posted
Jun 02, 2020
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle will present a staged reading of
Chapter 11, “Sirens”,
adapted from the 1922 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
For the first time ever,
our annual reading will be presented online
and available for all to stream on Bloomsday, June 16, 2020
here at WildGeeseSeattle.org.
Update: Watch the video.
Bloomsday (Bloom’s day, named for Ulysses’ main character, Leopold Bloom)
refers to the 24-hour period on June 16, 1904
in which Ulysses is set.
Ulysses follows the wanderings of Bloom, a Jewish everyman,
and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce’s alter ego,
as they wander the streets of Dublin.
Join us online for Chapter 11, Sirens,
where it is 4 pm
and the Dublin characters gather at the Ormond Hotel
by the banks of the River Liffey.
Leopold Bloom joins Father Cowley, Simon Dedalus, Richie Goulding,
Lenehan, and Ben Dollard among others,
to enjoy an afternoon of songs and music,
with the divine Miss Douce and the comely Miss Kennedy setting the scene.
The Readers
Narrators: Claudia Finn, Irene Calvo, Bruce Greeley, Iain Edgewater
Miss Lydia “Bronze” Douce: Olivia Bermingham-McDonogh
Miss Mina “Gold” Kennedy: Ellen Coyle
Bloom: Maura Donegan
Bloom Interior: Mark Gunning, Maura Donegan
Simon Dedalus: Bill Barnes
Lenehan: Leon Mattigosh
Blazes Boylan: Joseph Ryan
Ben Dollard: Joseph Ryan
Father Cowley: Lynne Compton
George Lidwell: Leon Mattigosh
Richie Goulding: Roger Berger
Boots: Joseph Ryan
Robert Emmet: Bill Barnes
Tom Kernan: Roger Berger
Stripling: Roger Berger
Shopgirl: Ellen Coyle
Conductor: Roger Berger
Production
Co-Director: Lynne Compton
Co-Director: Roger Berger
Script: George Reilly
Recorder: Joseph Ryan
Recording Editor: Helen Brew
Publicity: Claudia Finn, George Reilly
Poster: Ellen Coyle, Leon Mattigosh, Claudia Finn
Special Thanks to Matthew Donegan-Ryan
Script
Read along with the script.
Adapted by George Reilly from the
Project Gutenberg text.
Press Release
This is our twenty-third year of Bloomsday readings.
(Press Release).
Notes
Co-director Roger Berger has provided some additional
notes on the Sirens chapter.
Commentary on Sirens
Other Wild Geese Events
See our archives for details of our previous readings.
Click to read and post comments
posted
May 29, 2020
23rd Annual Staged Reading / Virtual Bloomsday Celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle
join Bloomsday celebrations across the globe honoring Ulysses’ author James Joyce.
For the first time ever, our annual reading will be presented online
and available for all to stream on Bloomsday, June 16, 2020
at WildGeeseSeattle.org.
Bloomsday (Bloom’s day, named for Ulysses’ main character, Leopold Bloom)
refers to the 24-hour period on June 16, 1904 in which Ulysses is set.
Ulysses follows the wanderings of Bloom, a Jewish everyman,
and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce’s alter ego,
as they wander the streets of Dublin.
Join us online for Chapter 11, Sirens, where it is 4 pm
and the Dublin characters gather at the Ormond Hotel
by the banks of the River Liffey.
Leopold Bloom joins Father Cowley, Simon Dedalus, Richie Goulding,
Lenehan, and Ben Dollard among others,
to enjoy an afternoon of songs and music,
with the divine Miss Douce and comely Miss Kennedy setting the scene.
Since 1998, The Wild Geese Players of Seattle
have presented staged readings of Irish literature,
by writers such as James Joyce and W.B. Yeats.
The Geese are a diverse group of people who are Irish-born or have Irish connections,
who share an interest in Irish literature.
We believe that poetry and certain novels are best read aloud,
that some works are better heard than read.
For more information,
visit the Wild Geese Players’ website www.WildGeeseSeattle.org,
like our Facebook group,
or follow @WildGeeseSea on Twitter.
Contacts:
Roger Berger, director, or George Reilly WildGeeseSeattle@gmail.com
Claudia Finn cfinnseattle@gmail.com
Click to read and post comments
posted
May 19, 2019
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle will present a staged reading of
Chapter 10, “Wandering Rocks”,
adapted from the 1922 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
We have read from Ulysses every Bloomsday since 1998.
After concluding Ulysses in 2013, we started afresh five years ago.
This year, we’re reading Chapter 10, “Wandering Rocks”.
