Named as The Stranger’s Genius Award winner for an organization in September, Strawshop has spent much of the summer seeking a new venue after losing out on the theatre residency offered at Richard Hugo House, where the company performed exclusively since 2004.
The collaboration with SU—which allows a professional company to return to the theatre briefly home to the Empty Space—was made possible by a relationship between Strawshop artistic director Greg Carter and SU theatre professor Rosa Joshi.
Carter met Joshi after he saw her production of King John at upstart crow featuring Amy Thone and an all-female cast in 2006. They immediately began talking about plays that Joshi might direct at Strawshop, and landed on Galileo.
“Brecht is an inevitable choice for Strawshop. Given our mission to do very theatrical, very political work, we are almost always channeling Brecht no matter what we do. It’s about time we looked at one of his original plays,” says Carter.
Life of Galileo was first produced in 1943 in Zurich as a statement against Fascism. It was famously adapted by the Hollywood actor Charles Laughton for a remount in California after Brecht immigrated to the US in 1947. While researching the play, Joshi discovered a more current, more conversational translation by the contemporary playwright David Edgar (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Continental Divide). The Strawshop/SU production is a West Coast premiere of Edgar’s script.
The whole Galileo process represents a genuine collaboration between two organizations. The design faculty and staff at SU are providing all design services, and working with SU students as technicians and backstage crew. The acting ensemble is made up of professional actors and students working seamlessly. It’s an opportunity for the SU undergraduates to experience the working conditions, preparation, and discipline of some of Seattle’s most successful actors. It’s also an opportunity for Strawshop’s audience to see a brilliant play in the Lee Center, one of the city’s most exceptional new venues.
Department Chair Carol Wolfe Clay, says “the collaboration with Strawshop on Galileo is an excellent example of the kind of work we pride ourselves in at SU: pairing students with seasoned artists, pooling resources and artistry, creating meaningful connections with community arts organizations.”
Strawshop is riding a three-year wave of critical success and increased public profile. In addition to the organizational award from The Stranger, two artists have earned individual Genius Awards immediately following Strawshop projects (Thone in 2007; Gabriel Baron in 2005). The Gregory Falls Award for Sustained Achievement was given to Todd Jefferson Moore in 2006 just after he closed his second run in Strawhop’s Fellow Passengers. Accidental Death of an Anarchist was named “Best of the Fringe” by the Seattle Times in 2005. The company has also won funding from national organizations such as the Puffin Foundation and the Jim Henson Foundation, as well as local entities like 4Culture and City Artists.
In Galileo, Timothy Hyland plays the pioneering scientist and ethicist, a year after appearances at Strawshop in The Bridge of San Luis Rey and An Enemy of the People. Hyland is one of the most versatile actors working in the city today, a veteran of regional theatres across the west, and a recent actor at Seattle Shakespeare Company (School for Scandal), Seattle Children’s Theatre (I Know What a Dragon Looks Like), and CHAC (Stones in his Pockets).
Other faces in the cast marking a return appearance at Strawshop are Gabriel Baron (The Water Engine, Fellow Passengers, Accidental Death of an Anarchist), Hana Lass (Bridge), Troy Fischnaller (Enemy), and John Farrage (Bridge), and stage manager Holly Heredia (This Land, Passengers, Enemy). Strawshop newcomers are Therese Diekhans, Andrew Litzky, and Joe McCarthy.
In addition to Joshi and her students, the SU team working on the project are Carol Wolfe Clay (scenery), Harmony Arnold (costumes), Dominic CodyKramers (sound), and David Moon (lights).
Original music is by Eyvind Kang.
