New artistic director named for Barnstorm Theatre Company in Kilkenny

Janice De Bróithe will take up the role of artistic director at Barnstorm Theatre Company next month.

Energetic and enthusiastic Janice is passionate about theatre and especially theatre for young audiences.

“Kids are so brutally honest, that is why theatre for young audiences can be hard to make but it is a joyous process,” she said.
Janice’s love of theatre started from a young age and as a youngster she was involved in the Spotlight Stage School and Carlow Youth Theatre.

Performance and the arts is in her blood and her father, Tom Brophy was a founder member of Dolmen Musical Society in Carlow.

“I was following him around from the age of three or four to various shows and rehearsals.”

As a teenager Janice realised that she could use her passion and turn it into a profession and this was a turning point for her.

“I remember Noline Kavanagh, she was involved in Carlow Youth Theatre and went on to be the director of Macnas for 12 years, she said you can do this for a living and I was amazed.

“In the youth theatre we did a lot of street theatre, juggling and stilt walking, I knew that I had found my tribe.”
Janice went to University College Cork where she studied Drama & Theatre Studies and also has a postgraduate diploma in Theatre Directing with LAMDA.

It was through an encounter with Kilkenny theatre practitioner, Medb Lambert at a conference in 2016 that she became involved in Equinox Theatre - a ensemble-based theatre company dedicated to the creation, development, production and touring of new inclusive theatre work, which was founded in 2008 by eight graduates of KCAT’s theatre course who wanted to create opportunities for themselves as professional artists.

“I adored working with Equinox and I learned so much. I worked with them as an associate artist and I was the their artistic coordinator until last August,” she added.

Most recently Janice co-directed First Light with Donal Gallagher for Asylum Productions, an immersive site-specific theatre spectacle made with and for the people of Carlow at Carlow Arts Festival. Janice also co-directed The Local by Asylum Productions which was a highlight of Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2023.

Janice is very much looking forward to taking on her role in what promises to be a new and exciting chapter for Barnstorm.

“I am so excited about it in so many ways. I am really looking forward to it. I have worked with a lot of people that have come through Barnstorm and their programme in one box does all the type of work that I have been doing. I love that,” she added.

Janice De Bróithe takes up the role this November.