Heather Woodbury as ALL of Stephen Dedalus's sisters

One of the great rewards of putting together a 7 hour marathon Radio Bloomsday is connecting with performers I don't personally know but whose work has deeply inspired me.  10 years ago while visiting relatives in Ireland, I popped in to see Heather Woodbury's performance novel Whatever at the Galway Arts Festival.  Irish audiences are notoriously tough customers and in fact, I had never been in an Irish theater before that gave a standing ovation.

Heather's performance was so magnificent, however and the dozens of characters she played so unforgettable that she had no sooner finished when the entire crowd was on its feet.  The drama critic Fintan O'Toole called Heather's writing, the closest thing we have to an American Ulysses.  In any case, my mind was blown and my heart inspired by this one of a kind writer-performer.    

Joining us for her first time at Radio Bloomsday,  we recorded Heather today portraying all of Stephen Dedalus's poverty stricken sisters at the KPFK studios in Los Angeles.  She also plays Blazes Boylan's romance novel obsessed secretary Miss Dunne.  I can't wait for you to hear her uniquely West Coast interpretation of these classic characters this Sunday night, June 16th on wbai.org 99.5 FM in New York City and KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.   Meanwhile you can subscribe to watch Heather's plays online now.