Druid Design Exhibition

We sometimes forget the magic we make – this was said to me by one of my team of makers and it struck me that that magic is in memory but also held in some of the objects we hold in stock at Druid.

From the early days, Druid has embraced design as an essential part of production and telling stories. From Frank Conway‘s early collaborations with Garry Hynes, through to Monica Frawley‘s extraordinary At the Black Pig's Dyke, and my own work with Garry on the Leenane Trilogy, DruidSynge, DruidMurphy, DruidShakespeare and DruidO’Casey, Druid's aesthetic and production values have always been a huge part of the success of the work.

Much of this early work exists in memory and photographs only. We have only recently been more diligent at holding on to model boxes, so those shown here reflect more recent work.

Since 2016, Druid began creating their sets and costumes at their workshops in Ballybane and Nuns' Island. This exhibition draws from the props and costumes made in our workshops.

Theatre is an active collaboration and there are many skills involved in creating the sets, props and costumes you see here.

This exhibition is a bit of a celebration of those artisans and the magic they make.

My collaboration with Druid as a costume maker started with dressing the wonderful Marie Mullen for Epiphany (2019).

Since then, working with designers Francis O'Connor, Doreen McKenna and Clíodhna Hallissey and all the wardrobe team – on costumes for amazing actresses like Derbhle Crotty, Eileen Walsh and Anna Healy to name just a few – has been a great experience, gaining so much knowledge from each other at every play. They are more than collaborators at this stage but friends of the Druid family.

I feel so privileged to be part of Druid's 50th anniversary by making costumes for Marie Mullen as Lady Macbeth.

Happy 50th birthday to Druid, and many happy returns...

I had waited my whole career for the opportunity to work with Druid. Our production of The Cavalcaders by Billy Roche (2022) was the perfect opportunity to finally join the Druids in my spiritual home of Galway. From the beginning to the end, the experience of working with the Druid team was exceptional. I was flanked on all sides with people at the top of their game. The professionalism, humour and respect I received during my time with Druid will never leave me.

Druid makes extraordinary and genuinely collective theatre unlike any other company in the world. It is this, and the possibility of this, that has kept me coming back to the west coast of Ireland for the past 20 years. It is something like a love affair.

A question I’m asked almost every day is, “How long will it take?”

The not very helpful but honest answer would be, “I can’t tell you, I’m building something that’s never been built before."

Our role is to take something straight from a designer’s imagination and make it a reality. And those imaginations can be pretty fertile.

In my 26 years of working with Druid and Francis O’Connor, the challenges and highlights are too many to mention. Among them, I’d pick out dragging the makings of a set and stage for DruidSynge up to the top of Dún Chonchúir on Inis Meáin, a job I’d count as both the hardest work and the most fulfilling task of my career; and building our two outdoor productions in Coole Park in order to help keep theatre alive during the pandemic. These are experiences I’ll never forget. 

From working with big teams assembling giant structures to tinkering by myself replicating a piece of period furniture, it’s the variety of this job that makes such a unique and interesting craft.

I’m trying to think back on all the things I’ve made for Druid over the years. The collection includes potato-blighted spuds and the corpse of a young girl for Tom Murphy's Famine. I think that corpse has had multiple roles since, most recently in Richard III. The work is really varied. For The Silver Tassie, I made a replica tin mask modelled off of WW1 masks worn by shell victims. I recall making more corpses for that show. I’ve even made a dead sheep for DruidGregory. I think there’s a pattern here!

Thoughts on Druid and working with the people who make the magic happen

I first met met Garry and Francis in 2004, when I was hired to design the lighting for the Broadway production of a new play which Garry was directing and for which Francis was designing the set and costumes. The play wasn’t ready and we struggled with our best efforts. After weeks of hard work in technical rehearsals and previews, it opened, played for about three weeks and failed.

But I had met two new wonderful collaborators. I was impressed with their absolute commitment to supporting the text, their rigorous focus and work ethic.

