Eileen Connolly has directed and designed all of Wallis Knot's theatre productions, which have been performed throughout New York City at such places as HERE and the New York International Fringe Festival.

She has worked for other New York City theatrical institutions and dance companies as a director, costume designer and choreographer, including the Irish Repertory Theatre, the York Theatre Company, and Aedin Moloney's Fallen Angel Theatre Company at the Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row.

Eileen has also directed for a variety of colleges, and has taught voice and Shakespeare for over 15 years.

Eileen has several of her adaptations and original scripts for sale at the online bookseller LuLu.com including:

* BETWEEN TWO WORLDS -- a romantic comedy-drama set in WWII England tells the tale of a young American pilot shot down over the Channel who manages to escape death. Or does he? After falling in love with his nurse, a bumbling Angel of Death arrives to ferry our pilot to a heavenly tribunal where he will need to defend his life, and his love. Eileen used Michael Powell's classic film, Matter of Life and Death, as the source material for this film -- with a little Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers tossed in for good measure. The show is 90 minutes long with a cast of 7+.

* MACBETH: LET IT BE -- this trimmed down and modernized version of Shakespeare set in Vietnam, has Macbeth dancing with hippie witches, meeting puppet apparitions, playing the majority of his scenes with his wife in the bathroom, and interacting with film projections. This dance-theatre hybrid clips by at 90 minutes with a trimmed down cast of 8+.

* THE DUCHESS OF MALFI -- Webster's original, plus the Brecht updates, with a little added Shakespeare and some witty La Rochefoucauld combine for a contemporary version of this classic play. The dialogue is peppered with Italian, the action spiced with dance and movement sequences, and a lunatic ensemble steps forward as a Greek chorus. The violence we've all come to love about this tale is all there, but the love and obsession are equally explored, with a final summation of guilt for anyone who stands by and watches his fellow man cry for help and lifts not a hand. It is a story of family. And a story of compassion. A compact 90 minutes with a compact cast of 8 leads + an ensemble of lunatics as large as you'd like.

Eileen has edited together numerous samples of her theatre and dance work, with more on the way, which are available on YouTube. Search for: wallis knot

Selections are linked below...

DANCE-THEATRE:

DANCE THEATRE with a great plastic dress

WALTZ inspired by Olympic ice skaters

COMBAT SKILLS meets PARTNERING DANCE

THEATRE:

20 MINUTE MONTAGE of DUCHESS OF MALFI

10 MINUTE MONTAGE from CSI/HAMLET

MONTAGE of final scenes in heaven from BETWEEN TWO WORLDS:

& ANOTHER SCENE FROM HEAVEN

Eileen has been designing and constructing costumes professionally since 1984. Her productions have included:

• all Wallis Knot Theatre Company productions: Seeing Andre Gide, Dracula Journals, Dance With Me Harker, Late to the Republique, CSI: Hamlet, Between Two Worlds
• Aedin Moloney's Fallen Angel Theatre Company: Eva The Chaste (Off Broadway)
• The Duchess of Malfi, Macbeth, I Am A Camera, The Long Christmas Dinner, Pullman Car Hiawatha for NYCDA in NYC
• Chicago's Royal George Theatre, John Walker's production of Seamarks
• Philadelphia's Wilma Theatre, Jiri Zizka's production of Shooting Magda
• Pennsylvania Shakespeare Company: Sacramento Fifty Miles, The Fabulous Fable Factory, Dracula
• Philadelphia's Painted Bride Arts Center, Michael James Ogborn's premieres: Earbeds, and The Vagabond Age
• Philadelphia's Caravan Children's Theatre at the Annenberg Center
• Philadelphia Actors Ensemble, at the Walnut Street Theatre: Joya
• Honor Molloy, NYC Performance Artist
• Roschman Dance, NYC Dance Company
• Susan Heffner Dance Company

Samples of Eileen's costumes can be seen on this website and by visiting her FLICKR page.