Meet our HATCHers for 2022-23

If you're scratching your head about what that means, then read on. And find out more about Cliodhna, Alice and Catherine while you're at it.

HATCH provides local artists with the opportunity to scratch, explore and experiment on their live performance ideas, no matter what stage they're at, with the support of the MAC over the next 12 months. Artists will be supported by a bursary, workspace at the MAC, and mentoring or coaching from MAC staff and associates.

Following our open call in March 2022, we chose two projects and three artists to support this year and we can't wait to work with them.

"The MAC’s HATCH scheme is a long-term project based on the MAC’s commitment to ensuring that locally-based, new and emerging artists are able to play their part in developing the creative energy at the heart of the MAC. During the dark days of lockdown, we wanted to support as many artists as we could in whatever way we could, through bursaries and rehearsal space. This year we want to focus on a deeper connection with a smaller group who needed that last push to bring a great idea to life. As usual we were inundated with amazing applications, showing that the future of performance locally looks exceedingly bright. We are delighted to welcome Cliodhna, Catherine and Alice to the fold and watch them bloom, like so many of our previous HATCH cohorts." - Julie Stewart, Programming Officer

Meet our HATCH artists

Cliodhna McAllister is a theatre-maker from Newry. A graduate of the University of Oxford and of the Gaiety School of Acting, she is founder and Artistic Director of Blacklight - a cross-border transmedia theatre company. Cliodhna’s recent work includes Isolation Creations (a series of digital productions and theatre resources for schools, funded through the Arts Council of Ireland), #WhatAboutUs? (live lockdown protest theatre streamed to the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin), and Masterpieces (Smock Alley, 2020).

Cliodhna is currently working on The Fear Manifesto and is previewing her adaptation of Marian Engel’s Bear for CQAF22. Cliodhna is a mentee with Future Foundations (QUB and Future Screens).

She is delighted to be working with the MAC as part of HATCH 2022-23, and looks forward to realising her project, Loyal through this collaboration. Keep up to date with Blacklight on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Alice Malseed is a writer and theatre-maker based in Belfast. Her work has appeared across the UK, Ireland, in Sri Lanka and New York.

In spring 2022 her play The Half Moon, directed by Emily Foran and produced by Green Shoot Productions was produced at the MAC and for a community tour in Belfast. Her show 'Anthem was a hit at Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2021. Alice's monologue Haven was part of 1st Origins Irish Festival in New York, and recorded by the Lyric Theatre for their 'Listen at the Lyric' series in Autumn 2020 – the show was New York Times' Critic’s Pick in January 2021. Her show Jade City was at Bunker Theatre in London in September 2019, produced by View From Here Theatre Company.

Alice was part of BBC WritersRoom Belfast Voices group 2018-2019 and Lyric New Playwrights Programme 2018. She is currently under commission with Brusier Theatre Company to create a contemporary adaptation of Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht. She is also working with View From Here to create a new play exploring ideas of Britishness, class and housing in London. Alice was awarded a Jerwood New Work Fund in 2019 to support her work and she received the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival Theatre Award in January 2021. Alice engages in socially engaged practice with children, working as Lead Artist on engagement projects.

She and Catherine Rees will be working on their play Poached during their time as HATCHers.


Catherine Rees is an actor and writer, based between Belfast and London.

She trained on the BA Acting course at East 15 Acting School and has since appeared in The Mousetrap in London's West End, and on two India tours, as well as in television such as The Deceived, Nova Jones, and Catholic Matchmaking Bureau.

As a writer, she was a member of the Soho Theatre Writer's Lab, Lyric Hammersmith Development Lab and Northern Ireland Screen's Short's Focus Programme, where she developed her short Arena which appeared in the BFI NI Talent Showcase and Cork Film festival to name a few. She is currently developing her comedy pilot with Old Hall Films and her next short film with Farset Films. She is passionate about female-led work and comedy, and is delighted to be working with Alice Malseed and the MAC on their play Poached.