Xanadu Theatre Launch Concert

23 September 2020

Performers

Mary Tynan is an actor, writer, director, teacher and coder, among other things. Mary relaunched Notes From Xanadu on 1 May 2020 as an online arts centre (it was previously an arts magazine). She is now very excited about Phase II - Xanadu Theatre, and is delighted to be taking part in the launch concert. As an actor, Mary has appeared in more than 50 theatrical productions in genres as diverse as comedy, drama, musical theatre, physical theatre and site-specific, receiving critical acclaim for her roles in Conversations with Mary, A Galway Girl, Down Bottle Alley, A Belfast Boy, Regent's Canal ‐ a Folk Opera and Athold Fugard's Statements. She has also featured on radio and in several films. More information at her actor website marytynan.ie.
Suzanne Ledwith is a multimedia artist from Mullingar. She was introduced to the acoustic guitar in her youth, and initially was a singer and guitarist with the band Dreams of ID, followed by a career as a solo artist. For the past number of years she's been developing a different style from the early pop/rock focus of the band. Her style reflects an interest in Irish music, world music, folk and classical music. She's currently working on an album with Irish folk legend Donal Lunny.
Ash Reddington studied Shakespeare at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Stage credits include Lady Macbeth (Macbeth, Zoom Theatre) Hilda Moriarty (Kavanagh, by Tom O'Brien, touring with London Irish Theatre) and Hero in Shakespeare's Much ado about nothing. Ash has also appeared on screen in various film and television roles as well as commercials. She currently resides in New York, working as an actress and writer bilocally in both the United States and Europe.
Ian Macnaughton's first enthusiasms were, drawing, painting and archeology particularly Mezoamerica, since then he has been distracted by acting, writing and twenty years in education. He is now a wastrel and is hoping to age disgracefully. He started acting professionally nine years ago. He played the title role in the award winning short The Foley Artist (2014) which won Best Casting, Best Original Music and Best Production Design at the Berlin Fashion Film Festival (2015). Other film credits include: The supervisor in Babs (2017), telemarketer in The Mockroom and Mr Hanson in Whitepaint (2016). His most recent film work is premiering at Frightfest in October: he is playing Ray Sinclair, a broken priest in The Last Rite. Apart from that he is experimenting with writing and learning about physical theatre and devising comedy as well as delivering hopefully hot food to lazy people.
Futzy and The Bitch are married couple Chris Levens and Ariel Harrison. Both actors and performers in their own right, this period of lockdown and uncertainty has proved to be a very productive one for these two, because, let's face it, this year has given them quite a lot of material to work with. Combining Chris's indie, folky, song-writing abilities and Ariel's natural dependency on sarcasm as a coping mechanism, Futzy and The Bitch perform both parody covers and original pieces. We'll leave it to you to decide who's who. Aren't pet names adorable?
BoyManDead is the musical alias of Chris Levens who is both an actor and a musician. Influences include Neil Young, Bon Iver and Damien Jurado. Sometimes folky, sometimes a little more contemporary in style, Chris is a self-taught musician who is taking this time not only to write "proper" songs but also comedy stuff as well. During lockdown he is also learning to play the accordion, but don't worry, he won't be inflicting that upon anyone... yet.
Mike Varden is a guitarist and the owner and founder of the Ennis Guitar School, Ennis, County Clare. He established the school in 2003, as a response to what he knew was a lack of structured guitar tuition in contemporary music styles in Ireland, and particularly in the West of Ireland. Before setting up the school, Mike completed a diploma at the Guitar Institute (GI) in London, combining both his love of teaching and his passion for guitar. The Ennis Guitar School was originally modelled on the GI syllabus and methods. Mike is currently working on an online guitar school for adults, teaching several styles of music to beginners and more advanced students and hopes to launch this soon.