Acting & Playwriting Courses Now Booking
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Acting & Playwriting Courses Now Booking 〰️
Artist & Creative Mentor
I'm an actor, director, and playwright from the West of Ireland, with over 25 years working in the arts and teaching since 2008 — privately and at university level.
Alongside my own directing and playwriting practice, I work one-to-one with writers on script development, with a film production company, and as a freelance theatre director on upcoming productions. I recently trained as a somatic coach, which now shapes how I work with clients moving into the next stage of their creative and professional lives.
I’m currently offering beginners’ and improvers’ acting classes in Galway city as well as playwriting classes online.
In my free time, I’m a jazz singer.
Summer Acting & Playwriting Courses for Adults
Taking place in Galway City and Online
Mondays, 15 June – 20 July · 6.30–9.00pm · Ballinfoile Community Centre
A six-week introduction for complete beginners and for anyone returning to acting after time away. Each week builds on the last: motivation and character, the body in space, improvisation, and ensemble work, culminating in a final class working on a piece of text together.
You'll leave with the working vocabulary of an actor — how to approach a character, how to inhabit a space, how to listen and respond to a scene partner, and how to begin rehearsing a scene rather than just reading it.
No experience needed. Bring comfortable clothes and curiosity.
€200/€180 (concession).
If you are a student/unemployed email sarahotoole@pm.me with student card/proof of unemployment and we’ll send you the discount code.
Booking & Cancellations
Full payment secures your place. Cancellations more than 14 days before the course start date receive a full refund less a €15 administration fee. Between 14 and 7 days: 50% refund. Within 7 days of the start date or once the course has begun: no refund.
By purchasing a place on this course, you agree that these terms apply in place of the standard 14-day statutory cancellation right under the EU Consumer Rights Directive, on the basis that the course begins on a fixed date.
Full terms are available [here]
Tuesdays, 16 June – 1 Sept · 6.30–9.00pm · Ballinfoile Community Centre
A twelve-week course for actors with some experience — whether you've trained before, performed in the past, or have a few beginner courses behind you and want to go deeper.
You'll be assigned two contrasting scenes — drawn from across the classical and contemporary canon — to rehearse and develop in depth over the twelve weeks, working with scene partners and with detailed direction each session. Lines will need to be learned. You'll also spend a good part of each class watching others rehearse, which is where a lot of the real learning happens: seeing the canon up close, scene after scene, and beginning to recognise what good acting actually looks like across very different kinds of writing.
The course culminates in a live showcase at a Galway venue, performed in front of an audience at the end of the summer. It's a real commitment, and a demanding one — but past students have consistently described it as the most satisfying acting work they've done, and for many it's their first experience of the pleasures (and pressures!) of performing for a live audience.
€360/€340 (concession).
If you are a student/unemployed email sarahotoole@pm.me with student card/proof of unemployment and we’ll send you the discount code.
Booking & Cancellations
Full payment secures your place. Cancellations more than 14 days before the course start date receive a full refund less a €15 administration fee. Between 14 and 7 days: 50% refund. Within 7 days of the start date or once the course has begun: no refund.
By purchasing a place on this course, you agree that these terms apply in place of the standard 14-day statutory cancellation right under the EU Consumer Rights Directive, on the basis that the course begins on a fixed date.
Full terms are available [here]
Wednesdays, 17 June – 2 Sept · 6.30–9.00pm · Online via Zoom
A twelve-week course for anyone with a play they've been meaning to write — adapted from a course I taught for third-year students completing their final projects at university.
We start where most plays start: a hunch, a fragment, a character that won't leave you alone. The early weeks are about turning that into something workable — testing what the play is actually about, who it belongs to, and what wants to happen. From there we move into structure and storyline, then into the long middle stretch of character and dialogue, where most of the real writing gets done. By the final weeks you'll be drafting toward a complete first version, with detailed written feedback from me at the end of the course.
Each week also includes a close reading of a published play. Most people who want to write a play don't read them, and this course aims to change that — not as homework, but as a foundation. Reading plays exposes you to range and possibility: the variety of styles a stage can hold, what language is capable of when it isn't trying to behave like prose, and the strange and magical things a playing space can do that no other form can. You start to understand how much room there actually is, and how much of what you thought were the rules are just one writer's choices. Group discussion and feedback runs alongside individual feedback from me as the work develops.
All levels, including screenwriters working on a story or treatment, are welcome.
€360/€340 (concession).
If you are a student/unemployed email sarahotoole@pm.me with a student card/proof of unemployment and we’ll send you the discount code.
Booking & Cancellations
Full payment secures your place. Cancellations more than 14 days before the course start date receive a full refund less a €15 administration fee. Between 14 and 7 days: 50% refund. Within 7 days of the start date or once the course has begun: no refund.
By purchasing a place on this course, you agree that these terms apply in place of the standard 14-day statutory cancellation right under the EU Consumer Rights Directive, on the basis that the course begins on a fixed date.
Full terms are available [here]
Currently Working On…
In March 2026, thanks to a Creative Artist’s Bursary from Galway City Council, I was able to do a rehearsed reading of my play FINDING GALAHAD at the Mick Lally Theatre.
I’ll be spending Summer 2026 at my desk, integrating all the lovely feedback into another draft, before exploring the next step in bringing this baby of mine to production.
Other Ways to Work with Me
Freelance Director
I take on selected directing projects throughout the year, working with new and established playwrights on full productions, rehearsed readings, and workshop development. Recent and upcoming projects Sheep! (Jenni Nikinmaa), Journey to Apollo (Eamonn MacNicholas) and Wake of the Whale (Alice Kinsella & Daniel Wade).
For directing enquiries, get in touch.
Script Development
I work one-to-one with playwrights and screenwriters on script development — from early-stage idea work through to detailed feedback on later drafts. This is sustained editorial collaboration rather than one-off notes: I read closely, ask the questions the script is asking but hasn't yet answered, and help writers find the version of the work they're trying to make.
To enquire about availability and rates, get in touch.
Actor
I trained at the Gaiety School of Acting and haveworked as an actor for three decades. I continue to take on selected acting work in theatre and screen.
Casting enquiries welcome.