The new director of the Abbey Theatre is film, theatre and visual arts producer Fiach MacConghail. Deirdre Falvey, Arts Editor, reports.
Mr MacConghail (40), who is also arts adviser to the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, will take on overall artistic and managerial responsibility for the theatre.
The board announced the appointment yesterday almost three months after recruitment began in the midst of a financial crisis. The new appointment is of "director", and the post explicitly includes management as well as artistic responsibility.
The appointment of Mr O'Donoghue's adviser to the position comes after the Arts Council insisted recently that work practices would have to change and a commitment would have to be made to replace the National Theatre Society with a new company if the Abbey was to receive the €2 million in extra funding announced before Christmas.
The current artistic director, Mr Ben Barnes, completes his term at the end of this year and Mr MacConghail will become director-designate from the beginning of May.
During the transition period Mr MacConghail will work "in collaboration with Mr Barnes and managing director Brian Jackson", the statement said.
The chairwoman of the Abbey, Ms Eithne Healy, said the board was convinced that Mr MacConghail had the "artistic vision, experience, skills, personal qualities and commitment to lead the theatre through a period of fundamental restructuring and renewal".
It is the first time in years that a producer rather than a director has led the Abbey. Ms Healy said: "In creating the position of director, the board has decided to establish a new senior management structure with clear lines of decision-making, authority and accountability . . . We believe that Fiach's blend of artistic and management expertise is exactly what the Abbey needs at this time."
Mr MacConghail said that he would work closely with the board and staff on the restructuring "to come up with an organisation that will respond to the creative impetus of the 21st century and create a new model of how the Abbey should be".