WAM Theatre Announces Collaboration With Central Square Theater On GALILEO'S SQUARE

Artistic Director Genée Coreno and Managing Director Molly Merrihew have announced that WAM Theatre's Fall production of Galileo's Daughter by Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project, The Rembrandt, Row After Row) will be a co-production with Central Square Theater.

The production will begin its run in the Berkshires at Shakespeare & Company's Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox October 18 – November 3; then transfer to Central Square Theatre in Cambridge in November giving both audiences in Eastern and Western Massachusetts a chance to experience the history, science and magic of the performance. Tickets are on sale now.

“WAM is thrilled to be partnering with Central Square Theater (CST), for Galileo's Daughter, as part of our 15th Anniversary Season,” said WAM's Managing Director Molly Merrihew. “We last came together for the powerful production of Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau, and we are excited to extend the reach of this poignant script from the Berkshires to Boston.”

"I'm really looking forward to returning to our collaboration with WAM after Pipeline became a casualty of COVID,” said CST's Artistic Director Lee Mikeska Gardner. “Genée, Reena, and I share values and a reach for artistic innovation that is the hallmark of both companies. Everyone at CST is looking forward to the creative synergy between the two companies."

The Production Team, led by visionary director Reena Dutt, whose work was last seen in the Berkshires at Chester Theatre Company's Guards at the Taj. Galileo's Daughter helmed by Dutt will feature artists from across the state.

“Co-productions allow us to create longer contracts for artists, resource-share to bring down our production costs, and uplift the ground breaking stories that celebrate women and girls with a wider audience– extending the reach of our mission and creating more opportunity for women and non-binary theater artists,” said Merrihew. “We could not be more thrilled to work in collaboration with CST, whose work, like WAM, centers social justice and gender politics through theater.”

Rattled by a personal crisis, a writer flees to Florence to study the letters between Galileo and his eldest daughter Maria Celeste. Caught up in the threats against her father, Maria must abandon her work and join a convent. The writer's discovery of Maria's strength and tenacity inspires her own pursuit of purpose. Alternating between past and present, this play is a personal examination of faith, forgiveness, and the cost of seeking and speaking truth. The Chicago Reader called it “a smart and poignant” story.

Director Reena Dutt explains, "The show travels with a writer working through her own crisis by investigating the history of a brilliant woman long since buried with time. Unearthing their lives in this fast-moving, funny, and heart-warming play is going to be a delight, particularly because the folx at WAM and CST hold all women and our stories with such grace and care. It's the perfect group of people with whom to bring this story to life."

In concert with their theatrical programming, WAM continues its commitment to partnering with emerging theater artists from historically marginalized groups with a new multi–year apprenticeship cohort who will join the creative team of WAM's fall mainstage, Galileo's Daughter, at the Bernstein Theatre. 

“The hope is to build meaningful relationships with apprentices over time to cultivate a sense of creative belonging and nurture paths to future collaborations,” said Coreno. “While the apprenticeship is focused on practical training theater artists backstage, the season also provides multiple devised theater workshops including Elder Ensemble, Teen Ensemble, and the first WAM bilingual workshop for artist-activists and Berkshire community members.”

TICKETS

Tickets for Galileo's Daughter are on sale now. For tickets and more information about WAM Theatre's 2024 Season, programs, events, and artists, please visit wamtheatre.com.

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