2026 Axis Assemble Artists

  • A young man with short dark brown hair smiles into the camera; he is wearing an orange tshirt and he's leaning forward slightly. The background is dark grey.

    Andy Hourihan

    Andy Hourihan is an actor from the North Side who loves dark comedy. He will use the Axis Assemble bursary to help develop his latest idea 'Waiting for the Gate', dealing with themes of mortality, grief, love, conformity, bigotry and speaking out against those in power.

  • Close-up portrait of a woman with dark hair and dark eyes and red lipstick, wearing a dark v neck top and hoop earrings, looking at the camera, against a stone wall.

    Angelica Santander

    Angelica Santander is a clown, director and early years practitioner, her work combines theatrical, circus and clowning elements.  During this Bursary time she will be developing a new clown show called No Spring Chicken  in collaboration with Richard Kane and Johnnie Kavanagh under the guidance of Alain Servaint.  The team will explore the reality of aging as a performer and long-lasting friendship through the lens of upside-down clown logic. 

  • Black-and-white close-up of a young woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and light skin, wearing a knitted sweater, looking directly at the camera and smiling

    Aoife Cronin

    Aoife Cronin is a playwright and director from East Meath, interested in theatre that experiments with form.  With the support of Assemble, she will develop her new play “Stunning / Sticking” – a fractured triptych about complicity, violence, and the moments that break the cycle.  

  • Close-up portrait of a young woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing gold hoop earrings and a gold nose ring, and a red strap top, standing against a stone wall

    Chloe Commins

    Chloe Commins is an aerial artist, theatre maker, CODA, who brings a little bottle of hot sauce everywhere, just in case.  She will be working on her show 'Thurible' - an exploration into the woman's experience in Catholic Ireland, questioning generational hangups looking at the woman's role in society. The work is framed through women'ss ISL, spoken word as gaeilge, movement and aerial dance.  

  • A man with dark eyes, brown skin, and a beard/moustache and afro and wearing a dark green tshirt and black shirt looks directly at the camera against a white wall

    CN Smith

    CN Smith is a playwright from County Louth. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from The Lir Academy.  With the Axis Assemble bursary, he will be developing the script and design for a durational 8-hour performance piece for one actor. 

  • A man with brown hair, hazel eyes, light skin and a reddish brown beard and moustache, wearing a black top, looks directly into the camera against a white wall

    Conor Wolfe O'Hara

    Conor Wolfe O'Hara is an actor, writer and musician, most recently having appeared in the centenary production of The Plough and the Stars at The Abbey Theatre.  

    Conor will use the bursary to develop and refine his self-penned one-man show, PIPE DOWN, exploring second generation Irish identity by setting the explosive energy of London's underground rave scene against the meditative resonance of the Uilleann Pipes.  

  • A man with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue shirt, looks directly at the camera. He is clean shaven and has light skin. He is against a brown background

    David Rawle

    David Rawle is an actor and writer from Leitrim based in Dublin, and founding member of the theatre company 'Made Up Productions'. David will use the bursary to develop and complete a new draft of his play 'FEEL SHIT', a comedy about a chronically online young man trapped in a toxic relationship with his phone, and what happens when he tries to break up with the internet.

  • A young woman with curly brown hair and dark eyes smiles at the camera. She is wearing a blue shirt, pink square glasses, two nose rings and earrings. Her head is tilted at an angle.

    Hana Laine Flamm

    Hana Laine Flamm is a public historian and artist sharing her research through a variety of written, visualised, and performed means. She is building a theatrical experience through Dublin's historically queer pubs with her creative partner, Emma Hurson. 

  • A young woman with light skin, curly blonde hair, a fringe and blue eyes, smiles at directly at the camera. She is wearing a black vest top, a red strap bag, sunglasses on her head, and gold earrings and necklace.

    Hannah Scrine

    Hannah Scrine is a socially-engaged artist making meaningful, playful and care-full work with communities seeking a thorough organiser. The Axis bursary will support Hannah to engage with the dramaturgy of her current collaborative performance project based in Dublin’s Liberties. 

  • A black and white photo of a young woman with curly hair covering her face. She is wearing a white jacket and a white shell necklace.

    M. M. Coelho

    M. M. Coelho is a Brazilian–Irish writer and playwright. She holds a BA in History and an MA in Creative Writing.  She is interested in exploring themes of grief, migration, spirituality and women’s interior lives in her work.   

