The Marsh Presents John O’Keefe’s Adaptation of Walt Whitman’s “SONG OF MYSELF”

May 31 to June 30
Thursday - Saturday at 8:00 pm

Tickets $15-25
CALL 800-838-3006 or visit http://themarsh.org

The Marsh
1062 Valencia Street @ 22^nd Street
San Francisco Ca 94110
415-826-5750

“Mr. O'Keefe can snare his audience with his imagistic audacity and demonic narrative momentum with a gut-grabbing pull.” Ben Brantley, New York Times.

“Simply put, "Song of Myself" is a poetic and dramatic tour de force. ..a rare joy to witness.” Todd Carlstro, nytheatre.com

Television shows depict him. Schools, truck stops and shopping malls are named after him. Yet Walt Whitman is a poet hidden in plain sight. Most of us read him in high school, not realizing the profoundness of his message nor the startling & erotic nature of his verse.

He wrote the first version of “Song of Myself” in 1855, when the United States was a mere seventy eight years old and five years from civil war. In spite of the horrendous division, corruption and the incipient collapse of his nation he found a way of celebrating the great experiment that was America. “Song of Myself” has been called the Second Constitution of the United States. He celebrated the non-celebrated, life itself, this place, this moment, what you do, how you help or hurt. He embraced the world, the grandness of everyday life, of breathing, of living, of ordinary things, and of work and of pride in it, and the gift of each child, woman, man.

Whitman was poetry slamming when Victorians were making prissy couplets and playing hymns on the organ. He was the “Original Gangster,” self-published and heavily censored, homo-erotic, feminist, abolitionist, one of this country’s greatest activists yet all embracing, all loving, and damn, he sounded good.

The only way to know him is to hear him. He loved the human voice and he wrote for it. The show is a celebration, an incantation, a voicing him into this time and place where he is needed so much.

John O’Keefe is an internationally acclaimed playwright, director, and solo performer. His solo piece “Shimmer” won the Bessie Award and was made into a motion picture by American Playhouse. His most recent work includes his Occupation Trilogy: “Glamour” (winner of a National Critic’s Citation), “Spook,” and “Times Like These” (winner of the LA Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly Awards for Best Play).