Wexford Arts Centre in partnership with the Arts Office, Wexford County Council and Fishamble: The New Play Company are delighted to to announce the participants chosen for the Wexford Playwrights Studio for 2026. There were a significant number of high quality applications from emerging to established playwrights in Wexford but only four potential playwrights could be chosen for the programme. The successful applicants chosen are Heidi Bowe, Amanda Farley, Jack Matthews and Oonagh Wall. Congratulations to them all. These playwrights will develop their scripts over the coming months with Gavin Kostick, Literary Manager for Fishamble: The New Play Company. It is hoped that stage readings of their work then may be produced in early 2027 with further hope of their work being considered for full production with other producers and production companies at a later stage.
Elizabeth Whyte, Executive Director of Wexford Arts Centre noted the high level of playwrighting talent in Wexford due to high number of quality applications and the ongoing need for support for development and production of new plays in the county. “We are delighted to partner with Fishamble: The New Play Company on the mentorship for the studio playwrights this year. We look forward to seeing the plays develop as part of studio programme over the year.” The programme is also supported by the Arts Council.
Gavin Kostick, Literary Manager for Fishamble: The New Play Company, Mentor for Wexford Playwrights Studio 2026
Gavin Kostick is a playwright, literary manager and independent dramaturg. His works have been produced nationally and internationally. Favourite works for Fishamble include The Ash Fire, The Flesh Addict, The End of The Road and Invitation to a Journey (with CoisCeim and Crash Ensemble). The Leap is Gavin’s first play for children.
Further works include This is What We Sang for Kabosh, Fight Night, The Games People Play and At the Ford for Rise Productions and Gym Swim Party with Danielle Galligan in co-production with the O’Reilly Theatre. He wrote the libretto for the opera The Alma Fetish composed by Raymond Deane, performed at the National Concert Hall. As a performer he performed Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: Complete, a six hour show for Absolut Fringe, Dublin Theatre Festival and the London Festival of Literature at the Southbank.
Gavin is currently the literary manager of Fishamble: The New Play Company, a tutor in playwriting and dramaturgy in both The Lir Academy and Trinity College Dublin as well as being a core mentor on the Tenderfoot Transition Year programme for young writers at the Civic Theatre.
Particular favourite projects that Gavin has initiated and delivered with Fishamble include Show in a Bag (with Dublin Fringe and The Irish Theatre Institute), The New Play Clinic, The Dublin Fringe New Writing Award, Tiny Plays for Ireland and A Play for Ireland.
Both for Fishamble, and as an independent dramaturg, Gavin’s projects and works he has supported have gained significant national and international award recognition including amongst others Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, BBC Stewart Parker Trust, Zebbie Awards, Dublin Fringe Awards, Business to Arts, Olivier, Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Angel and Archangel and New York Critics’ Pick.
His own plays have also received similar national and international award recognition. Gavin has recently completed a new version of The Odyssey, supported by Kilkenny Arts Festival, Classics Now.
Wexford Playwrights Studio 2026
Playwrights
Heidi Bowe
Heidi is a 20 year old student studying English at Trinity College. Heidi has been involved with theatre since 2019, acting in County Wexford Youth Theatre during secondary school and then joining DU Players in college. During her time at County Wexford Youth Theatre she contributed her writing to original scripts and has continued to do the same in college. She also founded Wexford Youth Literary Society to encourage literacy among teenagers. Alongside this, she has experience in film, which started as body doubling for Sophia Lilis in “Gretel and Hansel” (2018). This began an interest in film and script writing that she has maintained this interest into college. Heidi produced the film “Envy” with Bare Cheek Productions in 2023, which won numerous awards, including a jury selection for Milan Film Festival. She also started a production company in college called “Ratcatcher Productions”. Their film “Heavy Focus” won the Trinity Film Society 48-hour film competition and was subsequently shown at the Lighthouse Cinema as part of the Dublin University Film Festival. The film was written by me and is available on YouTube.
Heidi will develop her script “For We, in ur Youth”, about two teenage characters, Cecilia and Julien who discover the edge of their stage and must decide whether or not they are willing to step over it. As the play develops, Cecilia’s awareness of a world beyond the stage grows, and she calls out to the audience directly. While initially, Julien seems like a kindred spirit, willing to leave the parameters of the known, she grows to realize that she may have to leave him behind.
