The Incidental Naturalist or: Seen on Walks with Coalhouse and Sarah

Trinity Street Players are presenting The Incidental Naturalist at the Trinity Street Playhouse, with a reception on Saturday, September 5, from 2 PM to 5 PM. The work is inspired by nature walks through Austin's greenbelt, and it's a project that grew out of something very personal for the two people behind it.

Steve Williams and Lisa Goering started this during the early years of the pandemic when they didn't have much to do. They began taking a closer look at their local environment, walking their dogs through the nearby greenbelt and spotting and identifying plants, fungi, animals, and insects along the way. Nearly every photo in the collection comes from the area around their apartment in northwest Austin, so it's a record of a specific piece of the city seen from the ground up.

The two have a long history together in the local theater scene. They met sixteen years ago while working on a production; Steve is an elementary music teacher as well as an actor and a technical theater jack-of-all-trades, and Lisa is a stage manager and costume technician. They both share a love for travel, food, theater, and photography—and for spoiling their dogs, Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and Sarah Brown Eyes, who give the show its full title, The Incidental Naturalist or: Seen on Walks with Coalhouse and Sarah.

Admission is free, and the reception on September 5 runs from 2 PM to 5 PM at the Trinity Street Playhouse, 901 Trinity Street, Austin, Texas 78701.