The Marsh Presents Eliot Fintushel’s BAUDELAIRE: LOVE & LUST Wednesday, October 28, 2009 The Marsh Presents Rie Shontel’s MAMA JUGGS: THREE GENERATIONS HEALING FRACTURED BODY IMAGES Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Dan Hoyle’s Tings Dey Happen Returns To The Marsh November 5 – 28, 2009 The Marsh Presents The International Czech Festival
One Performance Only!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 7:30 pm on The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco.
Tickets are $10-15 Sliding Scale. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
Crystal balls levitate, scarves turn to snakes, and a golden octahedral box produces smoking censers and a holy grail as Fintushel performs poems from Baudelaire’s “Flowers of Evil” in French and English (including the banned poem "Les Bijoux.") The show also includes Fintushel playing the songs of Debussy live on the Etherwave Theremin, an instrument which, by interacting with an electromagnetic field, requires no physical contact.
The Baudelaire translations used in the play are by Fintushel who says he loves Baudelaire “because of his delicious contradictions. He is profoundly religious—his images are mainly drawn from Catholic ritual—and at the same time he is the bawdiest sensualist. His ecstasies come from the flesh and from the sky. Pure magic. The audience will be simultaneously illumined and debauched."
Eliot Fintushel is a veteran actor and physical performer with a background in mask theater, pantomime and improvisation. He won the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Performer award twice, then served for two decades as a program analyst for the NEA's Theater Panel.
Labels: Baudelaire, Bay Area Theater, France, French Poetry, solo performance
One Performance Only!Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 7:30 pm on The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco.
Tickets are $10-15 Sliding Scale. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
In this intimate one-woman show, three women face late puberty, breast-feeding, old age and breast cancer in their Oakland Housing Project living room. The play is woven together with original a’capella breastfeeding songs and laughter.
Rie Shontel is a playwright, multi-medium artist, poet, and an award-winning radio journalist. An East Oakland, CA native, she grew up in an area called “Funk Town” where late night storytelling often took place under streetlights, affording her an opportunity to live vicariously through her neighbors. Rie recently performed her one-woman show “Mama Juggs” in Oakland, California; Durham, North Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina. As Anita Shontel Woodley, she has a Harry Chapin Media Award and an Emmy for coverage on CNN of the events of 9/11. She’s also written and produced a play called, “A Great Dream Now a Nightmare,” about African-American inner-city youth who ignore Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders sacrifices.
For more information visit, http://rieshontel.blogspot.com/
Labels: Bay Area Theater, breast cancer, breast feeding, East Oakland, solo performance
Following Us State Department Sponsored Nigerian TourNovember 5 – 28, 2009
Thursday & Friday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 5:00 pm on The Marsh Mainstage, 1062 Valencia Street in San Francisco.
Tickets: Thursday: $15-35; Friday: $20-35 Saturday:$25-35; Sunday $21-35. All Sliding Scale. Reserved tickets $50. To buy tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.
“A smart, engrossing, funny, challenging and moving look at… Nigeria's bloody oil politics….an aptly complex, hard-hitting piece that paints memorably touching and entertaining figures.” –Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle
Following Dan Hoyle’s return from his whirlwind, US State Department sponsored tour of Nigeria, The Marsh is presenting 11 additional performances of TINGS DEY HAPPEN, his Will Glickman Award winning solo show about Nigerian oil politics. Hoyle will conduct post-show talkbacks after each Thursday and Friday night performance, during which he will answer audience questions and share his experiences.
Developed with and directed by solo performance master Charlie Varon TINGS DEY HAPPEN is a riveting adventure story, a geopolitical tour de force about the year Hoyle spent exploring the West African oil frontier. The Niger Delta has been targeted as the “new Middle East” of oil security and is an extremely dangerous place.
Hoyle traveled alone around the swamps, befriending militants, warlords, diplomats, activists and prostitutes. Even the U.S. ambassador sought him out to find out what was going on. In this time of rising energy politics, and as witnessed by the State Department’s invitation, the show remains, if anything, even more relevant than when it premiered in 2007.
Labels: Bay Area Theater, nigeria, oil politics, solo performance, state department
A series of four new plays developed in the famous physical theater tradition of the Czech Republic.Polaris; Albert's Fear; Brick Circk; Flush
October 21-28.
Tickets $15-35 Sliding Scale. $50 Reserved seats. To buy tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org
Show Times:
Wednesday, Oct. 21: POLARIS, 8pm
Thursday, Oct. 22: ALBERT'S FEAR, 7pm & 9pm
Friday, Oct. 23: POLARIS, 7pm & 9pm
Saturday, Oct. 24: BRICK CIRCK, 3pm. ALBERT'S FEAR, 8pm
Sunday, Oct. 25: BRICK CIRCK, 3pm. FLUSH, 7pm
Monday, Oct. 26: BRICK CIRCK, 7pm. FLUSH, 9pm
Tuesday, Oct. 27: BRICK CIRCK, 7pm. FLUSH, 9pm
Wednesday, Oct. 28: FLUSH, 8pm
For more information go to www.themarsh.org.
Czech physical theater has been described as a celebration of human experience through visual poetry. Movement, neo-classic clowning & mime, puppetry and music all inform the story, playing a vital narrative role in addition to the spoken word. Wildly inspirational about life and living, Czech physical theater often feels like a good meal: delicious, dreamy and satisfying. One wants to return to the table. It also has a long history of image driven adventures into the surreal, often motivated by the powerful social/political forces of the 20th century. The absurd speaks the truth. Performers such as Bill Irwin and Geoff Hoyle have drawn from the tradition of Czech physical theater.
The idea for the festival came about as a result of a long standing exchange between the actors, clowns and directors connected with Ctibor Turba in the Czech Republic and James Donlon of the Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco. A renowned mime, clown, choreographer and director, Turba received the American "Red Skelton Award" in 1991. Donlon has been a celebrated international performer of physical theatre for forty years. After their initial meeting,
The participating artists will offer workshops in physical theatre at the Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco. For more information go to www.flyingactorstudio.com
Labels: Bay Area Theater, clowns, mime, Physical theater, the Czech Republic