The playwright/actress is a native of Cut Off, Louisiana, which the San Francisco Chronicle has described as "two hours south of New Orleans and at least that far south of sophistication." The authenticity and nuance with which she portrays the character and personalities of her native wetlands have earned Galjour excellent reviews. One Chronicle critic admired the "seamless ease" with which she conveys "her people" who "pole along in pirogues, eat 'gator and turtle and snake, and traffic in superstition and folklore."
With a southern flair for storytelling often likened to that of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor, Galjour ambitiously performs the roles of six Cajun characters confronting the consequences of Hurricane Wanda and its subsequent flood.
Galjour experienced firsthand the wrath of the elements in second grade, when Hurricane Hilda struck Louisiana. Soon Hurricane Betsy followed, and carried with her a tsunami that traveled three miles inland.
"Our oral history is of hurricane stories, bad weather stories, flood stories," Galjour told the San Francisco Chronicle. In "Hurricane" she spins this history into reality for audience members, making the region's tempestuous climate palpable.
Galjour has received numerous awards for her six plays. For "Hurricane," she was awarded the American Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award for Emerging Playwright and the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Solo Award for Best Solo Performance. The ATCA selected the work as one of the best three plays in regional theatre in 1994.
Currently a professor at San Francisco State University, Galjour has performed her solo work in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and a wide variety of college and theatre festivals across the United States.
Although hurricanes are clearly historical fact, the catastrophe of Katrina has made "Hurricane" suddenly hyper-relevant, perhaps inspiring Galjour's New England tour, the first stop of which is Dartmouth's own Bentley Theater. The show is a part of Class Divide, a three-year Hopkins Center initiative examining social and economic class issues. A portion of its proceeds will benefit arts organizations throughout New Orleans.
The show will run Tuesday, Feb. 6 and Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7:00 p.m., before traveling to Burlington and Brattleboro, Vt., and North Adams, Mass.
