John Shea (6/82-6/11 Bloomsday on Broadway)
Excerpt from New York Magazine 6/23/82: John Shea
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Fritz Weaver starts things off at 8 a.m., and at 1 a.m. the next day, Anne Meara takes to Molly's bed to wind things up with the famous Soliloquy. It's Bloomsday, 19 hours of readings from James Joyce's Ulysses to celebrate Joyce's centennial, and it's free 6/16-17, at Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th St. Between Weaver and Meara, you can hear Patrick O'Neal, Henderson Forsythe, Eric Bentley, Malachy McCourt, Barbara Gordon, John Shea, and lots more.
© New York Magazine
Excerpt from New York Magazine 6/13/88: John Shea
June 16 Bloomsday
WNYC's own Steve Post joins 50 prominent actors including John Shea, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Jerry Stiller in a seventeen-hour marathon presentation of James Joyce's ULYSSES, broadcast from Symphony Space 8 AM-1AM LIVE
© New York Magazine
New York Times 6/16/95: John Shea
The Spoken Word
Published: June 16, 1995
BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY XIV, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street. Annual marathon of events devoted to James Joyce's "Ulysses," including readings from the work; songs from the novel sung by James Flannery, a tenor; poems set to music by Joyce and memoirs and biographical anecdotes involving Joyce and his family. Among the performers are Mia Dillon, Barbara Feldon, Malachy McCourt, Marian Seldes, John Shea, K. T. Sullivan and Fritz Weaver.
© New York Times
New York Magazine 6/17/96: John Shea
Fifteenth Annual Bloomsday-on-Broadway Celebration
6/16 from noon to midnight: The date Leopold Bloom wandered around Dublin in James Joyce's novel Ulysses will be celebrated with a marathon extravaganza. Broadway actors and Joyce enthusiasts--including John Shea, Celeste Holm, Keir Dullea, Dana Ivey, James Naughton, Lois Smith, Stephen Lang, and Frances Sternhagen--will read Bloomsday on Broadway will be simulcast in its entirety on WBAI 99.5 FM. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th St. (864-5499); $14, $10 students and seniors, $9 members.
© New York Magazine
Theater Mania 6/1/09: John Shea
Sternhagen, Fritz Weaver, et al. Set for Bloomsday on Broadway XXVIII
By: Brian Scott Lipton · Jun 1, 2009 · New York
The event will take place on Tuesday, June 16, starting at 6pm, at Symphony Space. This year's readings will focus on food-oriented passages from the novel. This year's readers are scheduled to include Stephen Aubrey, Ivy Austin, Blaire Berman, Clodagh Bowyer, Mary Brienza, Niall Burgess, Aidan Connolly, Terry Donnelly, Barbara Feldon, Lisa Flanagan, Jonathan Hadary, Cynthia Harris, Adam Harvey, Paul Hecht, Neil Hickey, Charles Keating, Larry Keith, Stephen Lang. Robert MacNeil, Ted Marcoux, David Margulies, Kathryn Markey, Colum McCann, Frank McCourt, Malachy McCourt, Charlotte Moore, Terry Moran, Ciaran O'Reilly, Rochelle Oliver, Peter Quinn, Leenya Rideout, Thane Rosenbaum, Barbara Rosenblat, Andrew Seear, Marian Seldes, John Shea, Isaiah Sheffer, John Spinks, George Stack, Frances Sternhagen, KT Sullivan, Fritz Weaver, and Harris Yulin.
© Theater Mania
Excerpt from Theater Mania 5/24/10: John Shea
Stephen Colbert, Michael Cerveris, John Shea, Fritz Weaver, et al. Set for Bloomsday on Broadway XXIX
By: Dan Bacalzo · May 24, 2010 · New York
Stephen Colbert, Michael Cerveris, Colum McCann, Marian Seldes, John Shea, Tony Roberts, Dana Ivey, Stephen Lang, Malachy McCourt, Fritz Weaver, Jonathan Hadary, Lois Smith, David Margulies, Cynthia Harris, Jefferson Mays, Harris Yulin, and Damian Woetzel will perform in Bloomsday on Broadway XXIX, to be held at Symphony Space's Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, on Wednesday, June 16 at 7pm.
© Theater Mania
Excerpt from Irish Central 6/12/11: John Shea
James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ to be celebrated on Broadway for Bloomsday: Marathon reading celebrates 30 years of reading from James Joyce’s greatest book on June 16
By BUZZ BRADY Published Sunday, June 12, 2011, 10:35 AM
Symphony Space will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bloomsday with a joyous and marathon reading from James Joyce’s “Ulysses," curated and organized by “Selected Shorts” host, Isaiah Sheffer. The readings follow the adventures of Joyce’s hero, Mr. Leopold Bloom as he makes his way around Dublin, from the tower to the library to the bars to the seaside to the brothels - and back home again. This year’s 13-hour marathon reading samples all 18 episodes of the book concluding when Fionnula Flanagan reaches the final “yes” of the entire uncensored Molly Bloom monologue. The role of Mr. Bloom will be read by an all-star cast including James Naughton, Denis O’Hare, John Shea, Michael Cerveris, David Margulies, Paul Hecht, Harris Yulin, and more.
