The Gaiety School of Acting

Actors at The Gaiety School of Acting Temple Bar Dublin City
The Gaiety School of Acting - The National Theatre School of Ireland, Temple Bar, Dublin City, was founded in 1986 by internationally renowned Theatre Director Joe Dowling in response to the lack of full time actor training in Ireland at the time.

The Gaiety School of Acting, Temple Bar, Dublin City, is now widely regarded as the country’s premier training facility for actors.

The school's policy is to train actors for theatre, film and television. The school offers a two year intensive acting programme and an extensive selection of part time and tailored courses for adults, teenagers, children and overseas students. The Gaiety School of Acting offers international students a series of three and four week programmes of practical acting classes that examine the work of some of our greatest Irish Writers, from Samuel Beckett to Martin McDonagh.

All programmes include lectures by some of Ireland’s leading academics and a social program of theatre visits and traditional music that will keep you entertained and related to the Irish artistic scene. They are specially designed to suit overseas students. There are several options for international students including: Irish Theatre January Term & Irish Theatre Summer School, Original Theatre Project, Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel, Storytelling: Our Great Tradition, The Writer’s Room and most recently an Advanced Training Programme in the Internationally renowned Michael Chekhov Technique. The school has been providing professional actor training for almost 30 years and include Colin Farrell, Olivia Wilde, Colin O’Donoghue, Aidan Turner (Best Male Newcomer, Jameson Empire Awards 2014), Eva Birthistle (Best Actress Lead Television Award, IFTA 2014) Charlie Murphy (Best Actress, The Irish Times Awards 2013) and Sarah Greene (Tony Award Nominee 2014) as alumni of distinction.

Through a committed and dedicated staff, the school has developed and expanded to its current position where over 2000 students are involved in a wide range of courses from our intensive two year full time actor training programme to a range of courses available to students from overseas, children as young as 18 months and teenagers. Our Summer, Easter and Halloween camps cater for those aged 8-18 years.

Writers the school is proud to have commissioned include Marina Carr, Gavin Kostick, Alex Johnston, Ken Bourke, Sean McLaughlin, Mary Elizabeth Burke Kennedy, Lisa Harding, Roger Gregg, Michele Reid, Lally Katz, Lisa Tierney Keogh, Michelle Read and Gary Duggan. The full time actor training programme boasts unprecedented graduate success with actors appearing in all of Ireland’s theatres, in film and television nationally and internationally and in theatres across England including The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre in London.

The school is based in the centre of Dublin City’s cultural quarter, Temple Bar. A range of part-time courses take place at other centres around the country.