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On the 21st of June 2007 we were delighted to have Fergus Linehan as our guest speaker at our Members' Night. The event was attended by over 140 members and was held at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Fergus Linehan is Festival Director and Chief Executive of Sydney Festival. 2008 is his third year at Sydney Festival. Fergus has also introduced new free events to the Festival including the annual EnergyAustralia Family Events at Darling Harbour, and in 2008, an opening night party on a grand scale - Festival First Night. Fergus is currently a member of two advocacy groups, Sydney First and the Committee for Sydney, as well as an Ambassador for Sydney Swans.
Fergus was born and grew up in Dublin. His family has extensive links to the Irish arts community, with his father a playwright and his mother Rosaleen a respected actor and comedienne. His brother Conor is a concert pianist and composer, and brother Hugh, a journalist and broadcaster.
Fergus began working at Gate Theatre in Dublin when he was 14 and subsequently worked in all of Dublin's major venues. When at Dublin's University College he founded Pigsback Theatre Company (renamed Fishamble Theatre Company), of which he was director until 1990 when he moved to Tivoli Theatre as General Manager.
In 1993 Fergus moved to Dublin Theatre Festival as General Manager. In 1995, along with Bedrock Theatre Company, he founded Dublin Fringe Festival, which went on to forge its own unique and very successful identity. In 1997 Fergus was named Deputy Director of Dublin Theatre Festival and became actively involved in programming. In particular, he was responsible for the Festival presentation of Druid Theatre Company's The Leenane Trilogy by Martin McDonagh and Company B's Cloudstreet.
He became Director of Dublin Theatre Festival in 2000. Fergus also founded Dublin Theatre Festival Productions, whose inaugural project, Enda Walsh's Bedbound, subsequently played Edinburgh Festival, The Royal Court in London and Festival of European Writing in Bonn, Germany. The following years saw the first visits to Ireland of work by artists such as Robert Wilson and Peter Brook, and new works by Irish writers including Brian Friel and Roddy Doyle. In 2003, Dublin Theatre Festival Productions co-produced Giselle, a major new dance work by Irish director Michael Keegan Dolan, which toured internationally.
As well as his work at Dublin Theatre Festival, Fergus was a board member of Theatre Forum, sat on the advisory council of The Abbey Theatre and was acting Chair of Theatreshop, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Irish performing arts abroad. Fergus has served on numerous evaluation panels both within Ireland and internationally including the European Union Culture performing arts section and Rolex Foundation's Arts Mentor program.
Fergus was highly entertaining and another great night was had by members at the Four Seasons Hotel.