Over the next years, I was pleased when Garry asked me to design other American projects, but I was never available. Finally, in 2014, I was. It was KAT’A KABANOVA at the Spoleto Festival/USA, Charleston, SC, her first opera and my first time there.

Again Garry’s prioritising how best to serve the piece was impressive. As was her rigour in preparation and in rehearsal, working for the first time in this performing art.

During a dinner one night, I asked about her work at home and with Druid. I told her that although I had worked many places in the UK and Europe, I had never worked in Ireland. She looked at me and said, “I think we could change that.” Shortly after Spoleto came the offers to design DruidShakespeare (2015) and then Waiting for Godot (2016).

So began this designer’s joyful and wonderful trip with Druid. I arrived that spring of 2015 and immediately discovered that the qualities I had admired in Garry and Francis were shared by everyone. The focus is on the production at hand and how best to present it. There is a scrappy spirit to “get it done” and done well. The quality of the work far outweighs the size of the group.

So many steps are involved in making the magic, i.e. getting the show from ideas on paper to reality onstage. It takes enormous amounts of work and time and cannot be done alone. Druid has a pool of amazing people who are there to bring the production to life. I am indebted to them all. 

Typically for lighting, Barry (O'Brien, Druid's Production Manager) has taken my ideas from the plot, organised the hires, suggested alternate ideas (and managed the costs!); Shannon Light covers the installation, the electrical props and electronics; Paul Kelly focuses the lights and handles any backstage needs; and Susan Collins works directly with me in the stalls during technical rehearsals to program the lighting changes — 'the cues' — into the computer control board.

All the while Gus, Keith, and Richie are busy installing the set and making the details work — Gus is often found quietly slipping around the set, adding the missing window sash or making that errant door close properly.

Painters Rachel and Matt will come in around rehearsals to check in about how the light affects the paint colour and texture.

Later 'the carps' will set up specific scenes onstage — sometimes several times, (usually!) without complaint — so that Francis can mark exact positions of walls, tables and chairs, or I can focus specific lights and make the first draft of the cues.

Concurrently, Richie will be working installing the sound equipment — and quite importantly, the headset communication system which we will all use during technical rehearsals and the run of the show.

Eavan, Sophie, Méabh, Síle and Rachel are in rehearsal with Garry, David, Sarah, Lianne and the actors, organising the rehearsal schedules, recording the blocking, sourcing or building the props — and keeping all of us, the whole team, informed of what new ideas, changes, etc. have come out of each day’s rehearsals. In the performances, Sophie will call all the cues for everything to happen in real time, and she does that with appreciated aplomb.

Costume world is inhabited by Clíodhna, Sorcha, Denise, Sarah, Marie, Shauna, Yvette, Adrienne; and hair and make up world by Siobhán and Michelle. How the costumes and each actor’s make-up look in the lighting is another collaboration as we see them onstage in the technical rehearsals.

The true joy of my job is to be ringside as more amazing people, the actors, create their roles. And 'these guys' are experts. The text is forefront and they inhabit it fully, making it clear and visceral. Everything comes from the words, and it’s thrillingly active and smart. Watching scene after scene I find myself leaning forward in my seat. Again there’s that commitment. One of my strongest memories from DruidShakespeare was the company consistently arriving early or staying late to run scenes on their own upstairs in the dressing room.

All the above is just to say that producing a play is always a wildly complex machine; but in Druid, it is accomplished with unique passion, commitment and humanity. This gang make my job easier – and much more fun.

For this American who 'wandered into the MLT one day,' it has been a gorgeous adventure.

Oh!
And then there’s the HUMOUR.
And the SOUL.

Happy 50th, dear Druid!

And so many thanks,
Jim Ingalls

One of my jobs is to build any specialist lighting effects required for the production. This might be a simple fireplace effect or a more complex installation.

