A four-piece ensemble including composer/vocalist/pianist Cal Folger Day presents the full hour-long score of verbatim pop-opera The Woods & Grandma, which takes the transcript of a 2002 RTÉ interview with Lady Gregory’s two granddaughters, Anne & Catherine, and sets it word-for-word to music. A fully staged production of the piece won the Little Gem award at the 2017 Dublin Fringe Festival and an hour-long feature about its composition process will air on RTÉ Lyric FM in December. This nimble gig-friendly version has already been presented at the Dunsink Observatory in Dublin as part of The Festival of Curiosity last month, and for Culture Night (Friday, 21 Sept) it will be performed in the visitor’s centre at Lady Gregory’s Galway residence, Coole Park. Using original prop and costume elements by Isadora Epstein, this iteration will also introduce a new central visual element: two life-size puppet figures, a cardboard Anne & Catherine. The music is performed by a band including Phil Christie (O Emperor, The Bonk), Daniel Fox (Girl Band), and Nick Boon.

BIO
Cal Folger Day is an American composer based in Dublin. Her Dead Lady shows take the words of rather anonymous women from the past and set them to new music. The Woods & Grandma, from an interview with Lady Gregory's two granddaughters, was nominated for Spirit of Fringe, Spirit of Wit, and won the Bewley's Little Gem award at the Dublin Fringe in September 2017. At the Roots of the Stars, from a Djuna Barnes play, premiered at Smock Alley Scene+Heard in 2016. "A guitarist and chanteuse with jazz leanings, whose vocal control and stage presence command attention" (The New Yorker).