Jenny Macdonald

The Fairy Godmothers and Superheroes of @capitalismthemusical . Four more shows!! Catch us at 9pm Thursday-Saturday, or our 4pm Saturday matinee. Tickets at gaytheatre.ie Fairy costumes by the wonderful @clairegarveydesigner_ Photos by the wonderful @grassifabio_photography #capitalismthemusical #musicals #musicaltheatre #dublintheatre

Meet the Tightrope Walker team! Introducing our writer and performer, Jenny Macdonald, and our director, Joe Salvatore --------------- Jenny Macdonald is the writer/performer of ‘The Tightrope Walker’, her second solo play and collaboration with Joe Salvatore. The show has been presented at Smock Alley Theatre as part of First Fortnight Festival, the Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD and the Civic, Tallaght, as well as several hospitals and care settings. She is the director of SoloSIRENs, an intercultural, female-identifying theatre collective committed to creating more just, caring and sustainable ways of making and presenting theatre. She is also a drama facilitator working with a wide range of communities including trainee doctors at the Royal College of Physicians in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre. --------------- Joe Salvatore creates plays and performances from interview-based data and found media artifacts and often draws inspiration from contemporary and historical events. He is grateful to collaborate with Jenny Macdonald again after working with her on “Enthroned” and honoured to be included as part of the SoloSIRENs festival. Joe is a Clinical Professor of Educational Theatre and director of the Verbatim Performance Lab at New York University's Steinhardt School, where he teaches courses in ethnodrama, verbatim performance, and community-engaged theatre. @macdjenny @profjoesal #community #galwaytheatrefestival #care #solosirens

“This will not happen in a linear order. This is not a piece about a linear moment. This is a piece about a non-linear moment, about a curveball.” 📸 Some snaps from our rehearsal room in @rua_red yesterday as we prepare for two new tellings of the Tightrope Walker story. ✨Each show is a new story, as different numbers are pulled, different pages lifted, and different moments shared - join us on Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 May to piece this story together with us! 🎟 Ticket link in bio This performance of The Tightrope Walker is funded by Galway Theatre Festival and The Civic, Tallaght. Image description 1: A view of The Tightrope Walker rehearsal room from the onstage sound desk. A laptop sits open showing a QLab sound file and beside it is a script. Beyond the table there are pages with numbers printed on them scattered all over the floor. Black and red chairs of a conference room are in the background. 2: Jenny is picking up one of the many numbered pages from the floor. She is wearing a striped dark red and blue t-shirt and dark trousers. She holds a blue folder to put the pages into. 3: A view from above on some of the Tightrope Walkee props. A blue folder for medical files sits on the left, it is labelled as from Beaumont Hospital. To its right is a metal bowl filled with black, red and blue poker chips. 4: Jenny and Bronwen smiling with their arms around each other’s shoulders the end of our final rehearsal. Bronwen is on the left, she has strawberry blonde wavy hair and wears a pinstriped blue button-up shirt. Jenny is on the right, wearing her stripy red and blue t-shirt. @macdjenny @bronwenbarrett @marthaknight.art @inawordtheatrecompany @_rubycollin @_marthacosgrove @jenniferiwebster #community #galwaytheatrefestival #artsandhealth #tallaghtarts #solosirens

The team behind the Tightrope… Our crew are busy this week rehearsing and preparing to bring the Tightrope Walker to its 10th new venue. The Tightrope Walker brings the backstage perspective directly onto each new stage, as a live operator for Martha Knight’s immersive sound design shares the stage with Jenny. Step inside each moment to join the tightrope walker on her journey on 2 & 3 May in the O’Donoghue Theatre, Galway. Ticket link in bio! Funded by Galway Theatre Festival and the Civic, Tallaght. 📸 Images 1 & 2 by Lee Robinson, Images 3 & 4 by Vlad Gurdis Image Description: Picture 1: A side angle view of the Tightrope Walker Stage, showing Bronwen Barrett sitting at a desk with her back to the camera, writing in a stage manager’s folder. She is wearing a green t-shirt and has blonde hair tied back. In the background is the set of The Tightrope Walker, creating an imagined waiting room, and performer Jenny Macdonald. Picture 2: A side profile of producer Martha Cosgrove, sitting in the foreground, and Jenny Macdonald, standing beside her. Martha wears a green patterned sweatervest and has auburn hair, and smiles looking forward with her hand resting at her chin. Jenny stands beside her looking forward. Picture 3: Sound designer Martha Knight is in focus, sitting behind a table onstage with a sound desk and laptop in front of her. She has dark hair and wears a green t-shirt. She is looking at Jenny whose face is in soft focus, as she performs. The lights are softly colourful. Picture 4: The set of the Tightrope Walker from the perspective of the onstage sound desk. A sound desk and laptop are in the foreground, with a green floor behind them, with white pages scattered across it. At the other side of the set are two rows of black and red chairs. @macdjenny @marthaknight.art @bronwenbarrett @inawordtheatrecompany @_rubycollin @_marthacosgrove @jenniferiwebster @galway_theatre_festival #backstage #galwaytheatrefestival #womenintheatre #community #solosirens