We’ll be reading excerpts from the chapter at Folio on Friday, June 14th,
and the entire chapter at the Seattle Central Library on Sunday, June 16th.
Chapter 10: Wandering Rocks
The Wandering Rocks chapter is the only chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses
with a brief, passing structural relationship to Homer.
In Homer, Circe warns Ulysses to avoid the Wandering Rocks
because they were dangerous for sea navigation.
It is really taken from Jason and the Argonauts’ story
of their perilous sea journey back to Corinth with the Golden Fleece.
Joyce was reputed to have used a compass, ruler, set square, map, and a timepiece
when he was constructing this episode.
Here we are first fully introduced to the Dublin of the early twentieth century,
a city that the book would eventually immortalize.
Neither Stephen Dedalus nor Leopold Bloom dominates the chapter.
It is Joyce’s “woman-city”—Dublin—that becomes the essence of the story.
This is the central chapter of Joyce’s book, offered in 19 scenes,
with the first functioning as a classic prologue and the nineteenth as an epilogue.
The Wandering Rocks serves as a bridge between the two halves of the book
and a miniature of the whole.
In true Joyce style, he used to play a board game called Labyrinth with his daughter Lucia.
What we are witnessing is that labyrinth transported to the streets of Dublin.
The characters of the city pass the mid-afternoon hour of 3–4pm.
Their comings and goings become framed between the primary journeys of Church and State.
The ambling Father Conmee represents the Roman Catholic Church,
and the cavalcade of the Governor-General of Ireland, the Earl of Dudley, represents the British State.
The chapter is quite cinematic in its visual presentation.
Its conclusion is a city crowded with people walking, talking, running and singing!
Bloomsday Event at Folio, June 14th, 2019
6:00–8:00pm on Friday, June 14th, 2019,
Folio Seattle,
93 Pike St #307,
Seattle, WA 98101
Directions to Folio in the Pike Place Market.
Folio Seattle presents a talk about Joyce and Ulysses by Roger Berger and
the Wild Geese reading excerpts from the “Wandering Rocks” chapter.
Please RSVP to the Facebook event.
Bloomsday Reading at the Seattle Central Library, June 16th, 2019
2:00–4:00pm on Sunday, June 16th, 2019,
The Seattle Central Library,
Microsoft Auditorium, Level 1,
1000 Fourth Ave,
Seattle, WA 98104
Map.
We will read the entire “Wandering Rocks” chapter at the Library.
Donations towards costs of posters and props are welcome.
Please arrive before 2:00pm to find a seat.
The reading will take about two hours.
Please RSVP to the Facebook event.
Poster
We encourage you to download Irene Calvo’s
Wandering Rocks poster
(PDF, 600KB) and post it around town.
Press Release
This is our twenty-second year of Bloomsday readings.
(Press Release).
Commentary on Wandering Rocks
Other Wild Geese Events
See our archives for details of our previous readings.
Click to read and post comments
posted
May 19, 2019
22nd Annual Staged Reading / Bloomsday Celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle
join Bloomsday celebrations across the globe honoring Ulysses’ author James Joyce.
Our 22nd annual staged reading of a chapter from the book will be held
on Bloomsday, Sunday, June 16th at 2:00pm
in the Microsoft Auditorium at the Seattle Central Library,
1000 Fourth Ave, Seattle, WA 98104.
We will also be reading excerpts
at 6:00pm on Friday, June 14th,
at Folio Seattle, 93 Pike St #307, Seattle, WA 98101.
Bloomsday (Bloom’s day, named for Ulysses’ main character, Leopold Bloom)
is a worldwide commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer, James Joyce
and refers to the 24-hour period of 16th June 1904 in which Ulysses is set.
The book follows the wanderings of Bloom, a Jewish everyman,
and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce’s alter ego,
as they wander the streets of Dublin.
Chapter 10: Wandering Rocks
Chapter 10, The Wandering Rocks, will be performed.
This chapter has been described as a labyrinth that summarizes the day so far,
and gives premonitions of the tale to come!
This is the central chapter of Joyce’s book, offered in 19 interlocking scenes,
as ordinary Dubliners across the city interact in mid-afternoon.
More Information
Visit the Wild Geese Players’ website www.WildGeeseSeattle.org,
like our Facebook group,
or follow @WildGeeseSea on Twitter.
Follow-up contacts:
George Reilly, Director, WildGeeseSeattle@gmail.com
Iain Edgewater, i.edgewater@gmail.com, 206.693.8166
Click to read and post comments
