FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact:

Chris Spielberger

408-438-7446

The Tabard Theatre Company Presents

the South Bay premiere of

Inferno Theatre Company’s production of

GALILEO’S DAUGHTERS

SAN JOSE, Calif. (March 231, 2011) –The Tabard Theatre Company welcomes Inferno Theatre Company to Theatre on San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose for 11 performances of Inferno’s Galileo’s Daughters, April 22nd through May 8th. Philosophical questions of no small consequence are addressed in this contemplative and visually and aesthetically stunning play. Is science part of God’s plan? Or does the power of science lie in its ability to explain away God’s existence over time? Scientific inquiry and discovery, on the one hand, and faith and devotion on the other collide in the life and work of Galileo.

Giulio Cesare Perrone, who resides in Oakland and has worked for more than a score of California theatre and opera companies since emigrating from Italy in 1995, wrote, directed, and designed both the sets and costumes for the drama, which features music composed by Bruno Louchouarn and lighting designed by Michael Palumbo. The two daughters are played by Simone Bloch and Valentina Emeri with Michael McCamish as Galileo Galilei.

Inferno Theatre Company, which Perrone recently cofounded with the actors in his new play, is producing Galileo’s Daughters. This is Perrone’s fifth play, a work that mirrors the playwright’s interest in art, science, religion, and historical controversy. Unlike most of Tabard’s family-friendly fare, this production is rated PG-13 for xxxxxxxxxx.

[let’s not even mention this]

What is the relationship between science and religion and how can they serve the pursuit of knowledge and truth? Galileo’s Daughters examines these questions through the lens of a father’s loving relationship with his two daughters. The play highlights both the passion and discipline of Galileo’s search for scientific truth, but not without an equally unrelenting religious devoutness, all interwoven in a story that focuses largely on the experiences, emotions, ascetic life, and religious faith of his two devoted daughters, cloistered nuns Sister Arcangela and Sister Celeste.

The setting is Florence and Rome from 1630 to 1635. Galileo has moved near his daughters and strives to support their convent as best he can. Sister Arcangela has developed a mystic relationship to the Holy Scripture, while Sister Celeste avidly follows her father’s scientific discoveries and helps him in any way she can by reading and recopying his manuscripts as his eyesight begins to fail him. More is actually known about Celeste, through the survival of over 120 of her letters to her father, an endearing correspondence cited throughout the play.

The audience learns of the family’s early life through a series of flashbacks. Galileo must remind his daughters girls that it has become too dangerous to “sing the truth” as they did when they were children. The scene changes as The action then moves to a gloomy [perhaps a word other than “gloomy” should be used? Reading “gloomy” my mind immediately said “I don’t want to see this; it’s gloomy”] chamber as the two sisters actors are transformed into Inquisitors interrogating Galileo and his convictions., Finally, the action moves before moving back to a time when Galileo’s daughters joyfully share the “truth” with their father as they first look at the heavens through one of his telescopic inventions.

Galileo’s Daughters takes the audience along on an intellectual and spiritual journey into the sensual [hmmm…. “sensual”? how so? Could we explore another word for this?], physical, and observable truth of Galileo’s experiments as he performs several of them on stage. The conflict between physical and spiritual truths is deepened by the precision of the actors’ physical presence on stage throughout the play. [what does this mean? How else is any play/story told but by having actors physically present on the stage? Is the point that the 3 actors never leave the stage? If so, don’t know that that is a salient selling point.]

Biographical Information:

Giulio Cesare Perrone is a playwright, set and costume designer as well as a stage director. He began his career in his native Italy, where he directed and designed mainly for the theatre. Since his arrival in the United States in 1995, he has directed and designed for both the theatre and opera. He was the recipient of a 2000 Pew National Artists Residency grant with Dell’Arte International for his adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost. Perrone wrote, designed and directed two fully staged fragments of Paradise Lost before completing the third, and final, production in March 2002. Paradise Lost: The Clone of God went on tour in May 2002 to Croatia and Hungary. He has since received a 2002 Pew-Theatre Communications Group grant for his adaptation of The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova.

Perrone graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti “Brera” in Milan in 1988, designing 28 productions for Italy’s most important festivals, resident and touring companies as well as directing Mourning Becomes Electra, Pentesilea and Andre’s Mother. His American design debut was the Laguna Playhouse production of Goldoni’s The Liar, for which he won a Drama-Logue award. Now a U.S. resident, he has 140 theatre and opera productions to his credit. He has worked for theatres and opera companies including the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Festival Opera, Dell’Arte International, the ACT Academy, Opera San José, Foghouse Productions, California Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks, A Travelling Jewish Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and the Magic Theatre.

