How We Started
What started as a post-covid retreat for 40 improvisers became an annual community festival for 140 participants with diverse backgrounds and experience levels.
The very first Gather Improv Festival was held at Martinstown House in Co. Kildare in the autumn of 2021 as we emerged out of strict covid restrictions. The regulations at the time said that we could congregate up to 12 people indoors and 50 people outdoors. We gathered 6 of the best improv teachers in Ireland and held six small socially-distanced workshops. We watched and performed improv on a purpose-built open-air stage in the Irish countryside. We sat around a fire, we laughed a lot, we camped, we felt pure connected joy. It was so special. And thus, the Gather community was born. Sharing space, breaking bread and playing together felt like coming home after 1.5 years of lockdown.
Gather Improv Fest has grown a lot over the past five years, with up to 140 participants, 26 workshops, and 16 performances over two days. GATHER emphasises the Irish improv community as a collective, including workshop facilitators like: Kelly Shatter, Darren Yorke, Jessamyn Fairfield, Paul Mone, Órla Mc Govern, Erin McGathy, Dave Coffey, John Spillane, Mark Cantan, Shane Robinson, Jane McKeever, Stephen Bradley, Underthings, and Neil Curran.
By our third year, we began welcoming international teachers. We’ve fallen in love with Diana Brown, Katy Schutte, Chris Mead, Betse Green, Amy Burge, Rebecca McMillan, Elke Reid, and Laura Maynard.
We’ve also produced additional events like Gather in the New Year at Workman’s Club, a springtime retreat called Gather in the Growth, and collaborated with Grand Stretch Improv for the Grand Stretch and Gather Fest at Trinity College Dublin.
Who We Are
GATHER Improv was conceived as a community project by theatre and improv practitioner, Jessica Keith. Originally from the Chicago-area, Jessica holds a B.A. in Acting and Directing from DePaul University. She moved to Ireland in 2010 and completed a Masters of Philosophy in Theatre and Performance from Trinity College Dublin in 2012.
Jessica is a member of the improv group TINY and she is one half of The Jess’s’s’s improv duo. Jessica sometimes offers coaching and workshops throughout the year. To see more about coaching opportunities with Jessica, click here.
GATHER High Council
Growth and Development for GATHER Improv are workshopped by the prestigious High Council of GATHER, improv greats Lee Kelly, David Keeling, Ashly Stewart and Niall McKenna.
Lee Kelly is a digital strategist, improvisor, and Clinical Hypnotherapist with twenty years of experience leading digital strategy, web architecture, and content governance at Ireland’s most recognized institutions. He currently serves as Assistant Director of Web and Content Management at EY Ireland. Holding an MSc. in Cyberpsychology and a BSs. As a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner, he’s learned that people’s stories matter, and changing those stories changes everything.
An active performer since 2016 and a regular presence at events including the Gather Improv Festival and Improv Festival Ireland, Lee brings to the board a rare combination of institutional rigour and genuine creative investment – along with a clear-eyed belief that improv, done well, is one of the most human things a community can choose to do and build together.
David Keeling is an improviser, writer, poet, and filmmaker whose work spans creative practice and community-building. He is the founder and curator of The Goose, a monthly newsletter mapping Dublin’s improv community, and runs the improv collective This Is Not A Cult. With Emma Somers, he is co-creating the Irish Improv Oral History Project.
Across nearly 20 years in the creative industries, David has collaborated with the Abbey Theatre, RTÉ, Dublin Theatre Festival, the Gate Theatre, Irish National Opera and the National Concert Hall.
As a filmmaker, he has worked on award-winning projects including the short documentary Canine (Best Short Film, Cork International Film Festival 2023) and screenplays shortlisted at Dingle and Galway film festivals.
David brings to the board a rare combination of artistic practice, institutional fluency and community stewardship.
Niall McKenna is a writer and improviser from Belfast. As a writer, he has received support from the Stinging Fly Summer School and the John Hewitt Society. He has been awarded funding from the ACNI, and received further support through the Mentoring Support Scheme for Northern Irish Writers. He was recently selected for New Writers North, a three-month development programme providing ten emerging writers living in the North of Ireland with the sustained support of an experienced writer-mentor. He works at the Seamus Heaney Centre for New Writing as Receptionist and Facilities Officer, and has run improv workshops for students at Queen’s University Belfast and Manchester Writing School.
As an improviser, he has been regularly performing, teaching and coaching in Belfast for the last eight years. He runs a biweekly improv jam for the local improv community, and regularly hosts drop-ins and workshops. He is the co-founder of Drunk Classics Manchester, and is a cast member of The Bad Articles, a highly commended improvised narrative podcast. He has performed at Improv Fest Ireland, Edinburgh International Improv Festival, and The Big Scene Improv Festival in London. He is a member of We Built This City, a troupe that performs in rural locations around coastal Ireland with an improvised show that explicitly acknowledges the challenges posed for each community by climate change.
Niall brings to the board his experience in writing, education and community engagement.
Ashly Stewart is a creative strategist, writer and improvisor whose career sits at the intersection of commercial rigor and creative practice. Over 16 years she has worked with blue-chip brands including PepsiCo, adidas, MINI, Hienken, Diageo, Pampers and Emirates Airlines, and now runs her own consultancy specialising in effectiveness, research and strategic facilitation. She has won effectiveness awards and judged the Ireland Effies in 2023 and 2024.
Originally from Oregon and based in Dublin since 2015, Ashly performs with long-form improv groups Cloven and Autocorrect, and has performed and co-produced shows at Scene and Heard, Dublin Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe.