The Marsh: March 10, 2010

The Marsh is proud to announce Marilyn Pittman’s IT’S ALL THE RAGE: NOT JUST ANOTHER FAMILY TRAGEDY—THIS ONE KILLS as part of its Performance Initiative series. Comedian Marilyn Pittman's parents died of a murder-suicide in 1997. Pouring through her mother's journals and her father's love letters, she asks the questions: Did they really love each other? Could we see this coming? Can I tell the funny parts too? The show is both a murder mystery and a story of survival. Pittman was one of the first openly gay comics in the city during the AIDS crisis, winning a G.L.A.A.D. Media Award for her courage. Her broadcast career as a talk show host, commentator, guest comic, producer, and consultant spans more than three decades. She currently co-hosts "Out In The Bay" on KALW.

Monday, March 29th
Starts: 7:30 PM
Run time: 60 minutes
No intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seats $50
Ages 21 +

The Marsh is proud to announce Kenny Yun’s THE DREAM as part of its Performance Initiative Series. There's a new immigrant story being played out in Silicon Valley. Success is not what it used to be! Yun’s new show explores the lengths people go to chase a skewed American dream and to keep up with the Joneses. A Bay Area actor and comic, Yun studied at Studio ACT and Berkeley Repertory Theater and has a degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley. His critically acclaimed first solo play, “Lettucetown Lies,” had an extended run at The Marsh last year. Here is what some of the critics had to say: “Best Solo Show 2009” – Bay Area Reporter; “Funny yet poignant.” – SF Examiner; “Astounding. A pleasure to watch.” – SF Bay Times.

Wednesday, March 24th
Starts: 7:30
Run Time: 60 minuntes
No intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seat $50
Ages 16 +

The Marsh is proud to announce Sigal Shoham’s SQUEEZE THE DOLLAR, CHANGE YOUR LIFE as part of its Performance Initiative series. A doctor offers salves for all of life's ailments--including her own. Part old-time snake-oil huckster, part new-age self help guru, charming Amelia has something for anyone who's ever wanted things to be different or better! Losing memory, hearing or underwear? Need money, love or weight-loss? Amelia guarantees transformation! The show takes the form of a medicine-show/self-help seminar, thereby revealing the theatrical ties behind medical and well-being fads throughout history. But in fact it is less about snake oil than it is about power and desire. Do her patients need what she is selling? Do they want to need it? What is she selling? Forceful and ironically honest, Shoham’s healer's pitch is punctuated by banjo tunes whose sweet melodies contrast with their biting lyrics.

Sigal Shoham has been a performer for as long as she can remember and has a degree in Theater and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley. Recent works include two original ensemble pieces with The Jewish Theater. She is also a mediator and international trainer in conflict transformation, specializing in Nonviolent Communication.

Tuesday, March 23rd
Starts: 7:30 PM
Running Time: 90 mins
No Intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seating $50
Ages 18 +

The Marsh is proud to announce Pidge Meade’s 40 POUNDS IN 12 WEEKS: A LOVE STORY as part of its Performance Initiative series. It’s 1986 and Meade is home after her freshman year of college with loads of new ideas in her head … and 40 new pounds on her five-foot frame. Her Dad – a tough, no-nonsense, world-renowned gymnastics coach – takes one horrified look at his ‘super-sized’ daughter and issues an ultimatum: shed the weight by summer’s end or kiss college goodbye! Flash forward. After losing 70 pounds, Meade attends a college reunion and runs into her old roommate, who wants to know how she shed the weight. But this tale of life changes – like the confrontation between old friends – takes some decidedly unexpected twists. Meade has appeared from coast to coast in everything from Shakespeare to Sondheim to really bad murder mystery dinner theatre. Favorite Bay Area roles include Sarah Brown in "Guys and Dolls" and the title role in "Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge."

Wednesday, March 17th
Starts: 7:30 PM
Run time: 90 minutes
No intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seating $50
Age: 12 & up

The Marsh is proud to announce Sia Amma’s UNCLE SAM’S CHILDREN IN AFRICA as part of its Performance Initiative series. Sia Amma is out of Africa. She grew up in a small town between the boundaries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa. She remembers walking through town as a child, seeing family members, beautiful buildings and children laughing in the streets. In the market, Mandinka women sold ceremonial white cloth. Twenty years later, when she returned following the civil war, that was all gone. The entire town had vanished. Amma is a stand-up comedian, dancer and actress who is best known for making fun of African and American cultures, relationships, life experiences, sexuality and, of course, herself.

Tuesday, March 16th
Starts: 7:30 PM
Runtime: 90 mins
No Intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seating $50
Ages 18 +

The Marsh is proud to announce David Moss’ CRACKED CLOWN as part of its Performance Initiative series. Three years ago, Moss was standing onstage at a comedy club, watching people laugh while he sipped his 13th Long Island Iced Tea, fortifying himself for the trip into the jungle later, where he would buy crack. This was enough, complete strangers telling him through their laughter that he was okay. Cocaine kept the laughter going. After a few years that wasn’t enough, so he started smoking it. He had a first class ticket on a Lear Jet to hell. Laughter is misleading.

After attending The School of Performing Arts in San Diego on a scholarship, Moss worked as a stand-up comic for several years, appearing on Showtime, HBO and opening for such luminaries as Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson. The San Francisco Chronicle said of him: ”He has that marvelous ability to instantaneously assume a complete character that makes Richard Pryor and Lily Tomlin so electric in performance.” Moss received a Critics Choice award for his role in the independent film “Street Music,” is the recipient of a grant for ‘Outstanding Solo Performance’ from the Marin Arts Council and has appeared in a short film, “Shadows,” which he wrote and directed.

Wed March 10th
States: 7:30 PM
Run time: 110 minutes
No intermission
Tickets: Sliding Scale $10-$15, Reserved Seating $50
Age: 18 & up

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