Orla O'Loughlin is a British theatre director currently the Vice Principal & Director of Drama at

Guildhall School of Music & Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with drama ...

Education

Orla trained at the National Theatre and

National Theatre Studio The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

. She has a B.A (Hons) in Theatre and Performance from

Warwick University The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...

, an M.A (Dist) in Advanced Theatre Practice from

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

and a PGCE in Drama from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Career

She is currently the Vice Principal & Director of Drama at

having taken up the position, full time, in January 2019. Alongside this role, she also works as a Freelance Theatre Director. Previously, she was the Artistic Director of the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

(January 2012 – December 2018.) Prior to her time at the Traverse, Orla was Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre and the International Associate at

The Royal Court The Royal Court is a music production team formed by producer Timbaland and Solomon "King" Logan. Their first work was the single "Ice Box" by Omarion from the album '' 21'', co-produced with Timbaland. Discography 2006 Omarion - '' 21'' *"Ice B ...

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

listed Orla as one of the top 50 Cultural leaders in the U.K and she was included in The List Hot 100 of Women in the Arts. She is a regular subject for print and digital media and has appeared on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

’s '' Woman’s Hour'',

The Today Programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is BBC Radio 4's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 06:00 to 09:00 (starting on Saturday at 07:00), it is produced by BB ...

and was the subject of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio Documentary Stark Talk covering her life and work. Orla continues to deliver masterclasses and workshops across the world and has sat on a range of award panels including:

James Tait Black Award The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

for Drama, Windham Campbell and the Linbury Prize.

Directing credits

• What Girls Are Made Of (Traverse Theatre, Tramway, International Tour) • Mouthpiece (Traverse Theatre,

Soho Theatre Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...

) • Locker Room Talk (Traverse Theatre,

Latitude Festival Latitude Festival is an annual music and arts festival set within the grounds of Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. The first edition of the festival took place in 2006 and has continued annually (apart from 2020 when it was cancel ...

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

, Scottish Parliament & On Tour) • Meet Me at Dawn (Traverse Theatre) • Milk (Traverse Theatre) • Swallow (Traverse Theatre) • Spoiling (Traverse Theatre,

Theatre Royal Stratford East Stratford East (formerly known as Theatre Royal Stratford East) is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with di ...

) • Ciara (Traverse Theatre,

Citizens Theatre The Citizens Theatre, in what was the Royal Princess's Theatre, is the creation of James Bridie and playwright in residence Paul Vincent Carroll is based in Glasgow, Scotland, as a principal producing theatre. The theatre includes a 500-seat ...

) • Clean and A Respectable Widow takes to Vulgarity (Traverse Theatre, Oran Mor, Theatre 59E59, NYC) • The Artist Man and the Mother Woman (Traverse Theatre) • For Once (Hampstead Theatre, National Tour) • Origins (Pleasance, Theatre Severn, National Tour) • Relatively Speaking, Blithe Spirit, Black Comedy (

Watermill Theatre The Watermill Theatre is a producing theatre in Bagnor, Berkshire. It opened in 1967 in Bagnor Mill, a converted watermill on the River Lambourn. As a producing house, the theatre has staged works that have subsequently moved on to the West E ...

) • Kebab (Dublin International Festival, Royal Court Theatre) • Small Talk: Big Picture (Royal Court Theatre, ICA, BBC World Service) • How Much is your Iron? (

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Nadia Fall has been artistic director since 2025, succeeding ...

) • The Hound of the Baskervilles (

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

, National Tour and West End) • Shuffle (Merry Hill Shopping Centre) • Underland (Clearwell Caves) • A Dulditch Angel (National Tour) • The Fire Raisers ( BAC)

Awards

Her work has won a range of Fringe Firsts, Herald Angels and Critics Awards for Theatre in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and she is previous winner of the James Menzies Kitchin Directors Award and recipient of the Carlton Bursary at the

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit Off-West End theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage, Josie Rourke and Michael Longhurst have all served as artistic direc ...

References

British theatre managers and producers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{UK-theat-stub