Matt Smyth announced as Course Director MFA Theatre Producing
Matt will take up this new part-time role at The Lir Academy this April.
The Lir, National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin is thrilled to announce the appointment of Matt Smyth as our inaugural Course Director MFA Theatre Producing.
Matt brings an extraordinary amount of experience to this role. An Obie award-winning producer, he has worked with companies such as ANU Productions, Collapsing Horse Theatre, THISISPOPBABY and Dead Centre, producing work performed in venues across Ireland, and some of the most globally important festivals and theatres including Manchester International Festival, Brisbane Arts Festival, the Young Vic, and the Schaubuhne in Berlin.
As a curator and programmer, he ran Ireland’s oldest and largest comedy arts festival, The Kilkenny Cat Laughs, for five years, as well as the theatre stage at Electric Picnic for the last six years for Dublin Theatre Festival. He curated the Pitchonomics strand at Kilkenomics (Ireland’s first comedy and economics festival), and programmed and hosted Ireland’s first conference on Massive Open Online Universities (MOOCs) for the Higher Education Authority of Ireland as part of the UA Award Summit (of which he was Summit Director of for four years).
Matt is currently chair of the board of directors for Project Arts Centre, Dublin and was on the board of directors of Macnas from 2020 until 2023. He is also a qualified career coach working with arts practitioners around Ireland and the UK.
Matthew will commence his role at The Lir Academy in April 2024 and will be responsible for delivering this programme to support and nurture the next generation of theatre producers.
Matt joins The Lir Academy on a part-time basis and will continue to work on his own producing work while delivering our new MFA Theatre Producing programme, This connection to the industry is a key aspect of our MFA programmes in Theatre Directing, Stage Design (Set, Costume & Lighting) and Playwriting, all lead by leading industry professionals.
For more details on the MFA Theatre Producing, please see the link here.