HOLDEN & ARTS ASSOCIATES

Past Tours: Secrets of Space, Penguins, Shh! We Have a Plan, Egg , Danny Carmo's Mathematical Mysteries, Nivelli's War, and Lights, Camera, Math!

Cahoots NI is at the forefront of Northern Irish theatre and is the leading professional theatre company producing work for children.  Since beginning operations in November 2001, Cahoots NI has produced original, boldly innovative work for children, some staged in conventional theatre venues and some in purpose-designed sites or specific locations, including schools and healthcare settings. Its work concentrates on combining the visual potential of theatre with the age-old popularity of magic and illusion. 
 

For more information, please visit the company’s website.

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Director - Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney

Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney is from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Cahoots.

His recent Theatre writing credits include; Penguins, Shh! We Have a Plan, Egg, Danny Carmo’s Mathematical Mysteries and The Magic Hat. In his role as Artistic Director Paul has produced and directed many productions, most recently The University of Wonder and Imagination  (International Zoom Tour 2020), The Grimm Hotel (Immersive Walk-Through Experience, Belfast 2021) and Secrets of Space (USA Tour 2022). Paul has worked extensively as an illusion consultant on many different productions, ranging from Shakespeare in the open air to Broadway musicals. As an actor, Paul was nominated for the prestigious Ian Charleson award and received a Commendation from the National Theatre for his performance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. In November 2011, The Belfast Metropolitan College honoured Paul with an Award of Distinction for his contribution to the Arts.

Puppetry Director and Maker - Helen Foan

Helen is a freelance designer, maker and director of puppetry for theatre and live performance. She trained at East 15 Acting School where she studied on the Contemporary Theatre and Acting BA (Hons).

Helen started working as a puppet maker with Blind Summit Theatre Company in 2011 where she created puppets for Le Rossignol at the Bregenz International Opera Festival and Citizen Puppet at the Edinburgh festival (fringe first award winner 2015) As a puppet maker Helen has worked with the leading designers Mervyn Millar and Tracy Waller (Significant Object)  for Circus 1903, Samuel Wyer for The Wizard of Oz, Jimmy Grimes for 101 Dalmations, Max Humphries for Dinosaur World Live, Jo Lakin and Mervyn Millar for The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Helen’s work as a designer and director of puppetry includes: Ben Crystal’s Dreame at the Ucheldre Centre, Wales; Seven Stages Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA; Passion in Practice’s Henry V at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe; Caliban and the Magick Booke at the British Library for their Shakespeare’s Birthday 2016 Celebrations; Finger in the Pies’ Moby Dick at the Greenwich Theatre. Other credits include: Puppet and set design for Barmpot Theatres’ PenguinPig; puppet design for Snark the Musical’s Hunting The Snark, Pants on Fire’s Pinocchio at (the Pleasance) Edinburgh Fringe festival.

Helen has run puppetry workshops for children, adults and professional performers in London and around the world, including New Zealand, Japan, and the USA, and teaches regularly at East 15 Acting School.

Charles Way - Writer

Charles is one of Britain’s leading writer’s for children and young people. In 2016 he was honoured by Action for Children’s Arts for his contribution to children’s theatre. Charles began writing plays professionally in 1978 when he joined Leeds Playhouse TIE team. He has now written over fifty plays, and his work is produced all over the world. ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Search for Odysseus’ were both nominated as Best Children's Play by the Writer's Guild of Great Britain and ‘A Spell of Cold Weather’ won the award in1996. His play about the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, which was first produced at the Polka Theatre was nominated as Best Children's Show by the TMA, as was ‘Nivelli’s War’ for Cahoots which transferred to Broadway in 2017. His version of ‘The Borrowers’ won the award in a production for Northern Stage directed by Erica Whyman in 2014.

He has enjoyed a close relationship with the Unicorn Theatre in London for whom he wrote ‘The Flood’ published by Collins and in 2004 ’Red Red Shoes’ which won the English Arts council’s ‘Children’s Award’. He was commissioned by the National Theatre for the ‘Assembly’ project to write ‘Alice in the News’, which has subsequently been performed by children all over Britain. In 2010 the author was the recipient of the prestigious German children’s theatre prize for ‘Missing’ about child poverty and in 2004 'Merlin and the Cave of Dreams', was nominated for a Helen Hayes award for the 'Outstanding New Play’ in Washington DC.  Recent works include ‘The Grimm Hotel’, ’Under the Hawthorn Tree’, ‘The Gift’, ‘The Assistant’s Revenge’, ‘Secrets of Space’ and’ The Vanishing Elephant’ all for Cahoots.

Sabine Dargent - Designer

Sabine Dargent works mostly in theatre, but also on film and exhibitions. She has a long standing working relationship with director Mikel Murfi, designing set and sometimes costumes for his productions at the Abbey Theatre, Druid and the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. She has also worked regularly with directors Enda Walsh (for Druid), Jim Culleton of Fishamble and Conall Morrison. She has also designed productions for Cahoots, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Siren Productions, Kabosh, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Everyman Theatre, Second Age Theatre Company, Big Telly Theatre Company, Barnstorm Theatre Company, TEAM Theatre, Blue Raincoat Theatre Company, Galloglass Theatre Company and Rex Levitates (now Liz Roche Company). For the last several years, she has designed for the Dublin St Patrick’s Festival Parade (200 costumes, props and floats). In France, she designed for TGV and was in-house design assistant to Serge Noyelle (Théâtre de Chatillon) and Antonio Diaz Florian (l’Epée de Bois).

Past Productions