The Marsh Extends Don Reed's E 14TH: TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER The Marsh Extends THE GREATEST BUBBLE SHOW ON EARTH The Marsh Extends Don Reed's E 14TH: TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER 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 The Marsh Presents Bob Scott’s THE JADE PYRAMID The Marsh Extends Ann Randolph’s LOVELAND Dan Hoyle’s Tings Dey Happen The Marsh Extends Rick Reynolds’ Only The Truth Is Funny thru September 26 The Marsh Extends Don Reed's EAST 14TH STREET

The Marsh Berkeley EXTENDS Don Reed’s East 14th – True Tales Of A Reluctant Player

Extends through March 28 on Fridays, Sundays and select Saturdays. The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley. Friday: 9 pm, Saturday: 8 pm and Sundays: 7 pm

Tickets are $20-35 Sliding Scale. $50 Reserved Seats. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

2009 TOP TEN PLAYS - EAST BAY EXPRESS!!

"Irresistible presence" - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"...Nothing short of amazing." EAST BAY EXPRESS
"Hilarious. The audience can't stop laughing...Don Reed plays all the characters with both ease and inexhaustible energy" - THE NEW YORKER
"A graceful genial performer...It's hard not to love 1970's funk and soul and Don Reed." - NY TIMES

San Francisco's sleeper hit! Now in its ninth month! What’s more, during the week, Don Reed is the warm up host on Jay Leno’s new show. How cool is that!

Back in 1970’s Oakland, his stepfather forced him to be a straight A, God-fearing church boy - but he wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn’t know dear old Dad was a pimp.

45 minutes No intermission All ages

The Marsh extends THE GREATEST BUBBLE SHOW ON EARTH to April 3!

Sundays and select weekdays. All performances at 11:00 am on The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco.

Tickets are $7 for children under 12; $10 General Admission. $7 tickets for parties of 4 or more. $50 Reserved Seats. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

“The hit of the day…a fringe favorite.” The Guardian, UK
“Superb show for kids and adults!!´ Alex, Scotland. 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

This new and hilariously entertaining bubble show is suitable for all ages. Packed with fun stuff, it makes a perfect and amazingly inexpensive family outing for the Thanksgiving weekend. You will witness all kinds of extraordinary things such as spinning flying saucer bubbles, square bubbles filled with fog, universe bubbles with orbiting planets and bubble chains that look like centipedes. And one thing is sure – the show provides a truly delightful alternative to hitting the crowded sales downtown. There’s lots of audience participation and some lucky kids will find themselves inside bubbles, while others will get to eat them. Warning: expect lots of excitement and laughter.

100 Minutes 17+ One Intermission

The Marsh Extends Don Reed’s East 14th Street: Jan 8-16, 2010 – Two weeks only!
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The Marsh Extends Don Reed’s East 14th – Tales Of A Reluctant Player

January 8 through Jan 16, 2010. The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco. Friday: 9 pm, Saturday: 5:00 pm

Tickets are $20-35 Sliding Scale. $50 Reserved Seats. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

"Irresistible presence" - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"...Nothing short of amazing." EAST BAY EXPRESS
"Hilarious. The audience can't stop laughing...Don Reed plays all the characters with both ease and inexhaustible energy" - THE NEW YORKER
"A graceful genial performer...It's hard not to love 1970's funk and soul and Don Reed." - NY TIMES

San Francisco's sleeper hit! Now in its ninth month! What’s more, during the week, Don Reed is the warm up host on Jay Leno’s new show. How cool is that!

Back in 1970’s Oakland, his stepfather forced him to be a straight A, God-fearing church boy - but he wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn’t know dear old Dad was a pimp.

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.

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/

Following Us State Department Sponsored Nigerian Tour

November 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.

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

One Performance Only!

Wednesday, September 23, 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

Coming of age in the American West at the end of the 1960’s, a young man, Billy, is drawn in by the visions and dreams of others, but learns that he must follow his own path.

