Joanne is an award-winning Limerick-based writer and performer.
Her critically acclaimed debut solo show EGGSISTENTIALISM premiered in Dublin Fringe in 2016, was part of Culture Ireland’s 2017 Edinburgh Showcase and has since toured extensively with sell-out runs in London, Liverpool, Cyprus, Malaysia and Australia.
EGGSISTENTIALISM has won the Lustrum Award for Best Festival Moment at Edinburgh Fringe, The Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready Award, The Sydney Fringe Critics’ Pick Award and was nominated for Best Performance at Melbourne Fringe. In 2018 it won the Stroller’s Network Touring Award leading to a 10-venue national tour in November 2019. In 2021 Joanne adapted EGGSISTENTIALISM for RTÉ Radio’s Drama on One.
In 2018 Joanne was one of the playwrights chosen to participate in Fishamble Theatre Company’s A Play for Ireland scheme.
Her second play IN TWO MINDS was developed across a two-year process supported by Lime Tree Theatre, The Arts Council, Limerick Council, Fishamble’s New Play Clinic and The JP Mc Manus Charitable Foundation and will be produced by Fishamble Theatre Company in October 2023.
Along with co-lead artist, Ann Blake, Joanne is currently under commission from The Arts Council and Ormston House to develop a new large-scale piece of interdisciplinary, promenade theatre inspired by the life of Limerick-born Hollywood Starlet, Constance Smith. She is also developing a new autobiographical work interrogating issues around death, dying and loss.
In addition to her work as a writer and maker, Joanne has performed with many companies in Ireland. In 2014 she was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in What Happened Bridgie Cleary.
She is currently an Artist-in-Residence in Ormston House and Theatre Artist-in-Residence in Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable. She was Limerick’s PLATFORM 31 artist in 2022 and a Six-in-the-Attic artist at Irish Theatre Institute in 2021.
Joanne works as a mentor to artists nationally across all artforms with Minding Creative Minds and teaches funding and business skills to artists at 3rd level.
She has been awarded Civic Honours for her international awards success and contribution to theatre and the arts in Limerick.
