Time at the Well Artists - 2025
We are delighted to announce the recipients of our annual Time at the Well bursary scheme for 2025. The Time at the Well programme provides artists with a budget, stage time, technical support, and mentorship to help them bring their creative ideas to life. This year’s residents are Jackie Maguire working with Tricia MacLaughlin, Jenny Tufts and Monica McCarthy.
Soil Story: A New Theatre Work for Young Audiences
Soil Story is a dynamic collaboration between two multidisciplinary Sligo based artists: Jackie Maguire and Tricia MacLaughlin. Maguire, an early years arts lecturer, author and researcher, and MacLaughlin, artist, a Forest School Educator, early years lecturer, and researcher are developing a new piece of theatre for young audiences (ages 0-6) that explores soil as a living ecosystem.
In 2024, they were awarded A Week at the Well to research and develop the project. Under the mentorship of writer Damian Gorman, the duo created the title Soil Story and began developing a script that promises to engage children with environmental themes in a creative and accessible way.
The artists have also facilitated theatre sharings with over 130 children from local crèches and afterschool services, introducing many to the Hawk’s Well Theatre for the first time. They have an established history of working with Sligo’s early years community, including through their Play in Nature programme with Sligo County Childcare Committee (SCCC). These engagements underscore their commitment to community and educational outreach, helping to bridge the gap between creative arts and early childhood education.
“We are utterly delighted to be recipients of the Time at the Well Award and look forward to the year ahead. We've set ourselves the ambitious task of creating new theatre work, titled Soil Story for a young audience (aged 0-6 years) by the end of 2025! The Time at the Well Award will give us the ‘actual time’, resources and support needed to progress this new theatre work.
Inspired by Donna Haraway’s ‘Story Telling for Earthly Survival’ we see Soil Story as being a method, a theoretical practice and a way of thinking about the world told through the life stories of the characters (macro-organisms) that live in and on soil. We want to share a story, soils story, as we believe that through telling stories that change can occur within the person and that this change can result in local action within the early years community. By reconnecting with soil and nature we want children to rethink their relationship with nature and to understand that we are not separate from nature, but instead that ‘we are nature’.” - Jackie Maguire and Trisha MacLaughlin
Jenny Tufts: Circus Artist and Solo Show Development
Jenny Tufts lives in Sligo and is an American-born, Ireland-based circus artist specialising in aerial hoop and spinning bar apparatus. With a diverse background that includes performances across three continents and viral success with Disney in 2022, Jenny is known for her combination of technical skill and creative expression.
She has trained at prestigious various international institutions including Circus Warehouse (NYC), Circus Oz (Melbourne), and Centro Acrobatico Fedriani (Madrid), and she co-created the original 'infineight' hoop/spiral apparatus.
After a successful five-years career performing with Irish companies and internationally in Canada, the UK, France, and Germany, Jenny is now embarking on her first full-length solo project. This marks an exciting new chapter as she develops a full-length show, blending her passion for aerial work and circus with her own unique artistic vision. Jenny’s residency at Time at the Well will support her in refining her concept and bringing this personal project to life.
“I am beyond delighted to have been selected as a recipient of the Time at the Well residency! Sligo has been my home since I moved to Ireland in 2020, and I credit the openness and generosity of the community here for so much of my development as an artist over the past five years. As a contemporary circus performer, much of my work is on the road, touring both domestically and internationally. This residency will give me the opportunity to spend more time creating at home, and I very much look forward to sharing this brand-new show with my local community and beyond. A first excerpt of 'How to Have Fun as an Adult' will be shown as part of the Scene & Heard Festival of New Work on February 28th and March 1st at 6:30pm at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.” - Jenny Tufts
Monica McCarthy is a writer, actress, director, and lecturer. She was born and raised in California and lived in New York City for 20 years before moving to Sligo in 2024. Monica’s short film, Survival Job, won several awards at film festivals. Her first play, Lily White’s Party, was chosen for the New Plays Lab at the Inge Festival.
Monica has also been part of many writing programs, including: Stowe Story Labs’ Connemara Writer Retreat, Stowe Story Labs Development Program, Chateau Orquevaux Artist-Writer Residency, Athena Film Festival Writers Lab (NYC), National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Hollywood Radio & Television Society Mentorship Program, and A Week At The Well Residency.
As an actress, Monica has appeared in TV shows and movies like Wednesday (Netflix, directed by Tim Burton), Finnigan’s Foursome (directed by Ed Burns), Faithless (Virgin Media), FBI (CBS), The Blacklist (NBC, directed by Andrew McCarthy), Mildred Pierce (HBO, directed by Todd Haynes), and The Noel Diary (Netflix). She also understudied Laura Linney and Alicia Silverstone in the Broadway play Time Stands Still and has performed in the US, UK, and Japan.
Monica created the podcast The Happier Hour and has led hundreds of workshops on emotional intelligence for leaders around the world. She teaches Fiction Film Practice at ATU Galway and holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University.
“I'm thrilled to be selected as a Time at the Well artist for 2025 as this opportunity provides me with the chance to further develop my work on the play that I began rewrites for during the 2024 Week as the Well residency. Since moving to Sligo, I've been honored to be surrounded by so many wonderful artists and supporters of the arts in this community. I'm grateful to the Hawk's Well for providing me with this gift to continue to develop my craft as a playwright, and I look forward to cheering on my fellow award recipients over the next year.” - Monica McCarthy
The Time at the Well residency offers these artists a platform to push boundaries in their creative practices. We are looking forward to supporting Jackie, Tricia, Jenny, and Monica in developing their innovative work and sharing their creations with the community.
