Acushla (Mary Elizabeth) Bastible is the education program manager and stage director at the Santa Fe Opera, and an affiliate artist at Littleglobe, a non-profit artist ensemble, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

As a multidisciplinary performance artist — writer, director, performer, and educator — she is drawn to work that questions the social and historical contexts in which performance happens, work that expands our understanding of the what, where, who, and how of performance. 

In addition to freelance work as a theater/opera director, Bastible serves as an artistic co-director of Angel Exit Theatre, based in England and Ireland. Angel Exit’s productions have been nominated for many awards including Best Production in the Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe First Award.

Bastible is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House in London, and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris.  Bastible met her husband Charles Gregory Gamble while studying in Paris, and moved here in 2002. 

“I had no plan to move to the U.S., but thought I should visit Charles in New Mexico. He had spoken so highly of this ‘Land of Enchantment.’ We have been in the ‘Land of Entrapment,’ as it is often fondly referred to, ever since,” she says.  Bastible returns to Ireland at least once a year, and would like to create more theater projects there in the years to come. 

“I feel deeply connected to Ireland even when I am not physically there. I am grateful to my parents for making the decision to send me (all the girls in fact) to an all-Irish speaking school, Colaiste Iosagain, where I developed a profound appreciation for the Irish language and culture,” Bastible says.

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