The Institute is proud to announce Michael John O’Neill as the IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow for 2025, a residency that will see him research and develop a new play for the Traverse Theatre, exploring the painful experience of losing someone to far-right ideologies. O’Neill’s Fellowship is the result of the Traverse’s continued partnership with IASH, which has run since 2010. Playwrights including Isla Cowan, Linda McLean, Peter Arnott and Apphia Campbell have been in residence over the past 15 years.
Michael is a playwright, dramaturg, and theatre producer from the north coast of Ireland. In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Bruntwood Prize for Original New Voice for his play Akedah. His second play, This is Paradise, was staged at the Traverse Theatre during the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it received five-star reviews and won the Popcorn Writing Award.
Professor Lesley McAra, IASH Director, said:
"We are excited to be hosting Michael John O'Neill as the 2025 IASH-Traverse Creative Fellow. The Traverse has been a key part of our work since 2010, with fifteen playwrights-in-residence producing pieces such as Jo Clifford's The Tree of Knowledge and Frances Poet's Still. Michael's state-of-the-nation drama about conspiracy theories, inequality and hope offers a fearless look at some of the most pressing issues facing our society today."
Michael John O’Neill said:
“I am truly honoured to be selected as the next Creative Fellow in IASH and Traverse Theatre’s esteemed residency programme. The alumni of this fellowship are each and every one artists I deeply admire. I am excited to use my time at IASH to create a work that is both meaningful and ambitious, and that contributes to the rich tradition of artistic excellence that this fellowship upholds.”
The Traverse Theatre has also announced the appointment of three more creative talents for the coming year: Bryony Shanahan as Associate Artist, Adrian Hon as Associate Artist, and Emma Dorfman as a collaborative doctoral award PhD student with the University of Edinburgh, to explore the past, present and future of digitally mediated theatre. Read more here.