Strollers Touring Network - PROPEL 2025

24 June 2025

Ultan Pringle announced as Recipient of the Strollers Network Propel Programme Award 2025

Following an open call application process the Strollers Network is delighted to announce Ultan Pringle as the recipient of the PROPEL Programme Award 2025.

The PROPEL Award will support Ultan and LemonSoap Productions across the next three years to enact a slate of ambitious development work on new plays and musicals.

ABOUT Ultan:

Ultan Pringle is an actor and writer from Donegal. He is a graduate with first class honours of Trinity College Dublin. He is a founding member of LemonSoap Productions with whom he has written and acted in various productions including Marmalade Row, It Is Good We Are Dreaming, Piglet and the audio series Fruit starring Aidan Gillen, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Linda Martin, PJ Kirby, Marion O’Dwyer and Michael Fry. His five star hit play Boyfriends, funded by The Arts Council Of Ireland, ran for three weeks in June and July 2024 and will tour to eight venues around Ireland in late 2025. His audio drama Pistachio starred three time Oscar nominee and Hollywood legend Piper Laurie. He wrote the script for and directed the middle ages immaculate conception musical Beards by HK Ní Shiordáin at The New Theatre in 2024. He wrote a piece for the 2024 24Hour Plays at the Abbey Theatre and was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2022.

Ultan’s work as an actor includes Falling For The Life Of Alex Whelan on RTÉ Two and for Dublin Fringe Festival, The Julius Caesar Variety Show by Joy Nesbitt. Ultan is the current Artist in Residence at An Grianán Theatre and he was named as One To Watch for 2025 by the Irish Times.

"The PROPEL Award at this time feels like a lifeline. A chance to realise a development slate, to bring ambitious collaborators together and to be afforded to dream, create and evolve alongside one another. I couldn’t be more chuffed and over the moon and deeply indebted to the Strollers Network. I can’t wait to work on a new soap opera farce, a musical about a baby growing in the womb, a horror drama about academia and a play about an older lady who begins to lose her mind in a bingo hall!" - Ultan Pringle

More About PROPEL

PROPEL is a three year-long artist development and mentorship programme designed and produced by the Strollers Network, a partnership of ten arts centres from across Ireland. The aim of the 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.

More About The Strollers Network

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: Clare Monnelly (2024), 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.

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