TEAM

LABHAOISE MAGEE, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Labhaoise Magee (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate theatre artist from Derry, Ireland. She currently serves as Producing Artistic Director of Origin Theatre Company. Her directing credits with Origin include Enda Walsh’s Misterman, Sinéad O’Brien’s No One Is Coming, and Sean Gormley’s The Double Bass. Her recent freelance producing and general management credits include Emmy and Grammy winner David Javerbaum’s The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay. (Triad Theater), Bill Schaumberg’s Three Chickens Confront Existence (Wolk Transfer Group), and Anne Nelson’s Third Reich of Dreams (The Tank). She is co-founder of Fair Play Productions, a transatlantic theatrical production and management company supporting artists and producers working between the United States and Europe.

Labhaoise’s various production credits include projects with The Shed (The Black Mirror Experience, The Other Place, Viola’s Room, Sonic Sphere); The Kennedy Center (A Harlem Dream); Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (The Bacchae); Cherry Lane Theatre/A24; Vineyard Theatre (The Wind and the Rain); Playwrights Horizons; New York Theatre Workshop (Tartuffe); Daryl Roth Theatre (Titanique, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Is There Still Sex in the City?, Hyprov, Blindness); and the National Theatre, London, among others. As an actor, Labhaoise has appeared in Jay Craven’s feature film Wetware, the BBC Northern Ireland series 6Degrees, and acclaimed stage productions of Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl and Jaki McCarrick’s Belfast Girls with Irish Repertory Theatre. She studied Literature at both Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Cambridge.

AIDAN CLEARY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Aidan Cleary (he/him) is a producer and entertainment attorney. He currently serves as Executive Director of Origin Theatre Company and as an entertainment attorney at The Bartos Group, LLC. He previously served as Manager of Labor Relations at The Metropolitan Opera and on the general management team at Thompson Turner Productions, working on numerous Tony Award-winning Broadway productions including Leopoldstadt, Death of a Salesman, The Book of Mormon, and Company, as well as the national tour of Mean Girls. He is co-founder of Fair Play Productions, a transatlantic production company supporting artists and projects working between the United States and Europe. Outside of theatre, Aidan is an ice hockey enthusiast and co-founder of Team Trans, the first all-transgender/non-binary ice hockey team in the United States. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

S.J. DE MATTEO, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
S.J. de Matteo (she/they) is a transsexual wit and occasional cultural worker. She currently serves as Associate Producer of Origin Theatre Company. She previously served as Associate Director of the Obie Award-winning Mint Theater Company, where she worked on Teresa Deevy’s The Suitcase Under the Bed, Miles Malleson’s Conflict, and Micheál Mac Liammóir’s The Mountains Look Different (all New York Times Critics’ Picks). She has produced and curated original events with NYFA, DCLA, the Tribeca Festival, Irish Arts Center, and Irish American Writers & Artists, among others. She has been a script reader for WP Theater, The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and Vineyard Theatre. A former Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, in 2022 she was named an EU-US Young Leader by the German Marshall Fund. S.J. holds degrees from Yale University, Trinity College Dublin, and Sarah Lawrence College. She is haunted by the specter of a 20th-century Irish woman named Tessa.

LINDA VIALA, BUSINESS MANAGER
Linda Viala (she/her) is a business consultant and financial services administrator. She currently serves as Business Manager for Origin Theatre Company and Director of Accounting for the New York Irish Center, a vibrant hub for Irish and Irish-American culture, community, and social services in Long Island City, Queens. From 2004 through 2021, she served as Controller of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the oldest drama school in the United States. She previously held financial and administrative positions with Business Solutions Partners, Signature Group, and Don McDonald & Sons. A native New Yorker, Viala was born and raised in Jamaica, Queens. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from American InterContinental University.

SARAH STREET, DIRECTOR OF SCÉAL NUA
Sarah Street (she/her) is an actor, writer, and producer from Cork, Ireland. She currently serves as Founder and Director of the Scéal Nua International Playwrights Lab. Since 2017, she has been a company member of Irish Repertory Theatre, where her credits include Molly McSweeney, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, The Weir, and Aristocrats, among others. Her other stage credits include productions with Irish Arts Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Lyric Theatre Belfast, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sarah is a co-founder of The Pond Theatre Company, where she produced and starred in acclaimed productions of Jaki McCarrick’s The Naturalists, Torben Betts’ Muswell Hill, and Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party (New York Times Critic’s Pick). As a playwright, she co-authored Building Pain, a multi-author project commissioned and produced by Origin Theatre Company, in association with Shea Delves Productions, in a site-specific production above Bloom’s Tavern.

GEORGE C. HESLIN, FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EMERITUS

George C. Heslin (he/him) is a theatre artist and arts & culture executive from Limerick, Ireland. He is the founding Artistic Director of Origin Theatre Company, which he led for nineteen years. Since 2020, he has served as Executive Director of the New York Irish Center. In 2008, he founded Origin's 1st Irish Festival, a citywide celebration of Irish theatre that has presented the work of more than 300 playwrights and partnered with over 80 organizations internationally. In 2018, he launched New York's European Month of Culture in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and 28 European consulates across New York City. George has directed more than 100 productions at venues throughout the United States, Ireland, and Europe. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin's Samuel Beckett Centre, The Abbey Theatre Directors Program, and HB Studio where he studied under the late Uta Hagen. His honors include Irish America's Global 100, the CUNY Award for Cultural Excellence, and a Distinguished Service Award from the New York City Council.