Origin Theatre Company Welcomes New Artistic and Executive Leadership

Origin Theatre Company announced new leadership this week as theater producers Labhaoise Magee and Aidan Cleary, who have worked side-by-side as the partners of Fair Play Productions (a cross-Atlantic management and production company founded in 2020), are taking the helm at Origin – with Magee as artistic director and Cleary as executive director. 

Founded in 2002 by George C. Heslin, Origin has given many European writers, especially Irish playwrights, their first exposure in the States. Heslin launched Origin with a production of Enda Walsh's searingly funny drama “Misterman,” giving the boldly inventive Tony Award-winning playwright ("Once," "The Walworth Farce," "Lazarus") his US debut. 

Heslin served as Origin's artistic director until 2020 when he became the executive director of the NY Irish Center.  The actor Mick Mellamphy served as Origin's artistic director from 2023 to 2025. He and the actor Sarah Street co-curated the Festival in virtual editions 2021 and 2022. 

“For Origin's 24th season, we are planning a retrospective look at our roots with the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival,” says Magee, the new artistic director, about the upcoming festival set to run in June. According to Magee, “This festival will celebrate Origin's history as a leader in premiering new Irish plays. While we honor Origin's past this year, we will be laying the groundwork for Origin's 25th anniversary season, where we plan to introduce New York to a new generation of contemporary Irish writers on both sides of the Atlantic who, like Origin itself, stand on the shoulders of Ireland's great contemporary playwrights."

 “The inter-dependence, and mutual exchange between Ireland and America has been on-going for two centuries now,” says Magee.  “Today, with both cultures in flux, we want that relationship to expand.  We want to be more than a landing place for Irish productions. By seeding sister relationships between New York and Ireland, we will be a launch pad.”

Some of the companies that have landed productions in the Origin 1st Irish include Fishamble: The New Play Company, The Abbey Theatre, About Face, The Lyric Belfast, Kabosh, The Wexford Arts Center, and Big Telly. Local companies and artists include Irish Repertory Theater, Irish Arts Center, An Beal Bocht, the cell, the Drilling Company, Fair Play Productions, Philadelphia's Inis Nua and Tiny Dynamite, and Solas Nua in Washington DC.  The Festival launched New York debuts for Larry Kirwan's Tony Award nominated musical “Paradise Square,” Laoisa Sexton's acclaimed “For Love,” and Enda Walsh's "Disco Pigs."

“We plan to deepen the community Origin has established blending artists and companies from both sides of the Atlantic by expanding Irishness beyond traditional notions of birthplace or religion,” Cleary, the new executive director, states. “We are focused on developing a community that shares quintessential Irish values like conflict resolution, human rights advocacy, and unending humor, and we will do our part to help build a more hopeful New York in pursuing those values.”  Cleary, an entertainment attorney with the Bartos Group LLC, is also a seasoned producer and manager who previously worked on the Broadway productions of "Company," "The Book of Mormon," "Leopoldstadt," and "Death of a Salesman" at TT Partners, and managed labor relations at The Metropolitan Opera.

The Derry-born Magee, for her part, has worked in many production capacities for shows at The Shed, Lincoln Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Vineyard Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Irish Repertory Theatre, Daryl Roth Theatre and Mercury Store. Her international work includes National Theatre (London), Blue Elephant Theatre (London), and White Horse Theatre (Germany).

Through their jointly owned Fair Play Productions, the Cleary and Magee team most recently produced the award-winning “No One Is Coming” by Sinéad O'Brien, which toured internationally and played Off-Broadway (including the Origin 1st Irish Festival last April).

The 2026 Origin 1st Irish Festival (the 18th annual) celebrating the first quarter century of Origin will take place from June 15 to 29, in New York venues to be announced. In 2027, Origin will celebrate its 25th anniversary.