A friend once told Peggy Sweeney-McDonald that she “sprinkles Peggy pixie dust on every project.”
And at 60, that list of projects is long. After growing up in Baton Rouge, McDonald followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress and entertainer. She became a member of the Screen Actors Guild and worked in film, television and commercials there for nearly two decades.
She once smiled at her commercial agent, who told her, “Peggy, you’re going to make lots of money with that smile.”
“I did do a lot of commercial work smiling,” she says today, laughing.
But she never forgot her Louisiana roots. She created a recurring live show, Meanwhile, Back at Café Du Monde…Life Stories about Food, as well as a book by the same name. The show and book feature creatives’ anecdotes about food.
McDonald, a self-proclaimed “forever Baton Rouge girl,” moved back home in 2016 after 18 years in the bright Los Angeles lights. She brought the live show with her, arranging shows at the LSU Museum of Art, East Baton Rouge Parish Library and Eliza restaurant last year.
Now, she’s taking her talents to Preserve Louisiana, hosting two events with the organization this fall. The first, a Meanwhile, Back at Café Du Monde… live show Sept. 20 at the Old Governor’s Mansion, will feature monologues all about food from a variety of guests, including Brew Ha-Ha! owner Gabby Loubiere Higgins. The second event, Oct. 26-28, is a Steel Magnolias tour of Natchitoches, where the 30-year-old film was shot.
Sweeney-McDonald hasn’t been home that long, but she’s already sprinkled her pixie dust over Baton Rouge.
“When I was in kindergarten, I was always performing in the backyard. I used to have my mom make a stage, using sheets over clotheslines like a backdrop. I would recruit all the neighbors and little kids, including my three little sisters, and let them do shows. Every time we’d go camping with all these other families, the first thing I would do when we’d get to a campground was find one of those outdoor amphitheaters and say, ‘Let’s go put on a show.’ At LSU, I did Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O’Neill when I was a freshman. I was all in. It’s so funny, because at LSU, we used to do Reader’s Theater projects, and I played Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I’ve always loved and identified with Dorothy, looking over the rainbow for something more. And I’m realizing that after all these years, the something more was right here in my hometown.”
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
