About
Our Team
Declan Weir Productions is a small company that produces big events with excellence. We do this by maintaining a terrific, dedicated team of talented artists and technicians. Our staff understands and models the importance of treating all involved with respect and dignity. They provide excellent technical support while creating a positive and reassuring event experience.
In todays market, finding the vendors with the right equipment is easy; finding the vendors with the right equipment and the right people is a lot harder. It takes years to build that type of trust. Over the past 35 years, DWP has gathered a pool of amazing managers and technicians who love what they do and whom they do it with. Everyone we work with, be it clients, venue representatives, vendors, local officials, audience members, or members of local labor say the same thing: “DWP treats everyone like family.”
Principal Staff
With over 98 years of combined experience producing large-scale events, our principal staff has the knowledge and tools needed to take your event to the next level.
Declan Weir
Owner/President
Over nearly 30 years in business, Declan’s focus has shifted from building scenery to building teams of talented professionals, with the capacity to bring complex, large-scale events to life.
When Declan Weir founded his company in 1991, its original purpose was to build scenery for professional and non-profit theaters in the Greater Philadelphia area. In those early days, the company drew heavily on Declan’s experience working as a scenic carpenter, technical director, and production manager for regional theaters, scene shops, artist’s studios, television studios, and summer stock theaters in Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia. However, the company quickly expanded to include:
- designing, building, and managing entire events for corporate clients including Smith Kline (now GlaxoSmithKline), Centacor (with MC3 Productions), Johnson & Johnson, Smith Kline Oncology, and more
- creating scenery for major cruise lines, including Celebrity, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and the entire fleet of Holland America Cruise Lines
- performing museum installations, including The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Liberty Science Center
- producing large-scale events, including the Philadelphia Flower Show, the Philadelphia Arts and Business Awards, the Beaux Arts Ball for the Foundation of Architecture, American Music Theater Festival’s galas, Arden Theater Company’s Granfalloon, the City of Wilmington’s “First Night,” and many more
- producing large corporate parties and dinners for clients including Major League Baseball, Coors, the Republican National Convention, Commerce Bank, and TD Bank (with whom we have been producing training events and awards shows for nearly 20 years)
The heart of his work, however, from the very beginning, has been his experience with Catholic organizations. Most significantly, he has partnered with the National Foundation for Catholic Youth Ministry over the past 20 years to build the largest gathering of Catholic youth in the USA: The National Catholic Youth Conference. Together, they have grown the biennial event from a few thousand people in a convention center ballroom to 25,000 people at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Paul Richardson
General Manager
Paul has over 21 years of experience with DWP, beginning as a Project Manager soon after the company’s inception and continuing through his current role as General Manager, which he has held since 2013. As General Manager, he is responsible for daily operations, client communications, budget planning and management, and vendor and contractor identification and management.
Previously, Paul has held roles with Baylor University in Texas and the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, and served for a decade as the Manager of Scenic Operations for QVC Studios in West Chester, PA.
With DWP, accomplishments include developing the interactive “village” component of the National Catholic Youth Conference since 1997, working with the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., Warehouse Productions LLC, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and TD Bank. In association with Hargrove, Paul was instrumental in the engineering and execution of the staging for Pope Francis’ appearance at Independence Hall in 2015.
Robert Feduccia
Vice President of Christian-Faith Events, Equipping the Saints
Robert has devoted his life to the work of ministry. Beginning as a parish youth minister, Robert went on to design both Catholic events and products that have changed lives. He was founding director of Saint Meinrad’s Liturgical Leadership Program (One Bread, One Cup), he was designer of the Catholic Youth Prayer Book for St. Mary’s Press, and he was general manager for Spirit & Song (the contemporary music division of Oregon Catholic Press). He is sought after as a speaker and ministry design consultant. With DWP and Equipping the Saints, he has become one of the principal program designers for the events in association with National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.
Fran Brookes
Senior Producer
Fran Brookes is a native Philadelphian Producer and Stage Manager. He has been a stage manager and production manager at a variety of regional theaters in the Philadelphia area and beyond, including Arden Theatre Company, People’s Light and Theater Company, and 1812 Productions. Since 2005, when he joined the full time staff of Declan Weir Productions, he has worked solely as a corporate event producer and stage manager. Events include the National Catholic Youth Conference (DWP), the National Conference for Catholic Youth Ministry (DWP), the Youth Rally and Mass For life (DWP), the Opening Ceremony of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Expansion, Columbia University’s Commencement Exercises the Philadelphia Science Festival, and many more events for corporate clients across the US and internationally.