FUEL Current Participants

Eibhleann Caffrey is a writer and director based in Galway City. Eibhleann has staged five original productions over the past four years, exploring issues facing Irish teens and the influence of social media in our day-to-day lives.

Through the use of verse and rhyme, Eibhleann brings the virtual space into the theatrical, in order to tackle generational conflict, influencer culture and the resulting mental health challenges.

Eibhleann is a graduate of University of Galway. She earned a first-class honours degree in Drama, Theatre Performance with English. Her work has been featured in Galway Summer Drama Festival and Scene + Heard Festival at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

During FUEL 2023, Eibhleann will develop What a P*ssy, a play that explores the Irish Catholic education system and our resulting confusion about bodily autonomy.

Fionnuala Doyle Wade is a dance artist from Seattle, currently based in Galway City. She trained in modern and ballet at Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle), and attended summer intensives across the United States.

Since moving to Galway in 2014, she has since worked with Galway Dance Project, Macnas, Baboró International Arts Festival for Children and with Erik Kaiel of Arch 8 in the Netherlands on The Streets Are Ours, a Galway 2020 project with Baboró.

Fionnuala has received residencies from Shawbrook, Galway Dance Project, and Dance Ireland; in 2021 and 2022 she was a recipient of an Arts Council Agility Award. Most recently, she has performed for choreographers Laura Murphy and Minte Wolde, as well as performing in Muc Rí directed by Phillip Doherty and choregraphed by Eoin MacDonncha (GIAF 2022).

During FUEL 2023, Fionnuala will develop here, forgotten, lies Eleanor, a dance theatre work inspired by the story of the 1910 fire at Menlo Castle. The work will be told through the perspective of Eleanor Blake, the isolated daughter of Lord Valentine and Lady Blake, who died within the castle on the night of the fire.

Brídín Nic Dhonncha is a Connemara-based actor and voiceover artist, and has appeared on screen in Ros na Rún (TG4), Aifric (Telegael), Síog na bPost (Fíbín Media) and the award-winning short film, Rúbaí (Magamedia).

She has performed with An Taibhdhearc, Fíbín, Project Arts Theatre, North Wales Stage, Axis Theatre and she is also a children’s drama facilitator in her local community.

Brídín trained at the Gaiety School of Acting, and as a puppeteer with Fíbín. She has a huge interest in biodiversity issues and is interested in creating art that addresses its collapse.

During FUEL 2023, Brídín will develop An Ceilpeadóir, an Irish language show that combines live performance with audio visual elements. The show will explore our relationship with death and nature , burial and the earth, and what fear is.

Jenni Nikinmaa works as a playwright and theatre-maker, mostly within immersive productions, audio-based work, site-related pieces, digital theatre, and other experimental forms. Her most recent plays include a work-in-progress showing of an immersive waiting room, The Other World as part of a Theatre57 residency in early 2022, and a digital play written for computer about suicide and self-harm, produced by Eva’s Echo Theatre Company in 2021. The play was also featured at the IFTR World Conference 2022.

Jenni is also a poet and spoken word artist. She graduated from University of Galway with an MA in Playwriting & Dramaturgy in 2020. She was shortlisted for the 2020 Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize. She has participated in Brú Theatre´s Remote Control residencies #2 and #3, and MAKE 2022 in Offaly. She has been supported by Kone Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Galway County Arts Office and the City of Helsinki.

During FUEL 2023, Jenni will develop SHEEP, a play in monologue form inspired by the sheep on Clare Island that explores a sense of not belonging.

Martin Warde is a stand-up comedian/writer, theatre-maker and podcaster with a passion for telling stories from the margins. He is passionate about learning and sees each opportunity to expand his knowledge as an essential step towards empowering himself and nurturing his artistic practices.

Martin’s first play, The Dead House, was presented as a work-in-progress at Listowel Writers’ Week 2022. Martin regularly writes for The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, and is a regular on TV panels on RTÉ and Virgin Media Television. Martin sometimes produces radio reports for RTÉ Radio One and is currently completing a Traveller elder oral history project with the National Museum of Ireland. In 2022, Martin became the first Traveller to hold a photo exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland.

During FUEL 2023, Martin will continue to develop The Dead House, a play which centres around Patrick, a gay man in self-exile from his Irish Traveller family. He has returned home on the day of his grandfather's wake after being away for 10 years.