about our playground 2025 artists
Stephen Jones
Stephen is from Tallaght and is a graduate of UCD. He is the writer and lead actor of the television series Northern Lights, Produced by Lionsgate and Deadpan Pictures. The series was nominated for four IFTA Awards including Best Drama and Best Script. Stephen has been a regular on stage in Ireland and the UK for over a decade. His work at the Abbey Theatre includes - Ulysses and Last Orders At The Dockside.
Other theatre includes: Falling To Earth – My Summer with Bowie at the 2023 Dublin Theatre Festival, Class (which also played at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning a Fringe First, and at the Bush Theatre, London), Brothers of the Brush, Alone It Stands (Verdant Productions), Tuesdays With Morrie (Pat Moylan/Breda Cashe), DruidMurphy: Plays by Tom Murphy (Druid), Dubliners (Corn Exchange), Maz & Bricks (Fishamble), Howie The Rookie and The Day of the Zebra (Glass Mask), This Lime Tree Bower (Eoin Kilkenny), Are you there Garth? It’s me Margaret (Gaiety Theatre), Stones in his Pockets (Gaiety/UK Tour), The King’s Feet (Dublin Fringe), Danny & Chantelle: Still Here (RedBear), Romeo & Juliet (Devise & Conquer), No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (Morton Films and Media), Spider (New Theatre), Candy Flippin’ Butterflies (Adopt a Hermit), Portia Coughlan (Bluepatch), From the Shannon to the Somme (Rain King), Wanted: The Legendary Stone Mountain Band (445), Black Snow (Dublin Fringe), Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Camino de Orula), and the leading role of Keano in the hit comedy musical I, Keano and the role of Thomas McDonagh in Signatories which marked the centenary of the Easter Rising and played at Kilmainham Gaol before moving to the Olympia theatre, Dublin.
Stephen has his own theatre company Awake & Sing. Productions include his own plays From Eden, Northern Lights and Summerhill as well as Deirdre Kinahan’s Hue and Cry.
Stephen made his professional directorial debut for Glass Mask Theatre with Rex Ryan’s PopTart Lipstick.
Moya Noctor
Moya Noctor is a writer and performer from Kerry. She previously worked with Glass Mask as Assistant Stage Manager on their production of Stephen Jones’s From Eden in 2024. Moya has a B.A. in Drama Studies and English Literature from Trinity College Dublin and is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at the Lir, for which she was awarded the Patricia Leggett Scholarship. Moya’s one-woman play Moments Alone, which draws on her experience of living with endometriosis, premiered at the Camden Fringe Festival in London in July and has been selected for further development by the Glens Arts Centre, Co. Leitrim. She has presented work at the Gate Theatre through Fighting Words’ Gateways programme and interned with Fishamble: The New Play Company as a Literary Assistant. This year her writing has been published in The Stony Thursday Book and Icarus Magazine.
Jed Murray
Jed Murray is an actor from Dublin city centre. He has worked extensively in theatre and film for over twenty years. Most recently he played ‘Ger’ in WaveWalkers new feature ‘Clan Canavan/Horseshoe’ (post-production) directed by Adam O’Keefe and Edwin Mullane. Also in post production is “Spilt Milk” a feature film directed by Brian Durnin and “WAYFINDERS” a television pilot directed by Glenn Winters for Arrowstorm Entertainment (US) in which he plays ‘Rawhead’.
Theatre wise he most recently performed David Quinns “A Modest Proposal’ Directed by Andy Crook which ran in The New Theatre, T emple Bar. The end of last year saw Jed perform in Stewart Roches “A Christmas Visit” which ran in The Civic Theatre, The Viking Theatre and The Mill Theatre, prior to that Jed performed in The Mill Theatres production of ‘Hamlet’ and Donagh Humphreys play “Becoming Maggie” which enjoyed a three week sold out run in The New Theatre.
Jed is a founding member of the theatre company ‘TheCorpsEnsemble’ directing their productions of “Made In China”(Mark O’Rowe), “Bug” (Tracey Letts) “Eden” (Eugene O’Brien) and “Travesty” (Liam Williams). He also works for the charity ‘Aoifes Clown Doctors’ doing the ‘clown rounds’ in both Crumlin and Temple St Children's hospitals.
Eva O’Connor
Eva O'Connor is an award winning writer and performer from Ogonnelloe, Co. Clare. Her plays include My Name is Saoirse, Overshadowed (now a series on BBC Three), Maz and Bricks (with Fishamble the New Play company), MUSTARD ( winner of Scotsman Fringe First 2019, and adapted for screen for RTE Storyland) and Chicken (winner of Filipa Bragança Award for Best solo female/ non binary performer at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023, Best Performer Award Dublin Fringe 2024, Pick of the Fringe Award at the Adelaide fringe 2025). Eva runs Sunday's Child with Hildegard Ryan, and together they make work for stage, screen and radio.
Simon Stephens
For more than twenty-five years Simon Stephens’ work has been widely translated and produced throughout the world. He has won many Awards including Olivier and Tony Awards for new plays. His radical adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Vanya, starring Andrew Scott ran in London’s West End and at the Lucille Lortel , New York between Autumn 23 and Spring 25 and was screened to phenomenal success on NT Live and NT Home. His adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Blindness was made into a light and sound installation that was produced internationally during the Covid 19 pandemic. His most famous play is his adaptation of Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He has had thirty five original plays produced professionally.
He has written new English language versions of masterpieces by Chekhov, Ibsen and Brecht, collaborated with the world’s leading theatre practitioners (Patrice Chereau, Ivo Van Hove, Marianne Elliott, Katie Mitchell) and produced original work throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.
He has been Artistic Associate at the Lyric, Hammersmith and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court Theatre. He has taught playwriting workshops in five continents. He has presented four series of the celebrated Playwright’s Podcast from the Royal Court Theatre. He is a Professor at the Writing School of Manchester Metropolitan University. His book A Working Diary was published by Methuen Bloomsbury in 2016.
He lives in East London with his wife, three children, their snake, gecko, two cats and a dog.
Ross Gaynor
Ross is an actor and a writer from Dublin. He is a graduate of The Lir Academy and of University College Dublin, where he received the Ad Astra scholarship for Drama.
Theatre Credits include: The United States Versus Ulysses(Irish Arts Center, NYC); Celebrity(Glassmask Theatre); The United States Versus Ulysses(Once/Off Productions); The Rice Krispie Killer(GlassMask Theatre); The New Electric Ballroom(Gate Theatre); PIAF(Gate Theatre); Gravity[A Love Story](BottomDog); All The Angels(Rough Magic); The Valley of The Squinting Windows(CityTheatre Dublin); Bullfight on Third Avenue(Bewleys Café Theatre); Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor(Irish National Opera); Mr.Burns: A Post-Electric Play(Rough Magic: SEEDS); The Train (Rough Magic); his own one-man play I AM A BIRD NOW(Theatre Upstairs).
Film/TV credits include: King Frankie(Banjoman Films); Cave(Banjoman Films), Valhalla(MGM/Netflix), Normal People(BBC/Element Pictures), Blasts From the Past 1 & 2(RTÉ/Firebrand), Bernard Dunne’s Mythical Heroes(RTÉ/Firebrand), Resistance(RTE) and What Richard Did(Element Pictures).
As a writer, his work has been produced in Theatre Upstairs, The Abbey Theatre(Peacock Stage) and various Dublin Fringe Festivals.
As a director, his work includes the Irish Premiere of Simon Stephens’ Country Music, the World Premiere of Simon Stephens’ Men’s Business, and the World Premiere of Stephen Jones’ A Ghost Story.