Amanda Farley
Amanda is a writer and Script Editor with over a decade of experience working across BBC and RTÉ, supporting writers in shaping original stories for screen. Her career to date has been rooted in the craft of storytelling—reading, developing and refining scripts, and working closely with writers to bring projects to life. Her background is in theatre and performance, and storytelling has always been at the centre of her work. In recent years, she returned home to Wexford. Prior experience includes taking part in the Soho Theatre Artist Development Programme, focusing on character comedy and ending with a live performance. She developed original writing through RADA-led workshops and rehearsed readings with professional actors under the guidance of writer Tom Hunsinger. Amanda performed in London comedy and theatre venues including sketch, long-form improv and live character performance. Amanda wrote and performed an original radio comedy sketch show as part of CityLitTV and Radio Comedy course with Chris Head. Amanda’s work performed in London comedy and theatre venues, included sketch, long-form improv and live character performance. Amanda also has extensive experience providing dramaturgical and editorial feedback, shaping story, structure and character across a wide range of scripts.
Amanda will develop her script for her play set in a rural Irish farmhouse, exploring, belonging, inheritance and the emotional weight of home against the changing priorities of modern Ireland.
Rachel, a successful lawyer living in London, returns to her family farm in Wexford with her English fiancé, Danny. What begins as a short visit quickly becomes a confrontation between past and future, as Rachel is forced to navigate the tensions between her life away and the expectations that still bind her to home. Her father, Henry, a lifelong farmer deeply rooted in the land, embodies a way of life that feels both enduring and increasingly fragile. As pressures mount—financial, emotional and generational—Rachel must decide whether to sell the land that has defined her family for generations, or to remain tied to a place where she is no longer sure she belongs. Danny, eager to move forward and motivated by opportunity, becomes both catalyst and complication, exposing the unspoken assumptions and values that underpin each relationship.
Jack Matthews
Jack is a Wexford playwright, poet, actor and secondary school teacher of History and English who trained in Theatre Studies in Inchicore College. Last year his first-full length play ‘The Unkillable Irishman’ supported by the ArtsLinks sold out for a week long run in Wexford Arts Centre. Subsequently the play will be revived in a new production in October 2026 by St. Michael’s Theatre in the international Eugene O’Neill Festival.
His play ‘Revenge’ was performed in Wexford Arts Centre as part of the inaugural One Voice Festival and went on to be performed in the Wexford Spiegeltent Festival and a recording of the production featured in the Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival 2022 New York. Two other of his original works appeared in the subsequent One Voice Festivals including ‘The Pen’ and ‘Batsahn’. Jack was a participant in the first Wexford Playwright’s Studio in 2020/21. His first one-act play ‘Cans’ was shortlisted for the Billy Roche International award in the Wexford Literary Festival 2020 and ‘Sausage Rolls’ the following year.
He scripted the Heritage Park Digital series for the Irish National Heritage Park which was used on RTE.ie as well as the ‘Viqueen Saga’ for Crinniu na nÓg. His poem ‘Bloody Sunday 1920’ in association with Crannog Media was archived in the Croke Park Museum and was read out on Mid-West Radio before the start of the Nicky Rackard Cup Final to commemorate the centenary of Bloody Sunday. ‘The Battle of Corish Park’ was recorded and aired by South-East Radio and ‘You Nurses’ was published by the Irish Mirror Online.
Jack will develop a script he had in the One Voice Festival called ‘Batsahn’ into a full production script. This was a short one-man act that dealt with themes of injustice, abuse, vigilantes and hurling. His vision is to expand upon the initial script to create a full length script with three actors playing multiple parts. The play deals with contemporary issues and is very much rooted in many sentiments in Ireland today- particularly the anger that seems to be bubbling under the surface in many quiet circles but is slowly showing its head in many walks of life.
Oonagh Wall
Oonagh is an emerging Creative Producer and Playwright from Enniscorthy. She co-founded Anseo Anois Theatre in 2019 and her debut play Paler, Still was produced in Smock Alley by the company in 2022. A 40 minute work-in-progress of her new play Keeping Vigil was presented as part of the Clonmel Junction Arts Festival in 2025 to a sold-out audience. The play was also selected as part of Show and Tell, a pitching session to international delegates organised by Culture Ireland, Irish Theatre Institute and Dublin Fringe Festival.
Oonagh will develop her script Keeping Vigil as a three-hander play about three old friends reuniting in their hometown for a funeral to stay awake overnight and keep vigil over the body. The play is a comedy that delves into the grieving process and ultimately explores memory, the ownership of grief, and the different ways in which people process that grief. A work-in-progress was presented as part of CJAF in 2025 and was described by audiences as “wonderfully witty” and “thought-provoking”.
