ABOUT US
Our Mission Statement
As a company of young artists, we aim to create work that is responsive, entertaining and engaging. We work in a multitude of styles and mediums, with a focus on developing documentary methods to introduce to our work.
Our community is always at the centre of our process, with each piece having an engagement, worshipping or active audiences strand. We believe in creating a dialogue with our audience and are always looking for ways to speak to new audiences and engage our audience.
Who We Are
Freshly Ground Theatre is an Irish company based in Tallaght, Dublin, comprised of local artists: Bronwen Barrett, Vlad Gurdis, Michelle Henry and Martha Knight. The company was founded in 2014, and is currently in residence at the Civic Theatre, Tallaght. We aim to create contemporary, socially engaged work with community participation at its heart. We have a particular interest in devising new work, using verbatim and ethnographical research into Irish culture as tools in order to develop theatre that relates to our shared humanity.
VLAD GURDIS
Vlad is a theatre artist based in Tallaght. He is passionate about creating socially engaged, accessible and entertaining theatre through a multitude of mediums and styles. He believes in further expanding theatre to new audiences and creating links through our communities. He has a B.A in Anthropology and is currently finishing a M.A in Theatre Practice from UCD/Gaiety School of Acting, two passions he interweaves in his work. Can be found playing guitar occasionally.
MARTHA KNIGHT
Martha is a theatre maker from Tallaght, with a particular interest in music and sound design, as well as directing, producing and programming. She holds a BA (Hons) in Music and Drama Studies from Trinity College, and has been making work regularly with Freshly Ground since 2014. She became co-director of Freshly Ground in 2019. She has also worked as assistant producer with the SoloSIRENs collective, worked on many projects with Tallaght Community Arts, and was selected to be part of the Abbey Theatre’s Young Curators programme in the summer of 2019.
MICHELLE HENRY
Michelle is a theatre maker and facilitator based in Tallaght. She has been a member of Freshly Ground Theatre since 2015, when the company was founded and has taken on a role of directing many of the company’s productions. Michelle’s interest in theatre started when joining Carousel theatre school at Rua Red and since then has been involved in a number of projects with Rua Red, The Civic and Tallaght Community Arts both locally and internationally. Michelle has a huge interest in working with young people, she has facilitated various projects for young people in performing arts Summer Camps, community projects and drama workshops.
BRONWEN BARRETT
Bronwen is an actor and theatre-maker based in Tallaght. Having previously completed a two-year course in theatre performance in ICFE in 2017, Bronwen is now studying Creative Digital Media in TU Dublin, with the hope of incorporating more multimedia aspects into her art. Bronwen became a board member of Freshly Ground Theatre in 2017 and has worked on all productions since. Including ‘Ode to a Postcode’ which received a nomination for Best Ensemble at the Dublin Fringe Awards. Bronwen recently performed in ‘Floozie’, a solo-performance show, as part of Smock Alley’s Scene and Heard Festival in February 2020.
