Ionia Ní Chróinín

Co-Director and ensemble member

Sots Headshot Ionia

Is as Gaillimh do Ionia Ní Chróinín. Is comh-stiúrthóir í ar Moonfish Theatre. She studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow, graduating in 2005. Since then she has worked extensively in theatre throughout the UK and Ireland, with companies such as 7:84, Theatrecorp, Making Strange, and an extended season with Dundee Rep. She also works with Galway-based company, Branar Téatar do Pháistí.

Ionia has appeared in all of Moonfish Theatre productions in Ireland, the UK and the US.

Máiréad Ní Chróinín

Co-Director and ensemble member

Sots Headshot Mairead

Máiréad is from Galway and was raised with both Irish and English. She studied Politics at Glasgow University, Scotland. She worked at the European Commission as a trainee and she has also worked as a project manager with GDSI in Galway.

She has a great interest in European theatre, especially Polish theatre and in 2008 she received a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland to train with Teatr Gardzienice in Poland.

As well as co-founding and co-directing Moonfish, Máiréad has worked with Dublin-based companies Randalph SD: The Company (The Public, Project Arts Centre), and Making Strange (Revisions, Project Arts Centre), and with the Galway-based theatre company Mephisto (Work/Death, Belltable Arts Centre & Town Hall Studio).

Grace Kiely

Ensemble member

Sots Headshot Grace

Grace is an actor and musician from Waterford and she is very proud to have worked with Moonfish Theatre for many years. She studied Theatre for two years under Belinda Wild in Kinsale, before going to UCC where she was awarded an Arts degree in English and Irish.

She moved to Galway in 2006 and shortly after worked on Moonfish’s first show Bonny & Read, as a musician. It wasn’t long before she was acting in Moonfish productions and her other skills soon came into use as well: many a prop has she made out of various pieces of rubbish – and she’s not a bad dancer either. She has devised and performed in Moonfish productions Tromluí Phinocchio, Noah’s Ark, Aucassin & Nicolette, The Secret Garden, Mad Sweeney and Star of the Sea

Zita Monahan-McGowan

Ensemble member

Sots Headshot Zita

Zita Monahan-McGowan holds an M.A in Drama and Theatre Studies from NUI Galway and an ADPA Diploma in Performance Arts Teaching ( London)

She began working with Moonfish on their production of The Secret Garden and since then has been delighted to be part of many of their productions including Tromluí Phinocchio , Thrice Upon a Time and Star of the Sea ( National and International U.S Tour )

Zita is a member of The Sky Babies improv troupe based in Galway City and in 2014 their long-form improvised play Suitcase debuted at Galway Theatre Festival. She played as a regular improviser in Wingin'It a monthly improvised comedy night and recently performed as a solo improviser in The Irish Improv Festival 2018.

She has a particular interest in devising theatre and theatrical improvisation and has facilitated and directed many drama projects with Youth Work Ireland, Foróige,Stageschool Ireland , Westside Arts Festival and Galway Actors Workshop. She currently facilitates drama classes with Ability West teaching adults and young people of all ages and abilities.

Morgan Cooke

Ensemble member

Sots Headshot Morgan

Morgan is from Dublin. He has been working as an actor since 2005, when he played the part of Cathal in the television series FFC. He then took part productions by An Taibhdhearc, Gaeilgeoir Dheirneach Carna, Tine Chnamh, and Coinneáil Orainn. In 2006 Morgan began working with Branar Téatar do Pháistí, composing music and acting in their productions Na Síoga Agus An Gréasaí Bróg, and An Chéad Chéim, and working as a musician on their productions Aistear Ailbí, An Seanfhear Beag, Mise – Scéal Cailín,Spraoi and Croí á Mhúscailt.

As a musician, Morgan is one of the founding members of well-known band Cuckoo Savante. Morgan has also worked with Mary Coughlan, and was a co-composer of the song ‘House of Ill-Repute’, which can be heard on Mary Coughlan’s latest album.

Morgan has performed in three Moonfish productions to date: Namhaid don Phobal Tromluí Phinocchio and Star of the Sea.

Pat Hargan

Sound designer

Sots Headshot Pat

Pat has worked with Moonfish since 2012, when he played the narrator in ‘The Musicians of Galway’. He was subsequently invited to undertake the sound design for ‘Star of the Sea’, and operated sound for the production at its 2014 première , 2015 Irish tour and 2017 international tour. Since then Pat has joined the ensemble as a performer.

A graduate of Oxford University, he works primarily as a musician and has toured with a variety of theatre productions as well as performing with some of the leading lights of Irish traditional music. He is also keenly involved in music education in County Galway.

Sorcha Ní Chróinín

Stage manager

Sorcha Ni Chroinin

Sorcha has worked as a Stage Manager for Moonfish since 2014. She has taken on many and varied roles from Stage manager and production assistant for Branar Téatar, Galway Theatre Festival and Galway Early Music Festival.

Internationally Sorcha has stage-managed for Punchdrunk's production of Sleep No More in New York and Opera Five's Toronto production of Die Fledermaus

Jo Cummins

Producer

Jo Cummins

Jo studied acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama graduating in 2005. She spent 10 years as an actor in the UK and Ireland, performing at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Dundee Rep, Nottingham Playhouse, and the Hampstead Theatre among others.

Jo became Moonfish's producer in 2015 and is proud to have taken Moonfish's work all over Ireland, to the UK and the US. In 2017 Jo was selected to take part in the Elevator producer scheme in conjunction with the Irish Theatre Institute. She is also producer for London-based theatre collective On The Button.