Niamh is the newest member of the Theater Na de Dam team, joining as the Project Management Assistant and Marketing & Communications Coordinator for Theatre of Remembrance.

Read on to learn more about Niamh and her plans for her role.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background / previous experience before joining our company?

From 2022 – 2025, I worked at the National Theatre in the UK as an Administrator and Project Coordinator for Public Acts, the NT’s flagship community theatre programme. In 2023, Public Acts staged a modernised, episodic retelling of Homer’s Odyssey which was performed across the UK by an 160-person community company. The composition of the community company was centred around representing the breadth of the diverse communities within the UK, and working to remove any barriers to participation. After the fifth and final episode of the Odyssey was performed in August 2023, I shifted into working on Public Acts in a freelance capacity, capturing the impact and legacy of the Odyssey project, as well as supporting the team to prepare for the next production in Sunderland.

How did you come into this field of work?

I have always had an interest in theatre, whether that was participating in school plays or going to watch productions at local theatres. This interest was consolidated at university where I had the opportunity to be involved with 27 student productions variously as a writer, director, producer and performer. I fell in love with the process of putting a show together, especially tackling the creative as well as practical challenges which arise and I haven’t looked back since!

What attracted you to this role / our organisation in particular?

I am innately drawn to work which uses theatre as a tool for social change, particularly with an intergenerational scope. When I happened upon the vacancy at Theater Na de Dam, I was really excited by the opportunity to collaborate with a range of European partners. I was also drawn to the emphasis on using historical remembrance as a tool to maintain a dialogue between the past and the present.

What are some things you are looking forward to working on?

I am excited to support our European theatre partners to stage their shows on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27^th January). I am also looking forward to working on our upcoming conference in Brussels in May and having a platform to discuss using theatre as a tool for non-formal education of European youngsters about the Holocaust.

What do you think will be your biggest challenge, and how do you plan to tackle it?

A constant challenge is capturing and communicating the impact of the work. While the impact is so discernible when watching the performances on 27^th January or hearing the level of detail and care that our partner organisations take in devising their concepts for shows, conveying this impact to the wider world can feel like lightning in a bottle. To tackle this, it is integral to seize as many moments as possible to hear directly from our youngsters, elderly participants and audience members. Whether it’s ensuring all of our participants complete our impact survey or organising engaging activities for our virtual community of youngsters, we need to continuously create opportunities for people to meaningfully engage with Theatre of Remembrance.

How do you collaborate across different teams or with external partners / stakeholders?

Effective collaboration with different teams and external partners/stakeholders is all about mutual respect, empathy and clear lines of communication. An important facet of my job is giving our partners the tools that they need to be able to mount their shows and being responsive and adaptable where necessary. It’s also all about acknowledging the different demands on people’s time and giving them ample lead-in and support to produce the best work possible.

What values do you believe are most important in your work?

Openness is the value I try to centre in my work. Whether that’s openness to a new way of approaching a situation, to discussions, or to reconfiguring timelines, I try to avoid saying no without offering up an alternative idea or a considered justification for my thinking. 

Is there a fun / unusual fact about you that we might not guess?

I am human Shazam – play me the first chords of any popular song and I’ll usually be able to guess it. I’m especially good with The Beatles…

Where do you see yourself in, say, a year in this role? What impact do you hope to have made?

After a year in this role, I hope to be able to reflect on a successful series of performances on International Holocaust Memorial Day, as well as productive and engaging discussions at the EU Conference.

Above all, I hope that our partners and stakeholders feel that they have had a meaningful engagement with Theatre of Remembrance and for us to have captured their brilliant contributions!