© Irish Central
Excerpt from New York Daily News 6/13/11: John Shea
b>'Ulysses' fans come together for Bloomsday, in honor of James Joyce's beloved protagonist
BY Nicole Lyn Pesce / DAILY NEWS FEATURE REPORTER / Wednesday, June 15, 2011, 4:00 AM
Symphony Space 30th Annual Bloomsday on Broadway The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre stages its marathon reading with more than 100 Broadway and TV performers (including James Naughton, KT Sullivan and John Shea) running through the entire novel. Get comfortable; the full reading clocks in at about 13 hours. Noon; $25 or $15 for those 30 and younger. 2537 Broadway, at 95th St., (212) 864-5400 or symphonyspace.org.
© New York Daily News
Excerpt from Symphony Space 6/16/11: John Shea
Bloomsday on Broadway
On Thursday, June 16th, 2011, we celebrate the 30th annual BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY James Joyce ULYSSES marathon, staged by Isaiah Sheffer. It will involve over 100 actors, including some leading stars of stage and screen, and will last over twelve hours, from noon until Molly Bloom's final "Yes!" sometime after midnight. Since the events of June 16, 1904, described in the 18 episodes of ULYSSES also happen on a Thursday, this anniversary will sample ALL 18 EPISODES, giving beginning readers of ULYSSES a sampling of the diverse styles employed by James Joyce, and giving experienced Joyceans a very satisfying literary feast. The program for the day's events are as follows:
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Kinky Bloom, The Shoe Fetishist and Bella Cohen, Whoremistress
Narrator: Isaiah Sheffer
Leopold Bloom: John Shea
Bella/Bello Cohen: Eilen O’Dea
....
Stargazing and Urinating in the Garden
Q: Gordana Rashovich
A: John Shea
© Symphony Space
Excerpt from Irish Echo 6/29/11: John Shea
The Bard’s works in a minor key; Bloomsday celebration marks 3rd decade
June 29th, 2011
The 26-hour celebration of Bloomsday, 2011, that began at noon on Thursday, June 16, and concluded a little before 2:00 a.m. on Friday, June 17, was the thirtieth running of the event at Symphony Space, a former movie theater on Broadway at Ninety-Fifth Street. The endeavor, as always, was “created and staged” by Isaiah Sheffer, the Artistic Director of Symphony Space. Bloomsday, is the name of the 1904 Dublin day on which James Joyce’s “Ulysses” takes place, starting with the novel’s “hero,” Leopold Bloom, greeting the morning in the Martello Tower, and ending with his faithless wife, Marian, called Molly, unable to fall asleep, and giving free vent to her deepest thoughts and feelings. Her lengthy wanderings in and out of her memories and her dreams constitutes one of the greatest extended passages in all of literature, known the world over as “Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy.”
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Whatever the approach, the glories of Joyce’s writing shine through, enhanced by the genuine brilliance of many of the actors involved. There was a large and avid audience which had gathered at Symphony Space to be part of “Bloomsday.” Many brought along their own copies of “Ulysses,” silently reading along with the actors, despite the limited light in the auditorium. For some of the actors, being part of “Bloomsday on Broadway” has acquired an importance well beyond merely doing a casual reading. Among the most dedicated “Bloomsday” repeaters are performers Denis O’Hare, Keir Dullea, Mia Dillon, Kathleen Chalfant, Paul Hecht, Terry Donnelly, Mary Beth Hurt, Ciaran O’Reilly, Charlotte Moore, Frances Sternhagen, David Margulies, Boyd Gaines, Dana Ivey, Estelle Parsons, John Shea, Harris Yulin, Robert MacNeil, Michael Cerveris, and, to read “Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy,” Fionnula Flanagan.
© Irish Echo
Excerpt from Inquirer and Mirror 3/15/12: John Shea
Celebrating Irish Culture: James Joyce's "Molly Bloom" on stage Friday
By Joshua Balling March 15, 2012
Last spring, as John Shea stepped onto the stage of Broadway’s Symphony Space to read from James Joyce’s seminal 20th-century novel “Ulysses” in front of a crowd of 1,000 and a live public-radio audience, the actress with whom he’d share the scene gave him some terrifying news. “ ‘John,’ she said, ‘this is not the scene we’re doing. You have the wrong pages’,” said Shea, an actor, screenwriter and artistic director of Theatre Workshop of Nantucket. “Then she said ‘John, look into my eyes, and you’ll be OK. You can read from my script.’ We were standing there, sharing a single microphone, I was reading from the scene cold for the first time, and sure enough, she completely supported me through one of the worst moments of my life. By the end of it, there was a huge ovation. I was so relieved and so grateful. She saved a drowning man that night.”
The actress was Eilin O’Dea, who will perform “Molly Bloom,” the female monologue from the end of Joyce’s epic work tomorrow evening at Bennett Hall as part of TWN’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend celebration of Irish culture and heritage.
© Inquirer and Mirror