Shaun Dunne
Shaun Dunne is a film and theatre artist who merges testimony and documentary material with new writing. He is a trained journalist and drama facilitator — with elements of both heavily informing his arts practice. Recent work includes Restoration (Project Arts Centre) and What Did I Miss? (The Ark). Other theatre credits for Talking Shop Ensemble include the multi-award winning Death of the Tradesmen, Advocacy, and Making A Mark. Film work includes The First was a Boy, Iarscoláire and Dúirt Tú (You Said), all of which were awarded top prizes at premiere Irish Film festivals including Cork International Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival. Shaun’s films have gone on to screen at the prestigious Raindance Film Festival, Galway Film Fleadh and at Kerry International Film Festival. In theatre, Shaun is currently working on new plays for The Ark, Rough Magic, and Dublin Theatre Festival. He has been the Engagement and Participation Artist at the Ark for the past five years where he works with a responsibility to the Children’s Council. Shaun is currently in production across the film adaptation of Talking Shop’s 2019 hit show, Rapids, in collaboration with Invisible Thread Films.
Aisling Byrne
Aisling (she/her) is a freelance theatre artist, director and filmmaker based in North Kildare. She has worked extensively in the fields of arts and disability, contemporary theatre & socially engaged theatre practice. Aisling is the founder and Artistic Director of both Run of the Mill Theatre & award-winning Dublin based theatre collective, Talking Shop Ensemble and is a resident collaborator of Arcade Film Ltd. Recent Credits include Wunderground (2022) & Treehouse National Tour (2021) with Ceol Connected, Headspace (Virgin Media Discovers 2021 Screenplay Competition Finalist), Vulnerable (Abbey Theatre, Dear Ireland 3 & Kerry International Film festival) , Outside History (St Patrick’s Festival , 2021) , Quarantine (Culture Night, 2020) Making a Mark (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2019, winner of the Judges Choice Award and nominated for Best Production & as featured on The Tommy Tiernan Show) , Singing For Survival (Draiocht, 2019) & Rapids by Shaun Dunne (National Tour, 2019 & Dublin Theatre Festival, 2017).
Mark Smith
Mark is an award winning actor and founding member of Run of the Mill Theatre. Mark was nominated for Best Performer at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2019 for his work on Making a Mark (winner of Judges Choice Award, nominated for Best Production). Recent credits include Outside History (St Patrick’s Festival, 2021), Vulnerable (Abbey Theatre, Dear Ireland 3 commission, 2020), Quarantine (Culture Night, 2020) and Singing for Survival (Draiocht, 2019) He was the 2018 recipient of the Axis Ballymun Playground Bursary for performing artists and a participant of the Abbey Theatre’s 5 x 5 programme in 2019. He regularly advocates for artists with Down Syndrome and disabilities in National media and was recently featured to widespread acclaim on the The Tommy Tiernan Show (Season 4, 2020). Mark studied Anthropology at Maynooth University and achieved a silver medal at the Special Olympics World Games in North Carolina.
Talking Shop Ensemble
Talking Shop Ensemble are a Dublin based theatre collective who are interested in making work that speaks to the here and now. The company consists of theatre artists Aisling Byrne and Shaun Dunne. Their shared desire to create work that is playful, pertinent and most importantly, urgent has resulted in critical acclaim, support from the Arts Council and several awards over the years. The company have collaborated to create art that talks about intellectual disability service provision in Ireland, unemployed tradesmen in their fifties, psychic mediums in Dublin and generation emigration. Previous work includes Advocacy, Death of theTradesmen and I am a Homebird (It’s very hard). In 2019 TSE completed a critically acclaimed national tour of Shaun Dunne’s Rapids, which explored disclosure and instances of stigma in the lives of people who are HIV + in Ireland today.
*****— “arresting… slipping between ritual, lecture and performance, [Rapids] stealthily reveals more and more along the way” THE IRISH TIMES
“With a new diagnosis of HIV every 18 hours, in a country driven by shame and secrecy, Rapids is a timely, vital and powerful work. DRAFF MAGAZINE
Run of the Mill
Run of the Mill is an inclusive theatre company based in North Kildare committed to supporting people with intellectual disabilities to access high-quality experiences in the arts as artists, makers and participants under the Artistic Direction of Aisling Byrne working with Producer Killian Coyle. Run of the Mill strives to make high-quality work that platforms the voices and lived experiences of people with intellectual disabilities. Collectively our participants have presented an array of work at both local and national level. Recent projects include: Vulnerable (The Abbey Theatre, Dear Ireland 3) Outside History in collaboration with Arcade Film (St Patrick’s Festival, 2021), Quarantine (Culture Night, 2020) and Singing for Survival (Draiocht, 2019). Run of the Mill Theatre receive support from Kildare County Council Arts Service & The Arts Council of Ireland.
