Songs, Poetry & Theatre in Aid of DVAS

Join us for a light and entertaining lunchtime show of music, poetry, and theatre, featuring performances from Fiona Maria Fitzpatrick, Sinéad Sexton, and Miriam Needham. This lunchtime show is a fundraiser for local charity Domestic Violence Advocacy Service.

There will be donation buckets available in the foyer on the day for those who can contribute, but all are welcome to attend free of charge. The foyer will be open to the public from 12pm, and all are welcome to come and enjoy complimentary tea & coffee & refreshments before the show starts at 1pm.

This variety show will include beautiful music from Fiona Maria Fitzpatrick, a performance from ‘Moonbathing’ by Sinéad Sexton, and a sneak peak of Miriam Needham’s upcoming show ‘Wonderhorse’, which will be on stage at Cairde Arts Festival this July.

As well as this, there will also be some readings of poetry written by people who have availed of support from DVAS.

About the Artists:

Fiona Maria Fitzpatrick is an actor, musician, and theatre-maker. Some of her recent performances include What Are We Aetin’ Anyway (Cottage Market Cavan), Hear Me Speak! (Hawk’s Well Theatre), Ceili at Drumshee (Dark Daughter Productions). She has often pounded the boards with Seamus O’Rourke, most notably touring The Cavan Curse from 2016-2018, and worked as a musician and actor with Footsbarn Travelling Theatre from 2017 - 2021. As a musician, she has fronted various ensembles traversing styles from Jazz to Folk and has toured the boards as a solo artist and with her original female troupe 'THE DARLING BUDS OF '. She is a founding member of Folk/Trad group THE MESSAGES, Swing/Jazz trio, BONITA, and regularly performs with Donegal collective, MEITHEAL. In 2022 and 2023, The Messages toured Ireland with English legend of Alt Country, HANK WANGFORD. Fiona is one of the Time at the Well 2024 artists.

“…sits somewhere between the most optimistic Joni Mitchell and the bewitching Sean Nós singers of times gone by. Fiona Maria is reinventing the Irish Ballad for today’s music lovers with her talent for story-telling and her beautiful lilting tones.”
InDublin Magazine

Sinéad Sexton is a theatre practitioner and performance artist based in Sligo. She recently completed Hawk’s Well Theatre’s Artist Residency, Time At The Well, which she used to develop Gazelle, a one woman show, exploring a day in the life of a tour guide who plays the role of Eva Gore-Booth. Gazelle was performed to sold-out houses at Cairde Arts Festival 2023. In 2021 Sinead completed Druid’s FUEL artist residency programme. She holds a Masters of Arts in Drama and Performance from Sligo IT. Her artistic practise focuses on identity, the mystical, re-enactment, and memory. Through play and exploration, she mixes in old and new, and often presents her work through archived material, music, mixed media, and spoken word performance. Since 2019, she has developed three iterations of scripts about the life of Eva Gore-Booth (Hidden Voices 2019, The Acorn 2020 and Gazelle 2021/2023). As a queer artist, she is dedicated to creating queer friendly spaces in the north west of Ireland, to perform, share, and exist in.

Miriam Needham is a playwright and theatre-maker based in the North West. Her previous productions include Hear Me Speak! (Hawk’s Well 2023), Snapshot (Hawk’s Well 2021 & National Tour 2022), and Compostela (Dublin Fringe Festival 2019). She has also performed and toured internationally with companies such as Dead Centre (Beckett’s Room), Blue Raincoat (Alice in Wonderland, The Schooldays of Thaddeus K, Play), and Branar (Mise, Bláth). She is a regular collaborator with Super Paua / Rose Producing, and her work has been supported by Druid (FUEL 2021), Anna Newell (littletinySPACE), the Arts Council of Ireland, and Creative Ireland. As part of her residency at the Hawk’s Well Theatre, she has collaborated with various community groups, including DVAS, Cranmore Co-op, Sligo Social Services, and The Bridge Project.