ABOUT
Ciarán is a professional Lighting and Set Designer with over twenty five years experience in theatre design. He is based in Belfast, and as well as being a freelance Lighting and Set Designer, he is the Creative Director of Prime Cut Productions.
After training at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff he became a full time member of the Lighting Department at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. At the Haymarket, Ciaran designed the Lighting for productions such as Excavate, The Crane (RedEarth Theatre Company), Contaminated Candy, Stolen, The Cripple of Inishmann, Bollywood Jane, Bed, Mine, Love in the 21st Century, The Leicester Comedy Festival 2003, Othello, Safe Passage, Oedipus the King, Winters Sun, Heroes, The Threepenny Opera, Roses of Eyam, Sugar and Slugs, and Divided We Stand.
On his departure from the Leicester Haymarket in 2003, Ciarán became a freelance designer in London where he was based for five years. He has since returned home to Ireland and continues to work both nationally and internationally.
AWARDS
In 2018 Ciarán was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff for his contribution to UK Theatre.
His work has been chosen to represent Ireland at the International Festival of Performance Design, the Prague Quadrennial, for two consecutive Festivals.
Ciarán has been awarded an Honorary Membership of the Chinese Institute of Stage Design for his dedication to International Design.
He was awarded Best Set Design at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2017 for his designs on “RED” at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and “The Great Gatsby” at The Gate Theatre, Dublin. Both productions were also nominated for Best Lighting Design.
In 2016 he won Best Design at the MEN Manchester Theatre Awards for his Set & Lighting Design on the UK Tour of “Singin’ in the Rain”. He also won the same award for his Set, Lighting and Costume Design on “Oleanna” at The Octagon Theatre, Bolton in 2009.
“Then came Oleanna, a punishing two-hander intensified by the cage-like setting of a stark minimalist office, changing mirror backdrop and ingenious lighting - perfect for the destruction poised to unfold, and for our winner.”
He was awarded Best Lighting Design at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2014 for his Lighting Design on “Pentecost” at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
In 2011 his Lighting Design for Tinderbox Theatre Company’s “Guidelines for a long and happy life” in an old printing factory in East Belfast was nominated for the Best Lighting Design at the Irish Times Theatre Awards.
His Set & Lighting Design for “Of Mice & Men” at The Octagon Theatre, Bolton in 2013 was nominated for Best Design at the MEN Manchester Theatre Awards. He was also nominated for the same award for “Secret Thoughts” also at The Octagon Theatre in Bolton in 2011.
In 2015 he was the first ever designer to design both the Lighting AND Set Design for a major production at the RSC for Iqbal Khan’s ground breaking “Othello”.
“There’s a stunning, palatial set design, complete with a gondola and stretch of water for the opening Venetian scenes.”
Also in 2015 his designs for “Tejas Verdes” were selected to be included in a Highlights of Irish Theatre Design 2007-2014 publication and exhibition ran by the Irish Theatre Institute in Dublin.
PRESS
