About Us
Claire Mac Namee
Local girl, Claire set up Sunshine Stage School in Greystones in the summer of 2003 and has led the school from strength to strength over the past number of years. She is no stranger to the stage with more than twenty years stage experience. Claire trained for 6 years at The Gaiety School of Acting and went on to join their youth theatre for another 3 years where she performed regularly at the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar. She was musically trained at the Parnell School of Music for many years. During her time in secondary school she played many lead roles such as Blousey Brown in Bugsy Malone and Dorothy in The Wiz as well as supporting roles in Cinderella, Les Miserables and Oklahoma. Claire qualified as a drama teacher, with 1st Class Honors, through the Irish Board of Speech and Drama in 2001 and has been teaching ever since. Her previous employers include the National Performing Arts Schools where Claire worked as a singing and musical theatre teacher for four years. During her time there she was involved in two Olympia Theatre productions - The Dreamcatcher and The Power of Three.
Claire has also taught in many primary schools including Booterstown National School and Delgany National School. Previous shows she has directed include The Wiz, The Sound of Music and Annie in The Pavilion Theatre and Seussical, Honk, Can't Stop the Beat and Little Shop of Horrors at The Mermaid Arts Centre. She is a member of HXT Musical Society and Coolmine Musical Society. In the past number of years she has started as Chava in Fiddle on the Roof and as a Bird Girl in Seussical in The Civic Theatre and as Lola in Copacabana and as a soloist in Music of the Night and Mad About Musicals in Draiocht. Later this year she will play the part of Helene in Sweet Charity at the Draiocht. She absolutely loves working at Sunshine Stage School and developing the talents of all of her students. You will generally find her in the centre of the front row on show night, beaming from ear to ear as the proudest teacher in Ireland!
Martina Lynch
Martina completed her professional training in the Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre, Liverpool. She underwent vigorous training in all the dance forms of the ISTD (imperial society of teachers of dancing) - in Ballet, Modern, Tap, National, Disco, Ballroom and Latin American. It was here that she received her teaching qualifications along with a higher national diploma in Dance Performance and Production, Event Management, Lifespan Development and Health and Safety in Dance. Martina has also been trained in Contemporary, Yoga, Pilates, Hip Hop and Street Tap.
While in Liverpool Martina danced her way through many musical theatre productions and showcases such as Sweet Charity, Chicago and Fame to name a few. Martina has attended master classes with well-known choreographers, such as Brian Friedman, Jason Gardiner and Ryan Chappell.
Martina is a proud member of her local Musical Society - "Avonmore MS" and has choreographed and performed in two "Showstoppers" productions. Martina has been the choreographer for the Avonmore Muscal Society for the last three years. Martina's choreography for "Seussical the musical" received an AIMS (Association of Irish Musical Societies) nomination in 2010 and Martina got presented with an award for second place in the country at a Gala Ball in the INEC in Killarney in June 2010. In 2011 Martina was once again nominated for an AIMS award and for a consecutive year was awarded second place.. Martina is a fantastic teacher and makes learning so much fun for our students. We are delighted to welcome Martina back for her second year as resident choreographer at Sunshine Stage School.
Eoghan Connolly
Eoghan Connolly has been Musical Director of Sunshine Stage School since 2008 and has overseen our productions of Honk, Little Shop of Horrors, Can't Stop the Beat and The Wiz. Eoghan studied piano and music at both the Royal Irish Academy and Dublin Institute of Technology Adelaide Road. He has also been involved in numerous theatre shows, both as chorus director and orchestra, including Oklahoma, Grease, Calamity Jane, Carousel, South Pacific, Copacabana, Sweeney Todd and Honk with some of Ireland's leading musical societies.
Eoghan has directed and played at choral competitions in Cork, Limerick, Sligo and New Ross and performed in Rome and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York throughout 2006 and 2007. In the upcoming season, Eoghan is chorus master for Coolmine Musical Society's production of Sweet Charity at the Draiocht Theatre. He will also be travelling to Toronto to accompany Dunmore Musical and Choral Society for a week of concerts across the city later in the year.
Eoghan is looking forward to putting his stamp on another great year of performances at Sunshine Stage School.
Olive Quigley
Olive has worked as our school receptionist and office administrator at Sunshine Stage School for the past eight years. She is the voice you hear at the end of the phone when you call the office with bookings and questions and the person who answers your emails. Olive also collects and administers payments at the school. She is a dab hand at painting sets, making costumes, making props and is famous for being able to be in 5 places at once, whilst backstage at showtime. Having relocated to the west of Ireland earlier this year Olive now works solely in the office of Sunshine Stage School but will be popping up to the school from time to time. She is delighted to be handing the reception reigns over to the lovely Kristina Mooney this year.
Kristina Mooney
Kristina is the newest member of the Sunshine Stage School team so please be very kind to her as we would love her to stay! Kristina is the friendly face you see on our reception desk every Saturday. She deals with all queries from both students and their parents and also deal with booking and enquiries. She can also advise about class times and rehearsal schedules coming up to showtime. She holds an honours degree in business and has been administering third level courses and classes for a number of years at Griffith College Dublin. She also really loves music and dancing and was involved with her local group for many years. Kristina is also going to be a huge help at showtime as she is also a qualified make-up artist.
