THE FIFTH STEP

David Ireland

Playwright

For Studio 180 Theatre: Debut.  

David was born in Belfast and trained as an actor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

His first play, What the Animals Say, was produced at Òran Mór, Glasgow, in 2011. He was Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, in 2012, and won the Meyer-Whitworth Award that year for Everything Between Us.

In 2016, Cyprus Avenue, starring Stephen Rea, premiered at the Abbey Theatre, and the Royal Court, London, before transferring to the Public Theater, New York. It won the Irish Times Award for Best New Play and the James Tait Black Award.

Ulster American premiered at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, winning both a Scotsman Fringe First and the Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best New Play.

In 2024, The Fifth Step premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival starring Jack Lowden. It transferred to London’s West End in 2025, with Martin Freeman joining the cast at @sohoplace.

His other plays include Not Now, Sadie, Yes So I Said Yes, The End of Hope and Can’t Forget About You.

For television, he created and wrote two original series: The Lovers for Sky Atlantic and Cold Water for ITV, starring Andrew Lincoln. He also wrote an episode of The Young Offenders for RTÉ/BBC.

As an actor, he is best known for playing Clare’s dad in Derry Girls.

He lives in Glasgow with his wife, Jennifer, and their two children, Ada and Elijah.

Mark McGrinder

Director

Mark is the Artistic Director of Studio 180 Theatre.

For Studio 180: (as director) Four Minutes Twelve Seconds; (as an actor) The Laramie Project, Stuff Happens, Our Class, Parade, Clybourne Park, You Will Remember Me, The Nether & Oslo. He has been a director and/or dramaturg(e) for many of Studio 180’s IN DEVELOPMENT projects and, as the program’s coordinator, has worked to connect creators with the appropriate collaborators required to bring their visions to the stage. He adapted and directed Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish for PANAMANIA, directed Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays and worked as Associate Director for Blackbird, God of Carnage and Studio 180’s 10th Anniversary reading of The Laramie Project. Mark was a member of the acting ensemble at the Shaw Festival for five seasons and he performed in several reviews with The Second City’s National touring company. He has been head or co-writer on several collective creations (Single and Sexy, That Artz Show and The Berlin Show) and his play MacHamlet was presented as part of the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. As an artist educator he has worked with high school, college and university students in and beyond the GTA and is continually inspired by the passion and vision of the young artists he has had the good fortune to connect with.

Brandon McGibbon

James

For Studio 180 Theatre: Debut.  

On stage Brandon is a Dora Award recipient, who was in the Broadway company of the multiple Tony Award winning show Once and played the role of Mr. Wormwood in the Toronto and 1st U.S. National Tour of Matilda. He recently premiered It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken featuring the iconic music of The Tragically Hip, Tom Wilson’s autobiographical show Beautiful Scars at the NAC and Theatre Aquarius, and Robert Chafe’s Man Of The Year for Artistic Fraud. He performed in the Governor General’s Award Nominated Courageous by Michael Healy and the English language premieres of Wajdi Mouawad’s Forests and Florian Borchmeyer’s An Enemy of the People at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. He starred in the world premiere of Ben Elton and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Boys In The Photograph, the Canadian premiere of Mel Brook’s The Producers, as well as the Suburban Motel and East End play series by George F. Walker at the Factory Theatre. Other notable stage credits include the two-person hit show Midsummer at the Tarragon Theatre and portraying Glenn Gould in the acclaimed stage production Glenn in both Toronto and Montreal. He has also performed multiple seasons with Toronto’s renowned Soulpepper Theatre Company.

Selected TV: Murdoch Mysteries, Mistletoe Murders, Transplant, Accused, Pretty Hard Cases, Star Trek Discovery, The Expanse. Series Regular on The Line (2 seasons), Ken Finkleman’s At the Hotel.

Selected Film: Splice (Sundance Film Festival/TIFF Canadian Top Ten), Skating To New York, Wolves, Foxfire (TIFF), Picture Day (TIFF).

Callan Potter

Luka

For Studio 180 Theatre: Debut.  

Callan Potter is a theatre and film actor from Stratford, Ontario. His childhood home was always filled with books and plays, and he spent a great deal of that childhood getting lost in those worlds and creating his own. Trained at The National Theatre School of Canada, Callan works in film, television, and theatre.

Callan spent two seasons at the Stratford Festival, where he performed in Mother Courage & Her Children, The Three Musketeers and Henry VI. He has also performed in Hamlet (Shakespeare Co.) and Heist (The Citadel Theatre/The Grand Theatre).

Selected Film and Television: Workin’ Moms, We Were Liars, Heated Rivalry (two seasons playing “Hayden Pike”), and the upcoming, Any Way You Want Me.