She is a co-founder of the Druid Theatre Company with Mick Lally and Marie Mullen in 1975 after meeting through the drama society of U.C.G. where they studied. She was Druid's artistic director from 1975 to 1991, and again from 1995 to date. Hynes directed for the Abbey Theatre from 1984 and was its artistic director from 1991 to 1994,[1] and also the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exchange, Manchester, the Kennedy Center and the Royal Court Theatre, London.
Empress of India, (Galway and Dublin Theatre Festival)
The Year of the Hiker,(Galway and National Tour)
DruidSynge, (Galway Arts Festival, Dublin, Edinburgh International Festival and Inis Meáin 2005; Minneapolis and Lincoln Center Festival, New York 2006)
In 2017, award-winning artist Vera Klute was commissioned by the National Gallery of Ireland to create a portrait of Hynes as part of the 2015 Hennessey Portrait Prize. The bust, made of porcelain, concrete and timber (with a dimension of 164 cm x 54 cm x 45 cm), was unveiled to the public in April 2017 and is currently on display as part of the Gallery's National Portrait Collection.[9]
Hynes directed DruidSynge, the company's critically acclaimed production of all six of John Millington Synge's plays that premièred at the Galway Arts Festival in 2005 and has since toured to Dublin, Edinburgh, Inis Meáin, Minneapolis and New York. DruidSynge has been described by Charles Isherwood of The New York Times as "the highlight not just of my theatre going year but of my theatre going life" and by The Irish Times as "one of the greatest achievements in the history of Irish theatre."[10][11][12]
She is a recipient of many other Theatre Awards, including The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Award for Best Director (2002) and a The Irish Times Special Tribute Award for her contribution to Irish Theatre in February 2005.[14]
On 15 June 2006 she was awarded the Freedom of the City of Galway, its highest bestowed honour.[15]
