Joyce Jag: A Bloom-in’ Six Blocks Away

For the past five years, former Indy arts editor D. J. Palladino and writer/publisher Jim Buckley (not to be confused with our former publisher) have teamed up to produce Bloomsday Santa Barbara, a celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses on June 16, to coincide with the international celebrations of the iconic novel – whose entire main action takes place on that date in 1904. Other places have over-the-top celebrations where fans dress in Edwardian period costumes to retrace the steps of the novel’s protagonist Leopold Bloom across Dublin, some with pub crawls and traditional Bloomsday breakfasts of liver, sausages, and tea. 

But they don’t have the James Joyce Pub, the lower State Street bar which has hosted the marathon reading of sections of the novel by local actors, writers, and others since the event began.

Now, it’s moving away from the namesake watering hole and its peanut shell-adorned floors. It’s hoped that mounting the literary event in the Alhecama Theatre will yield a more theatrical experience of the novel, whose (at times) arguably obtuse themes touch on the far reaches of the human experience as embodied in a single Dublin day. “We are taking a one-year break from our home at the James Joyce Pub to spread our wings on the stage,” said Buckley. “We have chosen readings and actors who will bring a new sense of space and movement – and fun – to the text.”

Even without the pub locale, Guinness will still be poured, along with other drinks, and appropriately-themed food will also be available. But the idea for the move is “to help everybody better concentrate on the music coming from this rowdy book,” Palladino said. 

The event remains free to all, although donations will be requested to support the Santa Barbara Library Foundation’s ongoing mission of making sure all books are available for all readers. Performers include regulars Henry Brown, Rachel Jordan Brown, James Claffey, Bill Egan, Roger Durling, Michael Katz, James McCarthy, Matt Tavianini, and James Read, with newcomers Billy Higgins, Susan Keller, Clare Carey, Emma Jane Huerta, and others. Doors open at 6 pm.

Over in Ojai: The ‘Company’ You Keep 

Ojai Art Center Theater’s big summer musical revisits a Sondheim favorite in Company, which runs June 12-July 12 at the historic theater. Winner of multiple Tony Awards and widely recognized as a landmark in American musical theater, the comedy follows Bobby, a single man celebrating his 35th birthday while observing the marriages, friendships, and complicated relationships of the people around him through a series of witty and poignant vignettes that explore the joys and challenges of human connection. Adding a touch of real-life romance to the production, Kyle Caldwell and Darrienne Lissette Caldwell, who portray Bobby and April in the community theater production, are husband and wife offstage.  

Visit www.ojaiact.org.