Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy
1945 -
Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy was born in Co Derry. She was a founder member and resident director of the Focus Theatre, Dublin, from 1975 to 1983. During that time she wrote and directed for the company Daughters (Dublin Theatre Festival 1975), Alice in Wonderland, The Golden Goose, Enter the Photographer and Curigh the Shapeshifter (Dublin Theatre Festival 1980). In 1981, she wrote The Wind of the Word for Team Theatre Company. In 1993, she wrote and directed The Parrot (Dublin Theatre Festival). In 1984, she was commissioned by the Cork Theatre Company to write Women in Arms, for which she was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn award. This was followed by Uncle Silas (adapted from the novel by Sheridan Le Fanu). She was also the founder and artistic director of Storytellers Theatre Company, and has served on the Arts Council. Mary Elizabeth teaches in the TISCH Dublin Summer Program for NYU, and on the Drama Studies post-graduate degree courses in UCD and in NUIG.