Vocal Opera Drama Studies

Sarah FitzGibbon

Lecturer in Drama

Sarah FitzGibbon is an applied drama practitioner, participatory theatre maker and drama in education specialist for nearly 30 years.

She lectures on the Drama Facilitation strand of the BA (Hons) in Drama Performance at TU Dublin Conservatoire and Early Years Drama on the Early Childhood Education BA. Her Masters in Socially Engaged Practice (NCAD) focused on the role of the facilitator in Integrated theatre practices for actors with Intellectual disabilities and she is still very active within this sector with her work on the board of Tallaght Community Arts.

Sarah has a long and deep history with the youth theatre sector in Ireland and its development since the 1990’s when she worked on practice, sectoral planning, advocacy and child protection guidance and training. Collaborating with this network, Sarah led the Conservatoire, with the School of Creative Media, to host the Youth Theatre Ireland Symposium at TU Dublin in November 2024.

Throughout the 2000’s, Sarah with Joanna Parkes collaborated on the Dublin City Council’s Educational Drama Programme, from which they developed Step by Step Educational Drama (2006) and Step by Step Together (2009) for Irish Primary School teachers.

Since 2010, she has collaborated with The Abbey Theatre on a variety of programmes including Priming the Canon and Theatre Making and Citizenship.

She has written and directed theatre for younger and neurodiverse audiences with companies such as The Abbey Theatre, Little Big Top, Puca Puppets, Acting Up, Graffiti and Replay theatre companies. In 2022, 2023, Small Wonders with Puca Puppets a performance designed to support infants; young children with complex needs; those on the Autism Spectrum and the people who care for them toured. At the same time, Mora a piece for early childhood with Acting Up theatre company was part of a residency in Axis with artist Cliodhna Noonan. Sarah has an artistic and personal pre-occupation with the possibilities for creative play, connection and collaborations between carer and child which are key themes of both recent works.

In 2024, she took up a place on the Board of Graffiti Theatre Company and she was a founding member of Mother Artist Makers in 2016 and of Critical Friends in 2018. Critical Friends is a peer support network for Socially Engaged Artists and recent graduates of LCAD and NCAD. This collective were Artists-in-Residence in Create, supporting them in the development of their library and reading room from 2022-2024.

Sarah frequently mentors artists in participatory or inclusive practice through the Arts Council’s Agility Scheme.