Strive Theatre was founded in 2012 by Andy Weston and Ciarán MacArtain due to a mutual understanding that new scripts are not written for them to remain on the page.

Our mission statement is to “develop plays from the seeds of ideas to full works of value for the stage, offering an artistic outlet to theatre artists in the community to produce theatre in keeping with the ideals upon which the art was founded”.  As part of this ambition we aim to share our work beyond traditional theatre-going audiences and outside of established theatres. Our early years have seen us thrive in found spaces such as beer gardens, bars, community arts centres, festival tents, ballrooms and art galleries. More recently we’ve maintained a balance between work performed in traditional theatres and environmental or site-specific work.

Between 2013 and 2016 the company was led by Co-Artistic Directors Hanan Sheedy and Ciarán MacArtain. Since then, Ciarán has been the Artistic Director. The company has had the great pleasure of working with a much varied line-up of Cork-based theatre artists in its young history. We are incredibly thankful to all of the artists that have contributed to the development of the company and have given their time and talent to creating and performing new work for the community, from the community.