Welcome to Meet the Makers – a digital series of conversations with scholars and Irish Rep artists offering a behind-the-scenes look at Irish history, theatre, and the creative process.
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Broadway: King Lear, Becker in August Wilson’s Jitney (Tony nomination), A Time To Kill, Cyrano de Bergerac, Julius Caesar. Off-Broadway: Julius Caesar at Public Theater, The Iceman Cometh at BAM (Obie and Drama Desk Awards); Tamburlaine at Theater for a New Audience (Obie, Drama Desk and AUDELCO Awards ) ; Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and NAACP Awards) at the Westside Theater, King Lear , Macbeth (title role); Othello (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Joe A. Callaway Award) at TFANA; The Forest at Classic Stage Company; The Emperor Jones at Irish Repertory Theatre (Joe A. Callaway Award and Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations); Hedda Gabler at New York Theatre Workshop. Regional credits: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Mark Taper
Obi Abili is a stage, film and television actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (RADA) and was named as a “Star of Tomorrow” by Screen International in 2010 and ‘an actor to watch” by IndieWire in the same year. He recently came off a supporting role in the upcoming Feature Film “21 Bridges”, opposite Chadwick Boseman and JK Simmons as well as the feature “London Fields”, opposite Amber Heard and Billy Bob Thornton. He also had a leading role in the feature film “Tula: The Revolt” opposite Danny Glover and was also seen opposite Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in “Gambit”. Obi was a regular on the UK miniseries “The Take” with Tom Hardy, “Injustice” with James Purefoy, “Moses Jones” with Eamonn Walker and “The Nativity” with Tatiana Maslany. He recurred on Showtime’s “Billions” and guest starred on Cinemax’s “Strike Back”, NBC’s “Blindspo”t and BBC’s “Foyle’s War”. Obi recently starred in the Irish Rep’s production of The Emperor Jones. He also starred opposite Juliette Binoche in Ivo van Hove’s production of Antigone at BAM. He has also been involved as recently involved in a 12 week Theatre of War run of Antigone in Ferguson, a production that highlighted the current issue of police brutality and systemic racism in the United States. Actors in that project included David Straitharn, David Zayas, Chad Coleman, Amy Ryan, Zach Grenier and many others.
Favorite directing credits include: Lady G: Plays and Whisperings of Lady Gregory, Dublin Carol, The Shadow of a Gunman, The Seafarer, The Dead, 1904, Shining City, Off the Meter, On the Record, The Weir (Calloway Nom.), Banished Children of Eve, The Emperor Jones, (Callaway Award, O’Neill Credo Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Nom.), The Hairy Ape (Drama Desk Drama League and Callaway Nom.), Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Drama Desk Nom). Irish Rep acting roles include Da, Juno and the Paycock, Dancing at Lughnasa, Molly Sweeney, Candida, Aristocrats, A Whistle in the Dark, The Shaughraun, and The Irish and How They Got That Way. He appeared in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of A Touch of the Poet with Gabriel Byrne. He has appeared at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and made his Broadway debut in The Corn is Green. Films include “The Devil’s Own” (starring Harrison Ford), “Law & Order,” “The Irish…and How They Got That Way,” “Third Watch,” “Bored to Death,” and “The Knick.” Ciarán has recently been inducted in to the Irish America Hall of Fame and has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, 2019 by President Michael D. Higgins.
Recent directing credits include: London Assurance, Love, Noël, The Plough and the Stars as part of The O’Casey Cycle, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Three Small Irish Masterpieces by William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory and J.M. Synge, New York premiere of Brian Friel’s The Home Place, World premiere of Larry Kirwan’s Rebel in the Soul, Finian’s Rainbow, The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative gala, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, Juno and the Paycock, and Dancing at Lughnasa. New York stage appearances include A Perfect Ganesh, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Perfect Party, Morning’s at Seven, Private Lives (with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), and many performances with the New York Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Moore has received two Tony Award nominations, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Drama League Award, the Irish America Top 100 Irish Award, The Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2008 Irish Women Of The Year Award. She is the recipient of the St. Patrick’s Committee in Holyoke’s John F. Kennedy National Award, and has thrice been listed as one of the “Top 50 Power Women”in Irish America Magazine. Charlotte was named “Director of the Year” by The Wall Street Journal in 2011. Charlotte has recently been inducted in to the Irish America Hall of Fame and been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, 2019 by President Michael D. Higgins.
