“Collapsing canons, fragmented literary traditions, and a crumbling notion of high art – the postmodern condition looks like a mess. Yet one feisty old writer is determined to bridge the gaps.Language is my game, says 84- year-old islander Ted Simmons. Always has been.Building on a lifetime’s experience at the drama desks of the Seattle Times, the L.A. Times, and Time magazine, Simmons says that his original drama Bloomsday has its foundations firmly in the past. He penned his collection of skits and verbal calisthenics, along with a biographical study of author James Joyce himself, in commemoration of the great Dubliner’s famous way with words. Bloomsday takes to the stage Friday, the day Joyce fans worldwide celebrate the creation of Ulysses. Joyce’s masterful updating of Homer’s The Odyssey – in which, in short, Joyce reincarnates the heroic Odysseus as the mundane protagonist Bloom, replacing Odysseus’ journey from siren seduction through bloody war to a welcome homecoming in the arms of his faithful Penelope, with an examination of Bloom’s 24-hour spate back to breakfast at home – yields plenty of dramatic potential.With some editing on Simmons’ part, Bainbridge High School instructor Bob McAllister, former New York Broadway actress Aleta McMillen and various BHS actors promise to bring the lengthy novel to life. Simmons says the play has been hard work, adding, my writing is never a labor of love.However, when he begins to quote from Ulysses, you can be sure he shares Joyce’s relish for what Simmons calls nasty words.Recalling fondly how Ulysses was bootlegged into America in the 1930s in the wake of controversy over Joyce’s use of obscene language, Simmons says, Joyce was a linguistic revolutionary – in a good way. And at the mention of Joyce’s poetic tangents and his ability to create characters whose single sentence can continue for 46 pages, the aging playwright gets even more excited. He cites Joyce’s rearrangement of the language we speak into lyrical verse, with his ear for the mispronunciations of Irishmen, as an inspiration to reader and writer alike. For Simmons himself is something of a radical.I write when I have something interesting to say, even if no one’s listening he says, completing the image of himself as a man who prefers words over people.So it is no surprise that Simmons’ sole ambition requires that he immerse himself in the work of pedagogic forefathers.With enough study, I’ll write the perfect play when I’m 100, he says. It’ll be timeless.* * * * *Bloomsday 2000 takes to the stage at 7:30 p.m. June 16 at Bainbridge Island Library.”