About Four Rivers

Ben Barnes is the founding Artistic Director of Four Rivers which is dedicated to developing new and established work in and for the South East. He is a former Artistic Director of Opera Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. His award winning productions have been seen in major cities all over the world and his most recent credits include an American production of The Crucible and Madama Butterfly for Irish National Opera at the BGE, a rehearsed reading of More Stately Mansions for the Eugene O’Neill International Festival, Blackbird by David Harrower, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Lights Out by Hannah Mc Niven for Four Rivers.

Heather Hadrill is currently the Producer for Four Rivers having produced five of its theatre productions during 2021-2022. She was the Artist in Residence at Wexford Arts Centre, 2021, where she was the creative producer of “Wexford at 8” a production of eight new short plays by eight new writers. She is a co-founder/facilitator of WORDPLAY – a group for writers, actors & directors in County Wexford, for which, she produced seven new productions (including site specific theatre and 24 hour play challenges). She also works as a Speech & Drama Teacher, teaching children and adults in the community. Heather has worked as a freelance director and actor, which has included directing five Baroque Operas in joint Irish-Czech productions, a touring production of “The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde”, working as Head of Drama in Chester International School in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and acting roles in various theatre productions. She is a past participant on the Gaiety School of Acting Performance Theatre Company training course, 2018/2019 and other qualifications include an Associate Diploma in Speech & Drama Teaching from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and B.A. in Communications.

For twenty years, Tom Mooney was editor of the Wexford Echo Group of Newspapers, twice winning the Law Society Media Justice Award. Tom has curated the Wexford Arts Festival since 2020, and the Wex-Art visual arts festival since 2019. In 2021, he was appointed Poetry Ireland co-ordinator for Poetry Town in Co. Wexford, and curated Written in the Stars at Wexford Library in 2022. He curated the Creative Ireland sponsored Wexford Festival: The early Years at the National Opera House. In 2022, he programmed the three day Jazz at Johnstown Festival at Johnstown Castle, and curated the Culture Ireland sponsored exhibition, Cape Sacred, at the West Wales Arts Centre. Tom’s book All the Bishops Men was published by the Collins Press and he is a regular contributor to the annual Wexford Festival Opera programme. Tom is also publicity co-ordinator for Music for Wexford and a literary judge for the Write by the Sea Festival.

Clare’s academic life has centered on art history and heritage and she has completed a Masters dissertation on the works of Martin McDonagh. She has enjoyed a love of theatre for many years and has gained an appreciation and experience of theatre craft from working both on and off stage. Her work as a professional stage manager began with Four Rivers on their opening production of David Harrower’s Blackbird in 2018. Subsequent stage-managing credits include Macbeth (2019), Hamlet (2020) and a filmed
production of King Lear (2021) for the Shakespeare Review productions at the Theatre Royal, Waterford. Clare enjoyed the challenge of working as stage manager touring Four Rivers productions of The Beauty Queen of Leenane (2021) and Happy Birthday Dear Alice
(2022) and is delighted to be part of the Four Rivers team showcasing the work of both established playwrights and new writers.