Liam is a freelance theatre designer and Programme Chair of Design for Stage and Screen , Ba hons, at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.He is also chair of the Irish Society of Stage and Screen Designers
Graduating from Nottingham Trent University in 1986, he worked extensively in the UK both as a practicing designer and academic before relocating to Ireland in 2006 to take up the post of Head of Art and Design at IADT. Liam has led and developed programmes in design at a number of British Universities including Theatre Design B.A. (Hons.) and the MA in Scenography(1999) at the University of Central England, Theatre Design and Technology at Bretton Hall B.A. (Hons.) (Leeds University 1997), Theatre Design B.A. (Hons.) and the Department of Narrative and Interactive Arts at Nottingham Trent University(2005). Liam has recently co authored Irelands first suite of honours degrees in Design for Stage and Screen, incorporating Production Design, Make up Design and Costume Design. He is an Expert Panellist (Art, Design and Drama) for the Higher Education Training and Awards Council (HETAC Ireland)and a highly experienced external examiner, currently at University of the Arts Bournemouth where he is Senior External Examiner. Previous recent external examiner roles include London College of Fashion (University of the Arts) and AVA; The Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubjlana, Slovenia.
Liam was a founder member of the Association of Courses in Theatre Design and LEAD, Learning /Education/Art/Design). Alongside his educational work he has maintained a practice as set and costume designer which enabled him to work for a number of leading touring theatre companies and theatres. Notable productions include;She Stoops to Conquer, You Never Can Tell and Donegal all at the Abbey,Irelands National Theatre Conservatory by Michael West at The Peacock, Best Man by Carmel Winters at The Everyman Cork and Project Arts Centre Dublin, To Kill a Mockingbird, York Theatre Royal and National Tour, The White Album at Nottingham Playhouse, Romeo and Juliet at York Theatre Royal, Boys Stuff at Sheffield Crucible and the Rivals and The Seagull- both national British tours with Compass Theatre.He also designed The Bloody Irish, A Musical for PBS Television.
Liam’s work was included in the Collaborators Exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum London. He writes for The Blue Pages – The journal of the Society of British Theatre Designers, and his work can be seen in “2D 3D” (2002) and “Collaborators”(2007), the quadrennial reviews of British Stage Design published by SBTD. His study of American designer Jo Mielziner was recently republished in A Reader in Scenography, (Routledge). He is also included in Designers Shakespeare( Routledge) for which he contributed Towards an Empty space, Design at the RSC until 1968 and Drawing the Curtain The Opera Designs of Maurice Sendak ( Morgan Library).