Strollers Touring Network - PROPEL 2024

Following an open call application process the Strollers Network is delighted to announce Clare Monnelly as the recipient of the PROPEL Programme Award 2024.

PROPEL is a three year-long artist development and mentorship programme designed and produced by the Strollers Network, a partnership made up of ten arts centres from across four regions of Ireland. The aim of this programme is to strengthen the ecology of the Irish theatre sector by supporting the development of new work by independent theatre makers and to support the sustainable development of artistic practice through a structured mentorship and training programme designed and delivered in consultation with the artist or company.

The programme offers a €35,000 bursary over 3 years to support the research and development of new work and to cover the cost of ongoing professional development through training and mentorship. The award also gives access to development and rehearsal spaces in ten Arts Centres across the country, support and mentorship from a panel of experts in producing, fundraising, technical production, dramaturgy, publishing, marketing, finance, cultural entrepreneurship, audience development and engagement, and strategic business development and cultural business management. Finally, this will give the artist an opportunity to present a work-in-progress performance as part of a major Irish festival.

Clare Monnelly is an actor and writer from Dublin. Her first playCharlie’s a Clepto was produced by Axis Ballymun in 2017. Charlie was subsequently nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary and two Irish Times Theatre Awards – Best New Play and Best Actress. It went on to complete a 14 venue national tour in 2019. Clare was awarded the Stewart Parker Trust New Dramaturgical Bursary and the Jim McNaughton Tilestyle Artist Bursary at the 2017 Allianz Business to Arts Awards to develop her play, minefield.

In 2018 Clare was accepted into Irish Theatre Institute’s Six in the Attic Programme. She was awarded the Pavilion Studio Space Award and the Pavilion Patron Donation Award to develop her play The Shed in Pavilion in association with Livin Dred Theatre Company. minefield was programmed as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 and Clare co-produced the show with Axis Ballymun. The show was nominated for three Dublin Fringe Awards – Best Design, the Fishamble New Writing Award and the First Fortnight Award.

Clare is an alumnus of the Irish Theatre Institute’s Writer’s Hub and was a participant in the Lyric Theatre Belfast’s New Playwrights Programme 2019. Her play Funny Story had a staged reading as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival that year.

In 2020 Clare was awarded the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Emerging Artist Bursary. She also took part in Corcadorca’s SHOW 2020 programme. In 2021 she was awarded an Arts Council Theatre Bursary to further develop her craft.

In 2022 Clare wrote her first short film, Departure, as part of Bow Street and Screen Ireland’s Actor as Creator scheme, which was produced by Take Ten productions and premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh. She has just completed production on her second short, Cat & Mouse which is in receipt of Screen Ireland Focus Short funding.

In 2023 Clare premiered three new shows. The Hare was co-written with Bob Kelly, produced by Once Off Productions and opened in the Cairde Festival Sligo, going on to play the Pavilion Theatre Dun Laoghaire and the Cork Arts Theatre. The Local was co-written with Medb Lambert and Emma O’Grady, produced by Asylum Productions and premiered as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Super-Bogger, a one man show for actor Aaron Monaghan, was produced by Livin’ Dred and undertook a tour in November. This year she was also a participant in the Mill Theatre Dundrum’s Mavens Programme.

Clare is one of Bewley’s Café Theatre’s Percolate artists for 2024/25.

As an actor, Clare has worked with Druid, the Abbey, the Gate, Livin’ Dred and many more for stage. On screen she has worked with Deadpan Pictures, Keeper Pictures, RTÉ, Sky One and TG4 among others. Last year she played the lead in the Cine4 funded Fréamhacha for DoubleBand Pictures and Wildcard, the first Irish language horror feature film which will premiere in 2024. She is best known for her roles of Mary in Nowhere Fast and Fidelma in Moone Boy.

Draíocht Blanchardstown
Belltable / The Lime Tree Theatre
Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo
Linenhall Arts Centre
Riverbank Arts Centre
Siamsa Tire
Solstice Arts Centre
The Source Arts Centre
VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art and The George Bernard Shaw Theatre
The Watergate Theatre

Strollers Network is kindly supported by Arts Council Ireland

The Strollers Network is Ireland’s largest consortium of Art Centres. It is a partnership made up of ten venues from across four regions of the country. Collectively the network represents one fifth of all publicly funded Arts Centres nationally.

Since its establishment in 2010 the network has supported the production and dissemination of new staged works by some of Irelands leading theatre artists, companies and musicians including; Jim Nolan (Brighton, 2010), Julie Feeney (Clocks, 2011), Theatre Lovett (The House that Jack Filled, 2012); Fishamble: The New Play Company (Big Thing, Little Thing by Donal O'Kelly, 2013); Moonfish Theatre Company (Star of the Sea, 2014/2015); Monkeyshine Theatre Company (Voyage, 2016); Duke Special (Hallow, 2017); Fishamble: The New Play Company (Before by Pat Kinevane, 2018); and Joanne Ryan’s national tour of ‘Eggsistentialism’ (2019).

Past recipients of the Propel Programme Award have included: Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng 吳彩萍 (2023); Shane O'Reilly (2022) and Roisin Whelan (2021).

2021 also saw the delivery of the networks strategic plan which focused on utilizing the networks existing infrastructure, resources, and wider network partnerships to support the sustainable development of independent theatre makers working within the Irish theatre sector.