Origin’s BLOOMSDAY Off to a GOOD START This Year

This year’s 5th annual immersive Bloomsday Breakfast hosted by Origin Theatre Company and Bloom’s Tavern in Midtown lands on a Saturday. The annual free event — New York’s only site-specific Bloomsday breakfast, featuring readings from “Ulysses,” musical interludes, and a juried costume contest — unfolds at Bloom’s Tavern 208 East 58th Street, on Saturday June 16, starting at 11:30am.

“Origin’s 5th Bloom… @ Bloom’s Tavern of Course!” — produced by Origin Theatre Company… a grand tradition since 2014, commemorates the Dublin summer morning chronicled in James Joyce’s landmark novel “Ulysses,” which takes place in a single day, June 16, 1904.

The event also features the announcement of the “Origin in Bloom” Literary Prize, honoring an Irish or Irish-American author with a unique connection to New York.

The beloved writer and activist Malachy McCourt won the inaugural “Origin in Bloom” Literary Prize last year. The prize’s nominating committee includes the Irish Voice’s Cahir O’Doherty, Irish America Magazine’s Patricia Harty, and the Irish Echo’s Peter McDermott.

Among the notable performers, writers and musicians taking part are Elmore James; David O’Hara; Charlotte Moore; Sean Gormley; Ciarán Sheehan; Paula Nance; Terry Donnolly; Fiona Walsh; Patrick Fitzgerald and The James Joyce Reading Group, and David O’Leary of Trí — The New Irish Tenors. The Irish-folk-rock troubadour Alan Gogarty on guitar is the event’s music director.

For the third year in a row the breakfast features a costume competition for the “Best, or Most Creatively, Dressed Molly or Leopold Bloom.” The winner — either a man or woman — will be selected from among the guests by a blue-ribbon panel of judges led by the internationally recognized image strategist Margaret Molloy. A $1,000 Dinner and NYC Fun Package will be offered to the grand-prize winner. (Contestants are invited to come period-attired, or in a summer-festive outfit that is a modern interpretation of a Dublin morning 1904. Both couples and individuals are eligible. 1 Grand Prize will be awarded.)

James Joyce first serialized “Ulysses” beginning in 1918. Considered a masterpiece of modernism, it was banned in the U.S. before the book was published in its entirety in France in 1922. Bloomsday observances around the world date back to 1924.

Produced by Origin Theatre Company “Origin’s 5th Bloom… @ Bloom’s Tavern of Course!” takes place at Bloom’s Tavern, 208 East 58th Street, on Saturday June 16 from 11:30am. The FREE, site-specific event featuring performances and civilized gaiety is fueled by a traditional Irish breakfast, with blood sausage and kidney pie among the edible delicacies, and refreshing summer drinks. For information and reservations go to www.origintheatre.org