New York Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Connecticut Critic Circle Award Nominee- Barry McNabb’s productions have been seen throughout the world. He began his professional theater career as a featured soloist for the national/international company of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, for which he also served as Mr. Fosse’s dance captain. He then worked with/for Juliet Prowse, Agnes DeMille, Peter Gennaro, Michael Peters, Michael Bennett, Mike Ockrent, Gillian Lynne and Harold Prince, amongst others. While educating himself through working with the aforementioned masters, further NY studies included training with Sanford Meisner, William Alderson, Edward Morehouse, Sandy Dennis and others. Prior to this he worked with major ballet and modern companies as a company member and guest artist on both the West and East Coasts. As a member of the original Broadway cast of The Phantom of the Opera he directed/choreographed/produced and wrote Broadway’s Annual Easter Bonnet Competitions, which has remained Broadway Cares’ chief fundraiser for well over a decade. It is at this time he started choreographing work that ranges from ballet for the Grande Prixe de Lausanne Competition to “Saturday Night Live’s” Sprockets, and includes most of the classic musical theatre repertory. His stage work has been seen both on and off Broadway, as well as internationally from Bangkok to Barcelona and worldwide through his media work on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”, “Saturday Night Live”, and various films and commercials.
Melissa’s Broadway credits include Anna Karenina, the revival of My Fair Lady, High Society, Amour (Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical), Dracula the Musical, and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. At The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, she starred in The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady (with John Lithgow), and Camelot (with Jeremy Irons). She has worked with Stephen Sondheim on the revival of Sunday In the Park with George (Dot/Marie at The Kennedy Center), followed by John Doyle’s production of Passion (Clara) for which she was nominated for a sixth Drama Desk Award, and as Leona in the 2016 Encores! production of Do I Hear A Waltz? at City Center. In 2016 she also reprised the role of Sharon in the smash hit Off-Broadway revival of Finian’s Rainbow at Irish Repertory Theatre, which was extended three times, received rave reviews and was filmed in January 2017 for The Lincoln Center Library. She has also starred in plays by Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Wally Shawn and last year starred in another acclaimed Irish Repertory production of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. Melissa was recently honored with a caricature at Sardi’s. Her latest album Sondheim Sublime was released to critical acclaim, with The Wall Street Journal calling it, “The best all-Sondheim album ever recorded.”.
Tony Walton is an award-winning director and production designer for Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, television, ballet and opera. He has been honored with 16 Tony Award Nominations for his Broadway sets and/or costumes, with Pippin, House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls winning him Tony Awards. Among his 20 films, Mary Poppins, The Boy Friend, The Wiz and Murder on the Orient Express earned him 5 Academy Award nominations. He won the Oscar for Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz , and the Emmy for Death of a Salesman. Walton’s designs for Broadway include Bob Fosse’s original productions of Chicago and Pippin, amongst many others. His film work includes collaborations with directors Bob Fosse, Sidney Lumet, and Paul Newman, with films such as: Fahrenheit 451, The Glass Menagerie, Regarding Henry, and Deathtrap. His graphic work includes a great many book and magazine illustrations, as well as caricatures for Playbill, Theatre Arts, Vogue, etc. and posters for many Broadway, Off-Broadway, and West End shows. He both directed and designed the U.S. premiere of Noël Coward’s After the Ball, (a musical version of Lady Windermere’s Fan) for the Irish Repertory Theatre for whom he also directed and designed The Importance of Being Earnest, Major Barbara, Candida and the recent The Devil’s Disciple, which he restaged for the Asolo Rep in Sarasota, Florida.
Aedín is an award winning actress who has performed extensively in theatre, film, audio and TV, here in New York, London and Ireland. She is founder and producing artistic director of New York’s Fallen Angel Theatre Company. In 2017 she released an unabridged audio recording of Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy from Ulysses by James Joyce, “Reflections of Molly Bloom,” with music by her father, Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains). Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom was her 10th production with Irish Rep and her first adaptation. Previous performances at the Irish Rep include: The Dead: 1904, Dancing at Lughnasa, Playboy of the Western World, The Shadow of a Gunman and Airswimming (a co production with Fallen Angel). She originated the role of George Eliot in the acclaimed production of A Most Dangerous Woman (Best Actress 2013 NJ Footlights). Other recent roles of note include Women Without Men (The Mint) , The Alchemist (STNJ), When I was a Girl I used to Scream and Shout (Fallen Angel), Under Milk Wood (Hartford Stage). Her TV credits include: “The Exorcist”, “The Knick”, “The Bill”, “The Moth”, “Ballykissangel” & “Law & Order SVU”. Film roles include the role of James Joyce’s sister, Eva, in the movie “Nora”, “Far & Away” and “Agnes Browne”. She has produced and directed several successful off broadway hits with Fallen Angel Theatre, including My Brilliant Divorce, starring Melissa Gilbert. Aedín was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland.