Michael McCamish grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He moved to the Bay Area in 1997 and completed the Ph.D. program in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2004. McCamish focused his dissertation on the culture of the Western prison system, which led him to tour Europe as part of the European Prison Theatre Travel Diary. He launched his studies in theatre anthropology in Italy, where he studied with Eugenio Barba and the anthropological theatre group Proskenion. Upon his return to the Bay Area, he performed in productions with Maria Lexa and the Sun and Moon Ensemble from 2002–2009, including the self-written and co-produced solo show Twobird.

Simone Bloch was born in the United States but grew up in France, where she completed her formal education in addition to training in dance and theatre. Bloch completed her studies in literature and languages at the university level and became a certified German language teacher while attending classes in Paris with the Forum du Mouvement, Maria Munk and Antoine Campo. She also participated in numerous workshops with Mamadou Dioume, who worked with Peter Brook.

Bloch worked with several experimental theater companies in France and performed in various festivals in North Africa and France. She worked in Paris at the Théâtre du Temps with the Kyogen and Nô master Jungi Fuseya. She has performed both with and without masks in numerous productions with the Sun and Moon Ensemble since 2001. She was both actor and dancer in the multimedia show Invaded Dreams by Caroline Arragain in 2001 and played the lead in Do You Have Time To Die by Imani Harrington. In 2002 she danced and acted in the DWEEB production of Beckett's Last Dance by Jonathan Whittle. In 2003 she was Marx's wife with the Political Players in Marx von Soho, inspired by Howard Zinn. In 2004 she danced in the Xyandz Project Hymenoptera at Yerba Buena Gardens. Her dance career includes performances in modern, contact improvisation and hip hop

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Valentina Emeri was born in Bolzano, Italy, and moved to Rome, where she graduated from the German School of Rome. Emeri studied at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio D’Amico” from 1983 to 1986 under the direction of renowned author Andrea Camilleri. In 1987 she began working in the Italian film industry as an actress and assistant director for commercials, documentaries, TV shows, and movies. Emeri began acting in major Italian theatre productions in 1990. Becoming more interested in contemporary theatre and ensemble work, she founded her own company, Cortile - Theater im Hof, in her hometown of Bolzano. She and the company brought their production of Scarpette Rosse to the New York Fringe Festival in 2001. In addition to English and Italian, Valentina is also fluent in German. She has maintained a 12-year collaborative relationship with Freilichtspiele Südtiroler Unterland (FSU), with whom she has performed many leading roles in classical works by De Beaumarchais, Goldoni, and Gogol.

Since her arrival in the Bay Area in 2002, Emeri has performed with several companies, including Maria Lexa’s Sun and Moon Ensemble. From 2007 to 2009 she completed her certification as a Laban/ Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) at Integrated Movement Studies in Berkeley directed by Peggy Hackney.

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When: April 22 through May 8, 2011

11 performances

All shows at 8pm; Sunday matinees at 2pm

Where: Theatre on San Pedro Square

29 North San Pedro Street, San Jose, CA 95110

Tickets: $24

Tickets available at 800-838-3006, www.tabardtheatre/boxoffice.org and .

PHOTOS:

ITCGalileo1.jpg: Michael McCamish as Galileo

ITCGalileo2.jpg: From left: Valentina Emeri xxxx as Sister Celestexxx and Simone Blochxxx as Sister Arcangelaxxxxx

ITCGalileo4.jpggp: From left: Valentina Emerixx as Sister Celestexxx and Simone Blochxxxx as Sister Arcangelaxxx

Photo credits: John Spicer ????

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Founded in 2001, THE TABARD Theatre Company is the managing and resident theatre company of Theatre on San Pedro Square, with offices in South San Jose. Tabard is committed to making a difference in the community through the arts by presenting professional-quality shows that are suitable and appropriate for audiences of all ages. Tabard actors, stage crew, and staff of all ages come from throughout the Bay Area as well as San Jose. The company is also committed to making theatre affordable and accessible for all, a goal it meets through its various outreach programs. Additionally, Tabard donates a portion of its concession proceeds to nonprofit organizations that are thematically related to the shows and often includes food or clothing drives during its productions. Tabard produces five main stage-shows each season.

Inspiration and Imagination found here. Tabard.

For more information about performances visit http://www.tabardtheatre/boxoffice.org.