Galileo’s Daughter

by Jessica Dickey
directed by Marti Lyons
April 5 – May 14, 2023
Rattled by a personal crisis, a playwright flees to Florence to study the letters between Galileo Galilei and his eldest daughter, Maria Celeste. Caught up in the threats against her father, Maria Celeste must abandon her work and join a convent. Alternating between timelines, Jessica Dickey’s captivating world premiere is a personal examination of faith, forgiveness and the cost of heeding one’s truth.
Thank you to The Saints for funding John Boesche’s projection design for Galileo’s Daughter!
Passage by Christopher Chen

Reviews

– Colin Douglas, Chicago Theatre Review
 
 
– Ted C. Fishman, NewCity Chicago
 
 
 
 
– Rikki Lee Travolta, Life & Times of Rikki Lee Travolta
 
 
– Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader

Rehearsal Photos

Production Photos

Cast

Linda Gillum (she/her) – Writer
Emily Bosco (she/her) – Daughter
Chike Johnson (he/him) – Galileo

 

Laura Resinger – U/S Writer
Drew Michele – U/S Daughter
Chris Hainsworth (he/him) – U/S Galileo

Production

Marti Lyons (she/her)- Director/Artistic Director
Christopher Thomas Pow- Assistant Director
Sarah Ellen Miller (she/they)- Movement Designer
Abhi Shrestha (they/them)- Dramaturg
Cori Lang (she/they)- Asst. Dramaturg
Marcus Carroll (he/him)- Rehearsal Stage Manager
Jean E. Compton (she/her)- Stage Manager
Anna Vu (she/her)- Assistant Stage Manager
Sammi Grant (she/her)- Dialect and Vocal Designer
Greg Geffrard (he/him)- Intimacy Choreographer
Yeaji Kim (she/her)- Scenic Design
Finnegan Chu (she/they)- Costume Designer
Renee Moreno (she/her)- Asst. Costume Designer
Becca Jeffords (she/they)- Lighting Designer
Liz Gomez (she/her)- Assistant Lighting Designer
Chris Kriz (he/him)- Sound Design and Original Music
John Boesche (he/him)- Projections Designer
Amanda Herrmann  (they/them)- Properties Designer

About the Cast

LINDA GILLUM (Writer)

Linda Gillum is a Core Ensemble Member of Remy Bumppo since 2001. She is an Actor, Director, Teacher and Casting Director.
Linda has over 50 credits in Theatre, TV & Film and has appeared on Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Prison Break and Early Edition.
She is an Instructor at Acting Studio Chicago, an Adjunct at Depaul and a member of Actor Unions AEA, SAG-AFTRA and AGMA. Linda is represented by the amazing agents at Stewart Talent. This performance is dedicated in memory of her father Tom Birbilis.

CHIKÉ JOHNSON (Galileo)

Chiké Johnson recently appeared as Alberga in The Goodman Theatre’s production of “Toni Stone”. Some other recent productions include: “Nativity Variations” at The Milwaukee Rep. “Hamlet” and “A Raisin In The Sun” at American Players Theatre. Other credits include: “Amen Corner” at Shakespeare Theater Company, “Sweat” at American Conservatory Theatre and “Our Town” at The Milwaukee Rep. He also was in the Chicago’s world premier of “When Harry Met Rehab”. Broadway credits: “Wit” Manhattan Theatre Club and Commercial production of “A Time To Kill”. Off Broadway credits: “Run Boy Run and In Old Age” at New York Theatre Workshop, “Lost In The Stars” New York City Center’s Encores! and “Ruined” a co-production between Manhattan Theatre Club and The Goodman Theatre. Chike has also appeared in numerous TV shows and films.

EMILY BOSCO (Galileo's Daughter)

Emily Bosco is thrilled to make her Chicago debut with Remy Bumppo! She is a proud Colombian-Italian actor and singer, and holds an MFA from UNC Chapel Hill’s Professional Actor Training Program. Favorite credits include Steel Magnolias and Native Gardens (Creede Rep), Pride & Prejudice (Greenbrier Valley Theatre), Seared (Gloucester Stage), Everybody and Sense & Sensibility (PlayMakers Rep), and Significant Other (Theatre Raleigh). Other passions include dogs, hiking, and being the world’s best Auntie to her niece and nephews. AEA Member. www.emilybosco.com. For my parents – my North Stars.

About the Director

MARTI LYONS (Director)

Marti Lyons is the Artistic Director of Remy Bumppo and most recently directed Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon at Northlight Theatre. She recently directed the co-world premiere of Wife of a Salesman by Eleanor Burgess at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Sense and Sensibility adapted by Jessica Swale at American Players Theatre and the world-premiere of John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower at Studio Theatre in D.C. Lyons’s other productions include The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess at Writers Theatre; Cymbeline at American Players Theatre; The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe and both the stage and audio productions of Kings by Sarah Burgess at Studio Theatre; the world-premiere of How to Defend Yourself by liliana padilla, a Victory Gardens and Actors Theatre of Louisville co-production; Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee at Victory Gardens and City Theatre; Witch by Jen Silverman at Geffen Playhouse and Writers Theatre (LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Direction); Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías at Victory Gardens; Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; I, Banquo at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Title and Deed by Will Eno at Lookingglass Theatre Company; Laura Marks’s Bethany and Mine at The Gift Theatre. Marti is an ensemble member at The Gift Theatre and a proud member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

About the Playwright

JESSICA DICKEY (Playwright)
Jessica Dickey is an award-winning playwright whose writing was hailed by The New York Times as having “freshness, economy, cheeky vulgarity, with a fine measure of poetic insight”, and New Yorker magazine as “funny, smart, deep and sad”. In addition to writing for the Apple TV show “Physical,” Dickey just developed a show with the network ABC, produced by the Academy Award-winner Tom McCarthy. She is set to write a feature film for Searchlight and is currently developing a series for Netflix. She is most known for her award-winning play The Amish Project, which premiered Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and has since been produced around the world.  Dickey’s most recent premiere was Nan and the Lower Body at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, about the creation of the Pap Smear and her maternal grandmother. Her play The Convent premiered Off-Broadway in a co-production with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Rising Phoenix. Her play The Rembrandt had a sold out run at Steppenwolf starring John Mahoney and her plays Charles Ives Take Me Home and Row After Row both premiered Off-Broadway in New York and have been produced around the country. Sistering: The Art of Holding Close and Letting Go, a book Dickey co-wrote with her sister, will hit shelves May 2023 (Pilgrim Press). A proud member of New Dramatists, she divides her time between Brooklyn, Los Angeles and the south of France.
Administrative Office

3759 N. Ravenswood Avenue
Suite 124
Chicago, IL 60613
773.244.8119

Performance Venue

Theater Wit
1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60657
Box Office: 773.975.8150

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