Annie Ryan is a multi-award-winning theatre director currently expanding her work to screen.
Trained in acting and improvisation at the Chicago’s famed Piven Theatre Workshop, she performed in theatre and film as a teenager.
After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she moved to Dublin and founded her company, The Corn Exchange in 1995, where she built an internationally celebrated repertoire of original works and re-imaginings of iconic texts in collaboration with her dynamic ensemble company. The work has been described as ‘razor-sharp’ (Irish Times), ‘courageously feminist’ (Guardian), ‘tireless, passionate and exact’ (New York Times).
Annie shadowed director Lenny Abrahamson on Sally Rooney’s Normal People for Hulu/BBC and won an Arts Council Bursary in Film in 2020, which supported her to experiment in the form towards developing a range of new works for film.
She is currently in development with Wildcat Pictures to bring Louise Kennedy’s award-winning collection, The End of the World is A Cul de Sac to screen as an anthology film, comprising some of Ireland’s most exciting female filmmakers.
Her short-short film You Do Not Have to Be Good, starring Simone Collins and Gill Buckle, premiered in the Chicago Irish Film Festival 2024.
Directing for Corn Exchange includes Dubliners by James Joyce, adapted by Michael West and Annie Ryan. A new, contemporary version, co-produced by Smock Alley June 2022; a co-production with Dublin Theatre Festival 2012, Gaiety Theatre; The Fall of the Second Republic by Michael West and Annie Ryan. An original ensemble work co-produced by the Abbey Theatre, March 2020; The Misfits by Arthur Miller, reimagined for the stage and directed by Annie Ryan, Dublin Theatre Festival, October 2018; Dublin By Lamplight by Michael West in collaboration with the company. Revival of internationally acclaimed production, Abbey Theatre, March 2017; Project Arts Centre, Nov 2004; Traverse, Edinburgh Fringe 2005; Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania and UK tour 2007.
Freelance directing work for theatre includes The White Devil by John Webster, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe; Fool For Love by Sam Shepard, Abbey Theatre; Come and Go by Samuel Beckett, Gate Theatre and Barbican.
Other Corn Exchange work includes:
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, a new version by Michael West and Annie Ryan. Gaiety Theatre, in co-production with Dublin Theatre Festival 2016; Through A Glass Darkly by Ingmar Bergman, adapted by Jenny Warton, Project Arts Centre 2015; A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, adapted for the stage and directed by Annie Ryan, starring Aoife Duffin. Dublin Theatre Festival 2014; Irish and UK tour including six week run at Young Vic, London and Baryshnikov Arts Centre, NYC 2016; Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill, Smock Alley, Dublin Theatre Festival 2013; Man of Valour by Michael West, Annie Ryan and Paul Reid. Cork Midsummer Festival; Traverse, Edinburgh Fringe; Dublin Fringe 2011 and tour to Project; Dublin and Irish tour 2013; Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. Project Arts Centre, Nov 2010. Winner of Best Lighting Design, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2010; Freefall by Michael West in collaboration with the company. Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 and Abbey Theatre, Dublin; tour to Germany, Edinburgh, Mexico 2010; Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Dublin Theatre Festival 2008; Everyday by Michael West in collaboration with the company, Dublin Theatre Festival and Irish tour 2006; Mud by Maria Irene Fornes, Project Arts Centre, September 2003; Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov adapted by Michael West, starring Ruth Negga. Co-production with Abbey Theatre, Peacock, September 2002; Foley by Michael West. Unfringed Festival 2000; Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick and Dublin Fringe Festival 2000; Irish Tour; Traverse, Edinburgh Fringe and Hamstead Theatre 2001; US Tour 2003; Car Show (4 plays in 4 cars) conceived by Annie Ryan. Dublin Fringe 1998; Irish and UK tour 2000; The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, translated by Michael West. Project, Spring 1999;
Corn Exchange award highlights include:
Winner of Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, Scotsman Fringe First, The Stage Acting Award 2015 for A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, adapted for the stage and directed by Annie Ryan. Aoife Duffin nominated Best Emerging Talent, Evening Standard Awards and Best Actress, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2016;
Nominated Best Director for Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2014;
Winner of Best Director and Best Play, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2009 for Freefall by Michael West in collaboration with the company;
Winner of Best Ensemble,The Stage, Edinburgh 2005 for Dublin By Lamplight by Michael West in collaboration with the company and nominated Best Ensemble, Irish Times Theatre Awards 2017.
