Jonah Kirkhart is a writer, director, and actor. He’s the artistic director of ThreePenny Theatre Company and co-founder of Busking Bus Theatre Company (@buskingbustheatre). His written works include An American in Beirut (Uptown Theatre), Rime of the Ancient Mariner (ThreePenny Theatre Company), and an upcoming adaptation of The Legends of Sleepy Hollow (Timpanogos Arts Center). He’s directed several others including 21 Chump Street (K-State Directors Lab), Twelfth Night (New World Shakespeare), and Love and Information (ThreePenny Theatre Company).

Director's Note

“Life of Galileo” contradicts itself beautifully. A biographical work that seems as equally interested in mythologizing and de-mythologizing. In modern society, we mythologize those people or actions that we feel fully uphold our beliefs, and western narrative has focused on the hero’s tale for millennia. Whether you examine narrative like the Odyssey, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or Marvel films or think of the way we conceptualize history through leaders, politicians, and great works by individuals, these ways of thinking all attempt to examine our societal values through our myths, our heroes. Even if you, like me, view Joseph Campbell with skepticism, you cannot deny his theory’s effects on the way we understand our society through heroes. By seeing ourselves in these heroes, we become, in some way, heroic ourselves, but that escape into the hero is not the story of “Life of Galileo”. Brecht ardently supported socialism and class equality, and the inherent individualism of a hero myth contradicts any sort of socialist agenda, so instead, our Galileo, our “hero”, steals, blasphemes, lies, betrays, and gluttonizes (I predict goes through the entire list of deadly sins) throughout the play. Galileo’s behavior reverses the hero tale. No, the hero of this play is rarely seen on stage. Characters mention the hero in nearly every scene. The antagonists fear the hero. The protagonists work for and with the hero. Because the hero of “Life of Galileo” is everyday people, you, me, the barista, the shelf stocker… Everyday people have a great deal of power, so we must “think cautiously”. Who do we mythologize? Why do we mythologize them? And If you must mythologize, turn your telescope towards the subject, observe closely, and doubt.

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