Colum McCann is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages. He is the co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4, and he teaches at the MFA program in Hunter College. He lives in New York with his wife, Allison, and their three children. 
(1852-1932) Lady Gregory was an Irish playwright, folklorist, theatre director, and patron remembered as a major figure in the Irish Literary Revival and co-founder of The Abbey Theatre. She was born Isabella Augusta Persse in County Galway, Ireland, to an Anglo-Irish gentry family. She married Sir William Gregory in 1880, and the couple participated in the literary and artistic salons of London. When Sir William died in 1892, Lady Gregory returned to Ireland and rediscovered an interest in the Irish language and Irish folklore, which she collected and published while organizing Irish lessons. In 1896, she met Yeats and became invested in creating an Irish national theatre as a patron, fundraiser, administrator, and playwright, eventually founding the Abbey Theatre and remaining an active director until declining health led her to retire in 1928.
James L. Pethica teaches in the Theatre and English Departments at Williams College. He has published widely in Irish literature – particularly on W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and the Abbey Theatre – as well as Modern drama and poetry, and contemporary poetry. Winner of the Shakespeare Prize as an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford, Pethica received his D. Phil. from Oxford in 1987. He is the immediate past director of the Yeats International Summer School. Pethica is currently completing the authorized biography of Lady Gregory for Oxford University Press, as well as a volume on Gregory’s collaborations with Yeats.
Úna Clancy played Lady Augusta Gregory in Irish Rep’s 
Bill Irwin is a Tony Award winning actor, director, writer, and clown. Original works include The Regard of Flight; Largely New York (Four Tony Nominations); Fool Moon; Old Hats, The Happiness Lecture; and others. He has played in many Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional stage productions, including, ON BECKETT, an evening of passages from Samuel Beckett’s work at Irish Repertory Theatre, The Iceman Cometh, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; Waiting For Godot (2009 for a Drama Desk Award nomination); Endgame; The Tempest; Texts for Nothing; Garden of Earthly Delights; Accidental Death of An Anarchist; Showboat – and the Tony Award winning Fool Moon, which he created with David Shiner. On television, Irwin appears as Mr. Noodle of “Elmo’s World” and Carey Loudermilk of “LEGION”. The Regard of Flight (PBS) with Doug Skinner, Michael O’Connor, and Nancy Harrington. Film credits include “Rachel Getting Married”, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”, “Eight Men Out”, “Interstellar”, “Stepping Out”, “Unsilent”, and more. Irwin was an original member of Kraken, a theatre company directed by Herbert Blau, and was also an original member of the Pickle Family Circus of San Francisco with Larry Pisoni and Geoff Hoyle. Irwin is the grateful recipient of MacArthur, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.
Directing: Off-Broadway: Two by Friel: 50thAnniversary production of Lovers: Winners and New York premiere of The Yalta Game by Brian Friel (Irish Repertory Theatre), Sarah Sits Shiva for Herself (24 Hour Plays Nationals, Manhattan Rep). Regional: The Adult in the Room, world premiere by Bill McMahon (Victory Gardens, Chicago); Mount Venus 2018 AD (Theatre Workshop of Nantucket); An Iliad (Atlas Performing Arts Center, DC); Shining City, Dancing at Lughnasa (Yale). Assistant Director: Juno and the Paycock, dir. Neil Pepe; The Home Place, New York premiere by Brian Friel, dir. Charlotte Moore (Irish Rep); Donegal, world premiere by Frank McGuinness, dir. Conall Morrison (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Other Desert Cities, dir. Dan Foster (Nantucket). Producing: Broadway: The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez; Once on this Island, winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. Bagley is one of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2019-2020 Directing Fellows.