Bob Scott is a fingerpicker, poet, songwriter, teller of odd stories, singer of cowboy blues, and member of many bands past and present. Some of these incarnations include Rhythm Kitchen, the Belvederes, Not Bob Scott, The Dave Marz Trio, and Lucky Lew. He holds a Doctor of Thinkology degree from Oz University. See www.myspace.com/luckylew2

Extended through December 12, 2009

“If anyone can make you laugh about a subject as serious as dying, it’s Ann Randolph sharing both vulnerability and audacious humor that are the basis of her immense talent.” Linda Ayres-Frederick. SF Bay Times
Thursday at 8:00 pm & Saturday at 5:00 pm in The Marsh Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

Tickets: $15-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved tickets $50.
To buy tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.
The Marsh is excited to announce the premiere of Ann Randolph's new solo show LOVELAND. Join Randolph as she takes us on the irreverent, hilarious and deeply human journey of Franny Potts. Facing up to the greatest loss of her life while flying from LA to Ohio surrounded by strangers, Franny stumbles her way from awkward confusion through the mystery, tragedy and beauty that unite all us.

A stunning performer, Mel Brooks compares Randolph to the late Gilda Radner for her audacious humor, her generosity and her ability to take us from tears to laughter in the same minute. Randolph’s previous solo show, “Squeeze Box,” was the Winner of LA Weekly’s “Best Solo Show” and the Los Angeles Times Ovation Award for “Best Solo Performer.” Its extended run at The Marsh played to sold-out audiences for eight months last year.

September 10 – 26, 2009

Thursday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 5:00 pm; Sunday at 7:00 pm on The Marsh Mainstage, 1062 Valencia Street in San Francisco.

Tickets: Thursday”$15-35; Saturday:$22-35; Sunday $21-35. All Sliding Scale. Reserved tickets $50.
To buy tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.

Dan Hoyle has been invited by the US State Department to perform Tings Dey Happen, his award-winning show, in Nigeria.

“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

Dan Hoyle is taking TINGS DEY HAPPEN, his award-winning, solo play about Nigerian oil politics, on a whirlwind tour of Nigeria, sponsored by the U.S. State Department. The show, based on Hoyle's year in Nigeria studying oil politics on a Fulbright Scholarship, will travel to five cities in two weeks this October as part of the State Department's public diplomacy focus on anti-corruption issues.

To help Hoyle prepare for perhaps his most important audience yet, The Marsh will present a short nine-show revival of TINGS DEY HAPPEN during the last three weekends in September.

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.

The Marsh Extends Rick Reynolds’ Only The Truth Is Funny: Mid-Life At The Oasis through September 26, 2009. The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco. Saturday: 5:00 pm, Sunday: 7 pm

Saturdays $22-50 Sliding Scale, Sundays $15-50 Sliding Scale. $50 reserved seating
To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

The Marsh is proud to extend the San Francisco debut of critically acclaimed comedian Rick Reynolds' new one-man show, "Only The Truth Is Funny: Mid-Life At The Oasis.”

According to Rick, "I've spent the last year of my life putting this show together and I'm absolutely sure it's the best thing I've ever done. In fact, if you can find a more thought provoking and inspirational show you've seen about a middle-aged, self-obsessed, therapy-hating, cry-baby from Petaluma, I'll refund the price of your ticket.”

"Only The Truth Is Funny: Mid-Life At The Oasis" creates the kind of theater experience The San Francisco Chronicle has called "belly laughs for the heart.”

Extended for the fourth time through November 30! The Marsh MainStage, 1062 Valencia Street @ 22nd Street in San Francisco. Friday: 9 pm, Saturday: 5 pm

Tickets are $15-50 Sliding Scale. To buy tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

"Irresistible presence" - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"...Nothing short of amazing." EAST BAY EXPRESS
"Hilarious. The audience can't stop laughing...Don Reed plays all the characters with both ease and inexhaustible energy" - THE NEW YORKER
"A graceful genial performer...It's hard not to love 1970's funk and soul and Don Reed." - NY TIMES

San Francisco's sleeper hit! Now in its fifth month! What’s more, during the week, Don Reed is the warm up host on Jay Leno’s new show. How cool is that!

Back in 1970’s Oakland, his stepfather forced him to be a straight A, God-fearing church boy - but he wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn’t know dear old Dad was a pimp.