100 for 100: Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ulysses by James Joyce.

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” James Joyce

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s profound, profane, subversive, sublime and thoroughly Irish but wildly universal novel “Ulysses”, Aoife Anastasia invites you to a 100-minute free writing romp using genre-bending prompts, games and guided thought experiments inspired by the subjects, styles and mythology behind “Ulysses.” New writers and seasoned pros are welcome to dip their pen into some fresh ink, fresh from their stream of consciousness. Absolute non-writers are encouraged as a beginner's mind will be a welcome asset. 

All that is required is a pen, some paper and a life lived because as Joyce himself said “The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring.” Come and make your own mini stream of consciousness masterpiece. #100forthe100

This event is PWYC (Pay What You Can) with a suggested amount of $10 to support the presenter and IRL Festival.  Registration/tickets can be done at https://ulysses100th.eventbrite.com.

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Aoife Nally

Proud Canadian artist, Aoife Nally was born and raised in Waterloo, Ontario where she thrived in the community arts scene: KWLT, summer camps at Centre in the Square and Eastwood Colligates Integrated Arts Program. This launched her into McGill University’s prestigious Opera Performance program, Montreal which lead her to form her own Opera/Musical Theatre Company, ‘SECOND.com/p@n.y.’ with Cambridge born Michael Gianfrancesco and, now local, Brent Krysa. Together they produced critically and locally acclaimed productions of Company, Secret Garden, Sweeney Todd, Candide and Mozart’s Magic Flute. 

She then ventured further afield to do her Classical Theatre Intensive Post-Graduate studies at the London Academy of Music and Drama, UK. Which encouraged her to remain in England and pursue a life of performance on London’s West End Stages. Some of her favourite credits are Jerry Springer: The Opera, Sweeney Todd with Imelda Staunton, Evita for the Donmar Warehouse and Assassins at the Menier Chocolate Factory. 

After releasing an album of her own music, Aoife was commissioned to write her own original musical “Hallowed Ground” which has already enjoyed two professional workshop productions and is currently seeking further funding for a future full-fledged production. 

She continues to produce theatre by reviving the work of her Great Great Uncle, the Abbey Theatre (Dublin) playwright T.H.Nally, whose notorious play “The Spancel of Death” was interrupted by the Easter Uprising of 1916. Her two, site-specific immersive readings at Wilton’s Victorian Music Hall and Treadwell’s bookshop have left audiences speechless and dumbfounded, which has encouraged her to pursue her dream of a fully staged production and to revive interest in her ancestor’s work. Having come back to Waterloo to give a talk on her Great Great Uncle for the I.R.L. Irish culture festival, Aoife has found herself grounded here in the pandemic where she is working on her multimedia, performance, literary and visual arts piece of creative non-fiction titled “Drawing Strength: An Artist’s Guide to Creative Recovery”, which she won her development residencies at Atelier Austmarka, Norway and the Banff Centre for the Arts last year. She is hoping to release selections from this work virtually in the new year.