire, The Playhouse (NI), and The National Gallery (London), 2025). Alice has additionally worked with Echo Echo Dance company for R&D projects. Alice has earned a number of awards and scholarships including the “Artist Bursary” from Tipperary Dance Platform, Dance Ireland’s “Your Next Move Award”, as well as the “Dance Explorer’s Scholarship from Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Dance Limerick.
The Acorns Programme will support Alice in the development of her new dance piece, Wisdom Tooth.
Anna Ní Dhúill (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary writer. Their practice focuses on inclusion and community, and values stories of women and queerness at its core. Guided by their heroes, they are inspired by the works and lives of Jean Rhys, T.S. Eliot, Suzan Lori Parks, and their grandmother Kay Doyle. Anna will use The Acorns bursary to engage actors in a rehearsed reading of their play ‘Deadnames’, about three men stuck in a pub urinal that turns out to be purgatory. Tá Anna sár-bhuíoch as an tacaíocht ón nGrianán.
Anna will use their bursary to host a workshop reading of their new play, Deadnames.
Maíre Morrison is a dance artist based in Derry. She graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in Professional Dance from Dance City in 2023. Since graduating, she has been working as a freelance dance artist across the country as a performer, facilitator, and emerging choreographer. As a dancer, she’s worked with companies including Maiden Voyage Dance, Fidget Feet Aerial Dance, the National Gallery, and the Playhouse. Alongside her performance work, Maíre facilitates dance classes and workshops within community settings in Derry, as well as delivering engagement workshops for companies such as Luail and Fidget Feet Aerial Dance. Over the past year she has begun developing her choreographic voice and is currently participating in Maiden Voyage Dance’s MatchMake programme, which is supporting the creation of her new site-specific dance duet, Encounters, premiering in March 2026.
Maíre will use her bursary to support the development of her new dance solo piece influenced by Irish folklore and traditions.
Brenda Kelly is a writer and filmmaker based in Donegal. She is inspired to explore quirky situations and create compelling stories. This has led to projects in both film and theatre. With a background in architecture, she has an eye for the theatrical and a clear vision for each piece of work. She uses humour and honesty to bring her stories to life.
Brenda’s bursary will support her to work toward developing a new one person show about trolls.
Anda Dencia Luma is a South African born artist and performer. Her work explores themes of culture, identity, and storytelling through performance and collaborative artistic practice. Before becoming a professional artist, Anda worked as a school teacher, an experience that continues to inform her creative practice. Her background in education has shaped her approach to communication, participation, and working with diverse communities, which is reflected in her performance work and artistic collaborations. In 2024, Anda became a participant in a pilot Intercultural Mentorship Scheme, an experience that further developed her artistic voice and deepened her engagement with diverse communities. That same year, she performed as part of Cultural Night 2024, showcasing her talent to a wide and varied audience. She is also featured in the upcoming film The Three Urns, which is scheduled for cinema release on 17 April. Currently, Anda is developing and fulfilling her project Fite Fuaite, continuing her commitment to creative expression and cultural dialogue.
The Acorns Programme will support Anda to workshop and explore Athol Fugard’s The Road To Mecca.
Íde Simpson is a playwright, actor, producer and screenwriter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was named one of the Arts Council Ireland’s ’21 Artists for the 21st Century’, and her play Cailini was celebrated as one of the British Theatre Guide’s ‘top ten Northern Irish shows of the year’. Her poetry has been published in Fortnight and Icarus magazines. Selected playwriting credits: Cailini (The Lyric Theatre Belfast, 2024); The Lands (Brian Friel Theatre, 2021); Childsplay (Etcetera Theatre, 2022); Writing Without Borders: Listen! The Adults Are Talking (The Lyric & Mumbai, 2022); Scripted (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2025). She is a founding member of ABLAZE Productions and an MFA playwrighting graduate with distinction from The Lir Academy. She is currently a recipient of the INVEST Fellowship with Theatre & Dance NI and is being mentored by Steven Atkinson, current producer of the Royal Court.
Idé’s bursary will support the development of her new play, We’re Still Here, which is set in the Barnesmore Gap.
Finn Lockington is one half of Good Luck Productions. He is an Actor, Director, and Theatre Maker based in Belfast. He has a deep passion for the theatre industry in Northern Ireland. Finn’s interests lie in how we can use physical theatre in modern adaptations of classics and new writings. He’s excited to play and experiment with pushing the boundaries of the forms theatre can take. He recently performed in ‘Squabble’ written and directed by Ryley A. Jamison during the Front and Centre festival Scratch session. Finn is also a graduate of Frantic Assembly Ignition.
Ryley A. Jamison is the other half of Good Luck Productions. She is a passionate storyteller, writer and actor, based in Derry and Cinematic Arts student at Ulster University, specialising in screenwriting. She is interested in combining classical stories and modern voices. She’s determined to platform young voices and bring childish Imagination to life in her work across Northern Ireland’s theatre industry. Alumni of the Belfast Film Academy (2024) Jamison recently debuted her scratch production of “Squabble”, at Front and Centre in the Playhouse. A short physical piece, written and directed by her and performed by Finn Lockington.
The Acorns Bursary will support Ryley and Finn’s production of their new play, Save The Canteen.
