Once

BOOKWRITER

Enda Walsh is a playwright and screenwriter who shot to fame when he won both the George Devine Award and the Stewart Parker Award in 1997 with his play Disco Pigs. He has won Fringe First Awards at the Edinburgh International Festival for his plays The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom and The Guardiannamed him “one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre.” Once, his adaptation of the film by John Carney, picked up eight Tony Awards on Broadway, including Best Book. His 2008 biopic, Hunger, told the story of the final days of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and won a host of awards, including the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He worked on the musical, Lazarus, with David Bowie, which opened at New York Theatre Workshop in December 2015 and transferred to Kings Cross Theatre in London in November 2016. The Last Hotel, his first opera with Donnacha Dennehy, had its world premiere at the Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, and transferred to Dublin, London, New York and Luxembourg. Their second opera, The Second Violinist, premiered at the Galway International Arts Festival in July 2017 and was also seen in London, and Amsterdam. The final work in their operatic trilogy, The First Child, premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival last October and after performances at Galway International Arts Festival will tour to Dublin, Navan, Cork, Limerick and Tralee.

MUSIC & LYRICS

Glen Hansard is an Irish singer-songwriter. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten of the Irish Album Charts. In the 2000s, he was one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season before releasing his debut solo album, Rhythm and Repose, in 2012. His 2015 sophomore album Didn't He Ramble was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. Primarily a musician, he has also acted and written music for film; he appeared in the BAFTA-winning film The Commitments (1991) and, notably, starred in the Irish music drama Once (2007) which earned him a number of major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly" with co-writer and co-star Markéta Irglová. The film was later adapted into an award-winning-musical theatre production.

MUSIC & LYRICS

A vocalist and talented multi-instrumentalist, Markéta Irglová's musical career began with a chance meeting and a garden party. Born in 1988, the Czech musician began playing piano and guitar at a young age, and was only 13 when her parents met Glen Hansard, vocalist and guitarist for the Irish rock band the Frames. Irglová began writing and recording her own songs while also performing with Hansard throughout the Czech Republic. In addition to performing together in the United States and Ireland, Irglová and Hansard recorded an eponymous album together under the name the Swell Season, which was released in 2006. The pair later garnered worldwide attention when they starred and performed in Once, an award-winning and critically acclaimed film directed by John Carney, a former Frames bassist. After the success of the film, Irglová and Hansard continued to write, perform, and record under the Swell Season moniker, recording another album, 2009's Strict Joy, while also working together but crediting their individual names (as they did for a track on the soundtrack to the film I'm Not There). Irglová released her solo debut, Anar, in 2011, followed by Muna in 2014 and most recently Lila in 2022.

DIRECTOR

Heather Lanza is proud to be the Producing Artistic Director at NextStop Theater in Herndon, VA. Directorialy, Heather focuses on new play development and the devising of original new works. Her work has been premiered and workshoped at Juilliard, HERE Arts Center, Epic Theater Ensemble, Keen Company, Waterwell, The Gallery Players, The Davenport, NY International Fringe Festival, Access Theater, The Kraine, Theater for a New City, The Players Theater, Bleecker Street Theater, Magic Future Box, Berkshire Fringe, Virginia Children’s Theater, Redhouse Arts Center, and many others. Heather is currently serving as the Producing Artistic Director of NextStop Theatre in Herndon, VA. Additionally, Heather is also the co-founder of the NYC based Making it Happen Productions, which focuses on emerging artists voices who seek to use theater as a way to engage dialogue and promote change. Heather previously served as the Education Director/Artistic Director of the Waterwell Drama Program for Waterwell.  Heather holds a BA in Directing from Fordham University and a MA in Applied Theater from CUNY School of Professional Studies. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union www.heatherlanza.com