General Manager
John Breen is a playwright and director now based in New York. John Breen was the artistic director of Second Age Theatre Company in Dublin until April of 2014. Previously he was the artistic director of TEAM Theatre and Yew Theatre Productions in Mayo, a post he held for ten years.
Breakdown, an Opera he wrote with composer Andrew Synnott, was performed at the National Concert Hall, Dublin in January 2015.
John is best known as the writer/ director of the hit play Alone it Stands, which tells the story of Munster’s victory over the All Blacks in 1978. John was awarded the Irish Times/ESB Theatre Award in February 2000 for Best Director for his direction of Alone it Stands. Alone it Stands was performed in Ireland, the UK, Australia, France, Malaysia, New Zealand and in Tasmania. It is estimated that two hundred and sixty thousand people worldwide have seen the play.
Other directing work includes Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness for Island Theatre Company Limerick, The Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard, Galileo by Berthold Brecht, Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and The Pillars of Society by Henrik Ibsen. All were performed at the City Arts Centre, Dublin.
For Yew Tree John directed Alone it Stands by John Breen, Big Maggie by John B. Keane, Grand by Max Hafler, Charlie by John Breen, Village Wooing by George Bernard Shaw, The Playboy of the Western World by JM Synge, Mrs Warren’s Profession by G. Bernard Shaw, Sarah’s Comfort by Niamh Mc Grath, Fr Mathew by Sean McCarthy, and The Magic Boy by John Breen. John’s play Falling out of Love was directed by Mikel Murfi for Yew Tree in 2007.
For TEAM John directed Devotion by Leo Butler, Skin and Blisters by Audrey O Reilly, Light Signals by Paul Meade, Doughnuts by Eoin Byrne, and Sherbet and Tiffin by Pauline Shanahan. Most recently John directed Othello for Second Age
Alone it Stands had it’s US premiere in New York at 59E59 Theaters in January, 2019.