Olwen Fouere

Olwen Fouéré, born on March 2, 1954, is a renowned Irish actress and writer/director who has significantly contributed to theatre, film, and visual arts. Born in Galway, Ireland to Breton parents Yann Fouéré and Marie-Magdeleine Mauger, she has transcended borders with her international work both in English and French. As a freelance actress, she has graced notable stages such as the Abbey Theatre, the Gate Theatre in Ireland, the Royal National Theatre in England, the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, at Brooklyn Academy of Music New York, Sydney Theatre Company Australia, and Shakespeare Theatre Company. In 1980, she co-formed an avant-garde theatre company, Operating Theatre, with composer Roger Doyle and further established an artistic entity, TheEmergencyRoom, for the advancement of her art. Her acclaimed projects include internationally recognised Riverrun, her adaptation of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; staging Lessness by Samuel Beckett, and several translation and production works. She also co-directed a film project from a script by Anne Enright titled Cassandra: fragments of a playscript.

Aside from her theatre work, Fouere has been notable within the visual arts. She has featured in numerous works by artist James Coleman, including an 1980 collaboration project known as So Different and Yet... She has also collaborated with other artists including Andrew Duggan and Jesse Presley Jones and has received considerable recognition for her work, including receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Dublin City University in 2016. Over years she has been rightly honored with multiple awards including The Herald Archangel Award, Samuel Beckett Award and 'Best Actress' titles multiple times.