Bloomsday 2026

Tuesday, June 16 

   Bloomsday Celebration! 

     1:45-4:15 PM

         followed by a cast party (all attendees invited) at 4:15 PM

Program Notes:

This Bloomsday reading follows the trajectory of our Joyce Transition course in which we trace the path of James Joyce from the Dubliners short stories to the bildungsroman, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, to Ulysses. from:

• from despair and frustration 

• to hope 

• to multifaceted humor.

Although the prodinant moods of these works are all different; they all  present remarkably rich and varied writing.

Joyce was always an extremely talented writer but his outlook on life changed as he grew up.

• The Dubliners stories are rich in literary technique but incredibly sad; 

• the Portrait shows evolution in narrative style as Stephen Dedalus (Joyce’s semi-autobiographical hero) matures from childhood to young adulthood, and shows his resourceful emergence from desperation to optimism;

• In Ulysses Joyce shows how fine writing can be comic and serious at the same time in this encyclopedia of humor. 

The wide range of psychological questions and portrayals that emerge in these three works are remarkable, given the relatively undeveloped state of psychology at the time that Joyce wrote.

BLOOMSDAY SCRIPT (TABLE OF CONTENTS)

Act I: Dubliners                                                                          Page

1.After the Race (The kinetic energy and dawn realization)..........2

2.The Dead (The final "snow falling faintly" sequence)..................6

Act II: A Portrait of the Artist 

3. The Hellfire Sermon (The trap).................................................13 

4. Wasting the Prize Money (The material futility)........................16 

5. The Girl on the Strand (The awakening/breaking the net)........19

Act III: Ulysses 

6. Telemachus (The Martello tower)

A. Frenemies.................................................................................22

B. Consorting.................................................................................26

7. Cyclops 

A. The Cyclops..............................................................................28

B.The ascension of ben Bloom Elijah...........................................30 

8. Circe (Bloom’s speech as Lord Mayor/Emperor)......................32 

9. Ithaca (The scientific characteristics of water)..........................37 

10. Penelope 

A.Start...........................................................................................39

B.Finish.........................................................................................40

Reading Roles:

• Laura Bodin 4

• Robert Aubry Davis 2, 8

• Marilyn Wong Gleysteen 6B, 10A

• Bill Hadden 9

• Walter Kamiat 3

• Bob kolodney 1

• Steve Lamm 7B

• Mary Poole 5, 10B. 

• Judy Spector 7A

• Howard Spendelow 6A

THE SCRIPT