PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Theatre Company is kicking off its 47th season with a play that hopefully doesn’t stink — or, maybe it should.
“The Garbologists,” written by Lindsay Joelle, is a two-actor comedy about trash and sanitation workers. It follows a white, blue-collar union member on a trash route with his new partner — a Black, liberal, Ivy League-educated woman.
“It is about two very different people who are thrown together on a sanitation route who have to navigate each other and work together to form a very surprising and unlikely partnership,” Joelle explained.
She spent five years shadowing sanitation workers across the country to learn about their lives, lingo and humor. She hopes audiences take away a very important message.
“If the theater is anything, it’s an empathy machine. So if we can come into the theater and see people that we at first assume are very different than we are and start to follow their stories but also put ourselves into their shoes, so when we leave the theater and go out into the streets, we are a little more primed to search for what connects us rather than what separates us,” she said.
There’s a community outreach component of the play, too.
The Philadelphia Theater Company is partnering with “Ya Fav Trashman,” activist Terrill Haigler, who will participate in an audience discussion after the 3 p.m. show on Nov. 14. Haigler will explain ways the community can show appreciation for sanitation workers.
And, #SupportSanatationWorkers stickers will be distributed all over the city. The public is encouraged to put them on their trash cans.
“Arts and culture are what really heal a community,” added Producing Artistic Director Paige Price. “I think that’s why we are here. I don’t care if five people show up. Those people are going to go away feeling a little better about their lives.”
Previews of “The Garbologists” start Thursday, with opening night on Nov. 17. The show runs at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre through Dec. 5.