We are thrilled to be bringing The Tightrope Walker to the wonderful @galway_theatre_festival for two performances this May! When life throws us a curveball, how do we find our next step? The Tightrope Walker is a journey through crisis told with wit, warmth and wonder. 📍O’Donoghue Theatre, University of Galway 🗓 Saturday 2 May & Sun 3 May | 6pm | 70 minutes 🎟 €18/€16 🔗 Ticket booking link in our bio or visit galwaytheatrefestival.com With humour and humility, the Tightrope Walker explores the precarious balancing act of serious illness and stitches the pieces of the story together in a different way each night. An innovative form and affirming tale, this moving solo performance connects us to the care, community and connection we may create in difficult times. Writer and performer: Jenny Macdonald Performer and sound operator: Bronwen Barrett Director: Joe Salvatore Set Designer: Pai Rathaya Lighting Designer: Ciara Meehan Sound Designer: Martha Knight Stage Manager: Ruby Collin Producer: Martha Cosgrove Poster Image Credit: Vlad Gurdis This performance is funded by Galway Theatre Festival and the Civic, Tallaght. The Tightrope Walker was developed through support from the Irish Hospice Foundation, The Arts Council of Ireland, South Dublin County Council Arts Office, and First Fortnight Festival. @galway_theatre_festival @civictheatretallaght @irishhospicefoundation @artscouncilireland @sdcc_arts @firstfortnight @macdjenny @jenniferiwebster @marthaknight.art @inawordtheatrecompany @bronwenbarrett @_rubycollin @_marthacosgrove @profjoesal @pai.rathaya #SoloSIRENs #galwaytheatrefestival #galwayevents #artsandhealth #community Image description: The poster image for The Tightrope Walker shows Jenny wearing a blue blouse and white doctor’s coat, holding a blue file folder and looking at the camera. Behind her there are white sheets with numbers printed on them scattered on a light green background. The show title and performance details are displayed on the left side of the photo.

🎭 The Tightrope Walker continues its journey… Last week, we were honoured to perform at the Royal College of Physicians. Thank you to everyone who joined us for such a special afternoon. @rcpi_doctors Next stop: St James’s Hospital this Thursday at 3pm. @sjhfoundation This powerful and heartfelt solo performance by Jenny Macdonald explores resilience, care, and community in the face of illness; and we’re delighted to bring it to this setting. We would love to see you there. 🎟️ Free admission, but booking is required: See link in bio 📸 Lee Robinson #SoloSIRENs #ArtsinHealthCare #HealthCareArts #HealthCareIreland #WellBeing #SelfCare #CommunityMatters #IrishFestivals #Festival2025 #Ireland #SoloSIRENs2026 @macdjenny @jenniferiwebster @chelle_henry @sorkadorka @_marthacosgrove @profjoesal @pai.rathaya @faceofciara @marthanite_arts @sofftproductions

The Tightrope Walker by Jenny Macdonald. SoFFt productions are so excited to be production managing this special production of The Tightrope Walker by formidable artist, writer, performer and facilitator Jenny Macdonald. Working with a fabulous team of talent, we are delighted to bring this show to St James Hospital on 26th Feb at 3pm. Tickets on sale now from link in bio. The Tightrope Walker is set in an imagined hospital waiting room. It explores the performer’s experience of illness and navigating the healthcare system. It shares the grief and loneliness serious illness can bring. It also shares how challenges can build capacity to care and to create community. Jenny’s story is interwoven with opportunities for the audience to consider their own experiences. It offers an ultimately uplifting framing of the relationships between challenge, love and care. Despite its serious subject matter, it features all the humour and warmth audiences loved in Jenny’s previous solo performance Enthroned. The Tightrope Walker also features a soundscape performed live by composer/designer Martha Knight.

Ah the glamour of theatre 😂 Fun times 'backstage' with the fairy godmothers in 'Capitalism: The Musical' @epfestival . Thanks to @deirdremurphymusic for the sheer genius of the show and to @clairegarveydesigner_ for the stunning costumes. Great times with great folks.

So happy to see this show back! @epfestival this weekend. The amazing words, songs and choreography of @deirdremurphymusic are more relevant than ever. I am honoured to be performing with many of the original team and many new superstars.

What a week! Couldn't be more happy with our run of 'The Tightrope Walker' @firstfortnight @smockalleytheatre The care and support from the festival and the theatre was astounding. The skill, creativity and commitment of the team made it flow like a dream. All my love and gratitude to @carla.anne.fazio @jenniferiwebster @jeanette.m.keane @profjoesal @marthanite @faceofciara @_rubycollin @_marthacosgrove @sorkadorka @mariaflemingdub @frizau @vlad_gurdis There really is no such thing as a solo show!!

As part of #FirstFortnight2025, the French Embassy and the Alliance Française Network in Ireland are proud to present the #free streaming of 'This Life of Mine' - #Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener - followed by a discussion on women’s #mentalhealth & arts representation with guest speakers: • Jenny Macdonald @macdjenny , theatre maker and facilitator, • Aurélie Godet @aureliegod , director of programming at Cork International Film Festival, and • Maria Fleming @mariaflemingdub , First Fortnight CEO. 🗓️ Watch now for free until Sunday 12 Jan, 6pm 🔗 /mrxw84zt @firstfortnight @af_dublin @afcork @FilmIreland

Not long now! 'The Tightrope Walker' is part of @firstfortnight from Jan. 9th to 11th. Evening shows at 7.15pm and Saturday matinee (relaxed performance) at 2.15pm. Smock Alley Theatre Boys' School. So excited to share the work as part of this amazing festival. What a way to start the year. Be sure to check out the whole programme. And hope to see you at the show! Booking link in bio.