CHRISTINE'S STORY

Everything You Need to Know

Christine is a theatre director, creative producer, voice coach and educator, with over 25 years' experience across the cultural, corporate and education sectors.

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As a director and performer, she has worked with national and international casts on a wide range of productions at home and abroad, and has directed work in New York City as well as in theatres all over Ireland. She is Artistic Director of Red Alchemy Theatre Company, Music Director of Alchemy Vox and, in 2022, joined the faculty at MTU Cork School of Music, where she directs and lectures in Acting on the BA Musical Theatre degree programme.  In her private practice, Christine has a proven track record in contributing to the success of actors and singers: her clients have played roles in Ireland's major theatres, on Broadway, and in London's West End.

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​Christine is also Director of The Sondheim Festival - the first festival to celebrate the life and work of the theatre titan, Stephen Sondheim, which she founded in 2022, and which is now an annual feature on Kilkenny’s cultural tourism calendar. This year's festival takes place from 7-8 October, 2023.

Her extensive experience in directing and training for stage provides the basis for Christine's range of Corporate Services - engagement, wellbeing, and DB&I performance & voice programmes.  The Virtual Voices programme has been successfully delivered to Women At Indeed and Glanbia, amongst others, and the Clear Speaking programme offers speaking, accent and clarity solutions to both native and non-native English speakers. Applying her clear, practical vocal and performance techniques promotes confidence and belonging in the workplace, and empowers people at all levels to become more compelling and authentic in their communication – a skill which is increasingly in demand, both on-line and in-person.

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Producing/Directing credits include: In Good Company – Liz Callaway Sings Sondheim(Watergate Theatre), Vincent – A Play by Leonard Nimoy (National Tour), Find Your Way Home (Symphony Space NYC & US Tour), Steppin’ Out (Cork Opera House), The Addams Family (The Everyman, Cork), Ritual For Dolls (Mill Theatre), Listen To My Heart (National Tour), The Lonesome West (National Tour), Assassins, Cabaret, Rent, A Little Light Music (The Helix), Light, Dark & Diverse, Michael Collins, Parade, The Full Monty, The Addams Family, Sweeney Todd (Watergate), La Bohème (Opera In The Park for Dublin City Council), Putting It Together (Pavilion Theatre), the Irish premiere of The Producers, Follies (National Opera House), West Side Story(Solstice), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Millbank), Into The Woods (Draíocht & Theatre Royal), Bugsy Malone (Olympia Theatre), Annie (Olympia & Cork Opera House), Mad About Musicals (NCH), The June Rodgers Show, Moonlight and Music with Rebecca Storm & Peter Corry (Solstice) plus almost ten years as director of the pantomime season at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. In 2024 Christine will direct The Phantom of the Opera for WLOS at the National Opera House.

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Originally an actor/singer, Christine worked professionally at theatres and concert venues all over Ireland, playing widely diverse roles in both plays and musicals, notably opposite John Barrowman and David Kernan in Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love, and with Millicent Martin, Dave Willetts and Lorna Luft in an international star cast of Sondheim's Follies at the National Concert Hall.  She frequently broadcast live concert performances for RTE, and toured Ireland and the USA in cabaret. Her tv/radio credits include The Late Late Show, The Gerry Ryan Show, Theatre Nights (all for RTE) and Friday Night Is Music Night (BBC). After an absence of almost 15 years, Christine returned to the stage in 2019, to play the role of Emsy in A New Fish at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

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Christine’s early training was in Voice and Piano at the Conservatory of Music & Drama and the Royal Irish Academy of Music; she holds a first-class MA in Theatre Studies (Directing) from Dublin City University, and a Postgraduate Distinction in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Trinity College, Dublin. She trained in Singing for Lung Health with Phoene Cave, UK, is an accredited coach at the global network of voice experts - Vocology in Practice, and continues her Vocal Health practice at The Vocal Health, London. She is a member of the British Voice Association, AOTOS, Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce and the Stephen Sondheim Society.

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Originally from Dublin, Christine lives in the heart of the beautiful medieval city of Kilkenny with her artist husband, John O’Donoghue, their gorgeous golden retriever puppy, Ziggy, and two crazy rescue cats, Dot and Clarence!