A Quantum Dream

Galatea

A woman's face is divided into four quadrants. The top left and bottom right show her face as it is - a pale woman with dark red bangs and shoulder length hair. Her eye is blue and her expression is serious. The top right quadrant is a rainbow explosion of abstract brush strokes roughly indicating her face. The bottom left is a smooth silver metallic version of her jaw and lips. Text reads Galatea a play by David Templeton. The A Quantum Dream logo is in the corner, an abstract capital letter Q of white, red, and blue. link

Cast in order of appearance:

  • Seventy-One: Jasmine Sherman
  • Dr. Margaret Mailer: Ann Peacock
  • Dr. Hughes: Michael Crowley
  • Castaway: Stephen Blotzke**
    • **The role of Castaway will be played by Jeroen Thornton at the 2:00PM matinee performance on Saturday, November 9th

Production Team:

  • Produced by Reggie Herbert and Meg Denny
  • Directed by Reggie Herbert
  • Scenic, Lighting and Costume Design by Meg Denny
  • Music and Sound Design by Ben Weiss
    • with additional music by Daniel Johnson
  • Fight direction by Michael Crowley
  • Stage Manager: Jesse Ballard
  • Board Operator and Run Crew: Gregory Dagget
  • Understudy: Hannah Luther
  • Caption Operators: Jeroen Thornton and Hannah Luther
  • Additional Construction: Joe Kirk
  • Audio Describer: Meg Denny

Special Thanks to

Kellen Jean, Mark Plonsky, The Ballard Family, John Howard and BASE Missoula, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division and MissCast Productions

About the Playwright

David Templeton, a caucasian man in his forties looks pensively at the camera.
David Templeton

As a playwright known for his imaginative blending of humor, humanity and heart, David Templeton frequently works in the genres of fantasy, science-fiction and horror. His plays include the award-winning ‘Galatea,’ ‘Drumming With Anubis,’ ‘Mary Shelley’s Body,’ ‘Polar Bears,’ ‘Pinky,’ ‘Wretch Like Me’ and the upcoming ‘Featherbaby.’ His fiction has appeared in dozens of books, magazines and newspapers. An annual series of twisted Christmas tales ran in the North Bay Bohemian for over a decade. His romantic-horror novella ‘Mary Shelley’s Body’ was published in 2016 in the anthology ‘Eternal Frankenstein.’

Among Templeton’s many playwriting awards are the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation, which he won in 2022 for ‘Galatea.’ The drama also received a Will Glickman New Play honorable mention, and won in seven categories (including for Original Script and Best Production in the Bay Area) at the 2022 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Excellence in Theatre Awards.

‘Wretch Like Me,’ Templeton’s first solo show, has been performed over 100 times, with runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, with additional performances at The Marsh, Cinnabar Theater, Santa Rosa Junior College, Napa Valley College, Napa Theater Company and others.

As a journalist with a reputation for compelling storytelling, Templeton has written for dozens of publications in the Bay Area and nationwide, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Pacific Sun, Strings Magazine, Marin Magazine, the Press Democrat, the North Bay Bohemian and the Petaluma Argus-Courier, where he currently serves as Community Editor. In 2019, he won the California Newspaper Publishers Association award for best writing for his piece ‘Flying Off to Neverland.’ For the North Bay Bohemian, he was the senior theater critic for 16 years, during which he say over 1200 plays.

David was born in Southern California. The first play he ever saw on stage was James Baldwin’s ‘Blues for Mister Charlie,’ in Los Angeles in 1968. As a child, he became interested in puppetry, forming his own travelling puppet troupe at age 16. After graduating, and segueing into writing and directing full-length plays, he put his theatrical efforts on hold while pursuing a career in newspapers and journalism. While occasionally taking roles in community theater productions, his lifelong love of theater was primarily expressed through his theater reviews and arts journalism. In 2009, he was persuaded by friends to write and perform an autobiographical solo show he’d long been talking about. That was ‘Wretch Like Me,’ and having thus reclaimed his love of writing for the stage, Templeton has since written eight additional plays. He is currently working on his tenth, along with a screenplay adaptation of ‘Galatea,’ a collection of plays to be titled ‘Monsters, Gods and Robots,’ and a memoir expanded from his play ‘Polar Bears.’

Note from the director:

Our world is not that removed from the one we experience in “Galatea.” We stand on the brink of ecological collapse, and human economic interests and nation states perpetuate violence on the planet and each other. The increased automation and AI tools have many people scared about the future as they feel they no longer understand their relationship to technology.

As a disabled person, I use “assistive technology” which assists me with my daily living. This includes my cane and many apps on my phone, and there are many other tools I can’t afford. In disability theory, the distinction between assistive technology and just “technology” is called into question when we examine the purpose of technology—to assist us in doing things that we can’t do on our own, or certainly not as easily. When we use a tool, it becomes a part of us, an extension of us. Neuroscientists have discovered that a carpenter wielding a hammer incorporates the hammer into their internal body image, as though the hammer has become a part of them. The same can be said for those using tools like canes or wheelchairs. Today, many of us feel the same about our phones and our ability to access information. Technology is a reflection of our values, and is not a thing unto itself.

However, “Galatea,” like any good science fiction, is a story that explores what it means to be human. I believe that to be human is to be imperfect, and this is beautiful. It is through trauma that we can discover the degree of our own resilience. Through our suffering we gain the qualities that we value in ourselves—love, grace, compassion, realistic hope, unflagging optimism, and the creative potential to build our own future. In our modern era, though many of usmay feel as though we no longer know how to be human, with this play, may we wish you luck–“when the best possible outcome occurs in spite of the very strong possibility that it won’t.”

The Art of Beth Wright

We are so grateful for the generous donation by the local artist Beth Wright. Beth took on the challenge of creating three original pieces for “Galatea,” featured in the projections. Inspired by the work of the late artist Mildred Tompson, Wright completed the “Music of the Spheres” series. The pieces “Music of the Spheres: Earth,” “Music of the Spheres: Saturn” and “Music of the Spheres” Neptune” can be viewed at the A Quantum Dream table on the side of the showroom. And now, you can have a chance to take home one (or all!) of the gorgeous works!

A donation of $5 will gain you one entry into a drawing for the piece of your choice, or 5 entries for $20. Visit us on the side of the showroom to make a donation via PayPal, Venmo or cash and fill out the card. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 13th.

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