I especially enjoyed creating the LED teepee tents for Richard III which changed colour to represent the different camps at war.

Perhaps my favourite installations were the LED frames I made for DruidGregory and The Seagull at Coole Park. While they were simple structures, they worked beautifully in the landscape.

As a theatre composer, I've come to realise the importance of design as an initial springboard for my musical ideas. The consistency and sympathy of the disparate elements of a production are crucial to presenting a compelling and supportive world in which the actors can perform at their best.

Garry Hynes, Francis O'Connor and I have worked together on many shows over 28 years. We value the (sometimes frank!) exchange of ideas and views and, I think, we are essentially collaborative animals. Druid has been at the heart of our collaboration and I'm delighted to share some of the music from these productions with you.

Though music be the food of love, they say,
Thou must desist from drowning out the play,
For ugly drones and drums and plangent tunes,
By Short Director's hand shall end in ruins,
And though thy work hath majesty and strength,
It NEVER must exceed eight bars in length.
And woe the actor ever underscored,
'Tis surely sign the audience were bored,
And craved the feelings music doth provide,
At which point to the rescue I doth ride.
And do mine best to soothe their savage brows,
And take such limelight as I dare allow!

I first worked with Druid on Silverlands over 30 years ago. I was Chief LX for a number of years before becoming Production Manager around 20 years ago.

For many years, our sets have been constructed outside of Galway but in 2016 we decided to create a workshop in Ballybane which would allow us to build our own sets and props here in Galway.

Over the years, we have put together a brilliant team of carpenters, metal workers, painters and electricians as well as wardrobe teams, costume makers and cutters.

The fact that it’s all in-house allows us to control our resources and be responsive to rehearsals and production in a way that’s quite unique to Druid.

Whether it’s transforming our own space, The Mick Lally Theatre, as we have done in our 2025 production of Macbeth, or building sets that that can tour Ireland and beyond, everything we make is all made here in Galway.

I knew once I saw Francis O'Connor's set design and the costume designs by Francis and Doreen McKenna that DruidShakespeare was going to be a stunning looking production. The pearl headdress and shimmering make-up and costume, worn by Siobhan Cullen, was a beautiful contrast against the dark earthy set. As were the images of all the queens. Each in the own ornate wigs and headdresses. It sas a total pleasure to be part of such a stunningly beautiful production.

Val worked as a Hair & Make-Up Designer on DruidShakespeare (2015) and Richard III (2018).

I started work for Druid around 10 years ago, previously I had worked in TV.

I really love to see the model box because that is what speaks to me and gives me the direction and information I need. Francis’s models are really intricate and life-like. Once I’ve spoken with him, I pretty much know where I am heading.

It’s great fun (mostly!) working with the team in the workshop in Ballybane, except for when it’s my turn to clean the toilets!

Godot's rock 

I set about the business of realising Francis O’Connor’s ‘rock’ design for Druid's production of Waiting for Godot (2016) by drafting scale drawings to replicate the form and proportions of the grey/blue miniature ‘rock’ presented in the model box.

Construction required selecting lightweight, durable materials for the core that would bear the weight of actors standing on the finished prop and an outer shell constructed from materials that would allow the surface to appear smooth as marble.

A solid block fabricated from insulation boards that can be plastered directly onto and are impervious to moisture was sculpted to form the smooth core of the ‘rock’.  Fine layers of fiberglass mesh, liquid fibreglass and polyester resin were then applied to the surface and sanded back to build strength and maintain the integrity of the form.

The surface colour and tonal characteristics revealed themselves organically, as flowing water washes over rock, many hours of sanding revealed that the peculiarities and properties of material layers built up now resembled a natural stone surface.

Working closely together at every stage of the process, Francis recognised the beauty in the surface qualities emerging and choose to maintain the polished surface rather than apply a final coat of paint. 

The next challenge was to build an exact replica destined for Druid’s American touring production.