Karen Minihan

Karen Minihan is a writer, theatre director, performer and actor for many years. Her current body of work explores the stories from the founding of the state and includes a book published in 2022, Extraordinary, Ordinary Women, and a one-act stage play, Home Rules, performed by actor Pauline O’Driscoll and based on the life of Rose O’Connell from the book. This play continues to tour together with a performance presenting the stories with music – Extraordinary, Ordinary Women: Live!

The life of Ellen Hutchins, especially her personal and professional relationship with Dawson Turner, has been the subject of a series of three performances for the Ellen Hutchins Festival, called Seaweed & Sealing Wax, based on the correspondence between the two botanists from the early 1800s. These performances have been crafted by Karen with Finola Finlay from 2020-2023 and combined with other artistic offerings to highlight Ellen’s particular talents and her life.

Karen explores creative processes and collective creativity in blogs and podcasts: The Amadeus Project Schull and Take a Chair: Talking Theatre and Creativity. These are  available at karenminihan.ie and other podcast platfroms. The 2022 production of Seaweed & Sealing Wax 3: letters from 1812 with botanical art and poetry is available as a podcast on the Take a Chair site.