Lecturer and Director of The MTU Cork School of Music Youth Theatre
B.A. in Theatre Arts, MEd, PhD
Dr. Peadar Donohoe is a lecturer and director of the MTU Cork School of Music Youth Theatre. He has directed well-received productions for the school including The Bullying Prevention Circle, winner of The Best Socio-Cultural Film at The Helsinki Education Film Festival Internation (in collaboration with Cyclone Rep, The Health Service Executive (HSE), The National Lottery Good Causes initiative and The Department of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media), Cork’s World Theatre (co-production with UCC, Cyclone Rep and The German, Austrian and Swiss Embassies), Suicide Notes (in collaboration with Cyclone Rep, The Cork Mental Health Foundation and The Samaritans) Anne Frank Lockedin (filmed during the Covid lockdown by the Youth Theatre students) and September 2001 (with the participation of Alliance Francaise).
Peadar’s students have gone on to have prestigious careers in theatre, movies, TV and other media. He has directed and created plays for his students that have received rave reviews and helped to launch their careers. Chief among them are I Am Anne Frank, Marat/Sade and The Merchant of Venice (Play of the Year – Cork Examiner). Peadar always seeks to inspire his students to so that they can give passionate and riveting performances. As he often says to his students: “It’s life or death for your character’s wants and dreams, you need to bring yourself to their world and make us believe it”.
Peadar was born in Westmeath and trained at the University of Massachusetts and the Herbert Berghof Studios in New York City where he was lucky to be one of the last students admitted to train under Mr. Berghof. He has a love of theatre which has seen him receive rave reviews and awards for his acting in plays such as A Perfect Ganesh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Waiting for Lefty amongst others. He has also applied his creative talents to teaching, directing, producing, writing and the educational uses of drama.
Peadar has been highly interested in the transformative uses of Applied Drama. With both his Master’s in Education and his Doctorate he has investigated the uses of Drama and Role-play to create awareness about and to prevent bullying. He has been highly successful in this regard where his research has proven that role-play can be used to reduce bullying by more than 50%. His doctorate study was the first of its kind to use quantitative measures alongside qualitative to prove that role-play can be a highly effective anti-bullying resource. Peadar has published numerous research papers and articles on this topic which can be viewed on ResearchGate.
Peadar is also Artistic Director of Cyclone Rep which is Ireland’s most successful Theatre-in-Education company. Cyclone Rep has toured around Ireland and abroad bringing Shakespeare’s plays (King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice, etc.) to tens of thousands of students every year. His is proud that his adaptations of Shakespeare’s classics have inspired in young audiences a love and understanding of Shakespeare and desire to see more theatre. Cyclone Rep has been supported by the Arts Council and Everyman amongst others with the Heath Service Executive (HSE) supporting The Bullying Prevention Sessions.