  • A young man with dark hair, dark eyes, and a beard and moustache, looks directly at the camera. He's wearing a black shirt and an earring, and is against a backdrop of dark grey

    Matthew O'Leary

    Matthew O’Leary is an actor and writer from Belfast and a 2023 graduate of The Lir Academy BA Hons Acting; since graduating Matthew has worked across both theatre and film. 

    Matthew plans to use this bursary to continue research and development on their playwriting debut ‘Sure Look, Sure Listen’, having shared a 20 minute extract in this year’s Scene and Heard festival with plans to bring it to full production.

  • A young man with dark hair, blue eyes and pale skin looks directly at the camera. He is wearing a white tshirt and dark shirt, and is against a grey background

    Matthew Nolan

    Matthew is an actor and writer from Wicklow. He has a lower limb difference and is a passionate advocate for the representation of disabled people on screen and in theatre. He will be using this bursary towards developing his play “COS” - a story that navigates the complexities of disability and sexuality, and how they coincide with one another.  

  • A woman with long curly red hair looks at the camera - she has blue eyes and pale skin, and is wearing a light blue strap top. The background is grey

    Megan O'Malley

    Megan O'Malley is an Actor and Playwright. After drama school Megan went on to get two master's degrees in theatre from UCD and The Lir.  Megan will use the bursary to create a new play inspired by Irish Mythology and Folklore.  

  • A young woman with long dark hair, pale skin and blue eyes, looks at the camera - she is sitting at an angle. She's wearing an olive green off-the-shoulder lace top and the background is dark grey

    Moya Noctor

    Moya Noctor is an emerging playwright and actor from Kerry; as a writer, she creates worlds that hinge on distinctive character relationships and a deep sense of place, and platform women's stories which have historically gone unheard. Moya will be using this bursary to develop her play Friends of Ours, which examines sisterhood, coercive control and femicide in an Irish context through a new form; she will achieve this through self-led research and writing, dramaturgical support with the Axis's Keep It Lit Department, and workshops with collaborators Julia Sirna-Frest, Aoife Hall, and Katie St. John. 

  • A young woman looks upwards. She has long brown hair and pale skin, and is wearing a black top. She's outside standing in dappled light against a textured stone background

    Nessa Matthews

    Nessa Matthews is an actor (LAMDA mfa Dist), writer and director from Co. Louth. She is interested in things that she and others don't know how to say or express - that fizzy unknown space at the edge of silence - using image, text, sound and movement to shape that space into a narrative world from which conversations can hopefully unfold. 

  • A young man looks directly at the camera - he has curly dark hair, pale skin and light eyes, and is wearing a light blue denim shirt.

    Padraig Dooney

    Padraig Dooney is an actor, composer, sound designer and playwright who creates theatre pieces in which live music plays a fundamental role in the storytelling. Padraig will use his time with Axis to hone his skills across these disciplines while also developing his next piece. 

  • A young woman wearing a white and blue sleeveless dress looks directly at the camera. She has dark shoulder length hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She is against a light grey backdrop

    Sinead O'Brien

    Sinead O’Brien is a theatre maker, storyteller & dramaturg. She creates shows that use folklore, personal stories and oral history to explore themes of community, otherness, mental health and addiction/recovery. Sinead will use her time with Axis to develop a contemporary storytelling show based on her grandfather and his work as a photographer at Guinness, St.James's Gate. 

  • Two young men stand back to back looking at the camera. The man on the left has dark shoulder length hair, dark eyes, brown skin and a moustache, and is wearing a black tshirt. The man on the right has brown hair and light skin, with glasses & a cap

    Thales Sauvo + Matheus Messias

    Thales Sauvo is a theatre practitioner and researcher working with puppetry, animated forms, and visual dramaturgy, exploring visual storytelling through body, object, and performance. 

    Matheus Messias is a storyteller focused on lived and embodied experiences through community focused art, exploring the blend between folklore and performance in various performance aesthetics 

    The bursary will support a collaborative research process between Thales Sauvo and Matheus Messias, developing Irish folktales through Brazilian puppetry and animated forms. 

  • Two close-up photos stacked on top of each other: above is a young man with shoulder length red-blonde hair, a beard and light skin; below is a young woman with red-brown hair and pale skin, in a forest. Both are smiling.

    Martha Cosgrove + Cian O Náraigh (Scaoilte Theatre)

    Scaoilte Theatre (Martha Cosgrove and Cian O Náraigh) is a theatre comhargrúpa interested in creating bilingual, politically aware, socially conscious and environmentally focused theatre. Scaoilte will be using the Axis Assemble bursary for Martha to develop the script of Bird Lady, a bilingual play exploring care, biodiversity, and letting wildness in.