Join Rosemary Caine and the Wilde Irish Shenanigans for St Patrick's Day - in May at Hawkes and Reed in Greenfield on May 18th at 7:30pm. Featuring special guests The Duffy Academy of Irish Dance.
$20 - $25
Join Rosemary Caine and the Wilde Irish Shenanigans for St Patrick's Day - in May at Hawkes and Reed in Greenfield on May 18th at 7:30pm. Featuring special guests The Duffy Academy of Irish Dance.
$20 - $25
Photo: Stephanie Carlson who plays Emily DickinsonThe Certification of Emily Dickinson is a musical drama composed by Wilde Irish Women’s Rosie Caine. It explores Emily’s relationship with her Irish Maid, Margaret Maher, or “Maggie.” as Emily called her.Says Caine “Emily’s poems are filled with lyricism and their own music, a songwriter’s dream.”Caine, who has written five musicals for the Wilde Irish Women group normally focuses on famous Irish women, but the back story of the relationship caught her attention when she discovered that the anti-Irish Emily and Dickinson family ultimately changed their tune as they succumbed to the charms of “Maggie” who was, in Emily’s own words “warm, wild and mighty.”One of the most fascinating facts that this musical brings to light is the little known death bed oath that Maggie disobeyed.“Burn the poems I’ve hidden in your trunk Maggie,“ the reclusive, barely published Emily commanded. And so Maggie’s own story, as a woman empowering another woman if finally coming to light. Since that woman is an Irish woman, she joins Rosie Caine’s list of redoubtable figures of Wilde Irish Women!
If the Irish can claim they saved civilization then we dare to claim that Margaret Maher saved Emily Dickinson’s poems.
Experience the lauded performance that reveals the unlikely story of a humble Irish maid’s influence on her reclusive mistress, Emily. Dickinson
Margaret Maher, a humble Irish maid, defied Emily’s death bed decree to burn her poems. Her brave independent thinking and courageous action came of being born in Ireland, in a country where poems are respected not burned. There is so much more to the story…
The latest show from Rosie Caine and Wilde Irish women explores this fascinating and unexplored aspect of Emily's life in "the Celtification of Emily Dickinson."
The show was first performed in 2023 in Abyfil in Fethard, County Tipperary where Margaret Maher emigrated from in the 1850s. Also in schools in Ardee and Dundalk County Louth, Killarney and Blackrock, Dublin where the poet’s work is on the Leaving Certificate (High School) English Curriculum.
Rosemary Caine wrote the book and music during the pandemic with Emily’s poems leading the narrative. Margaret’s charm and intelligence broke down her anti-Irish bias at a time when “Help Wanted, No Irish Need Apply,” was rife. The response of audiences to Wilde Irish Women’s musical play has encouraged them to spread their love of Emily and Margaret’s story beyond the region to the birthplace of Maggie and playwright Rosemary Caine; IRELAND. And it was a thundering success!
For more information, or to book this show for your venue or school/college email Rosie Caine RosieCaine@AOL.com
OR Call or Text Rosie Caine at 413-522-3636 for more information
Actors:
Margaret Maher- Moe McElligot
Emily Dickinson- Stephanie Carlson
Wilde Irish Women Chorus:
Fran Goodwin
Marina Goldman
Nina Pollard
Musicians:
Michael Morgan- Guitar and Rehearsal Director
Chris Devine- Violin, Viola, Flute
Lynn Lovell- Bass
Rick Mauran - Drums, Percussion
Rosemary Caine - Harp, Keyboard, Vocals
Mallorie Chernin - Vocal Ensemble Director