Tell It On Tuesday | Archives 2007

Maryclare McCauley has been working on a three part solo performance about her time living with a cowboy on an isolated ranch in Wyoming. But tonight, she is coming down the mountain to tell you an urban story from an experience in her late teens. This is a coming of age tale of desire, lies, fear and unexpected empowerment.

Bruce Pachtman’s "Solo Show #2" (working title) is being directed by W. Kamau Bell and developed with Club Solo and David Ford. Bruce's first solo show "don't make me look too psychotic" was created at The Marsh and had runs in San Francisco, Philadelphia and LA.

Merle Kessler created his Ian Shoales persona for the legendary comedy troupe Duck's Breath Mystery Theater, and has performed as Ian on NPR, ABC-TV's Nightline, and stages across the country. Joshua Raoul Brody accompanies improvisational theater, composes for screens (large and small) and stage, and plays in Tango No. 9. Together they have created nearly a dozen "one-man shows so big it takes two guys and a six-pack of beer to do them", and sometimes do just the songs, under the nom d'etage And They're Cops!

The SF Weekly called W. Kamau Bell "smart, stylish, and very much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave Chappelle and Margaret Cho" although he was far more excited when they called him "handsome." Kamau has been profiled in The San Francisco Chronicle on three different occasions, including not ironically during Black History Month. Kamau also directed Bruce Pachtman's long running hit show "don't make me look too psychotic". However, he is most proud of being the teacher and leader of The Solo Performance Workshop at The Shelton Theater, where he is also an Artist in Residence.

Marjorie Mann has performed all over the US and Europe in National Tours and Theater Productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Starlight Express, and The Wizard of Oz. Marjorie also belly dances with the troupe Desert Jade, in Santa Rosa, CA. She is currently working on her full-length production of The 7 Deadly Sins.

Miriam Chaya, actor, director, writer, teacher and documentary filmmaker wrote and performed "Odyssey of a Jewish Woman" a one-woman show which appeared on PBS. She co-directed and produced "Timbrels and Torahs" a documentary film, which had its world premiere at the Castro Theatre. She studied improv and story-telling with Nina Wise, and performed in showcase at The Marsh Theatre under the direction of David Ford and Charlie Varon,

Jeff Byers began telling stories the first time he got in trouble with his mother, but he learned to do it for fun as a member of the Storyteller Corps of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (stories in the galleries every Sunday at 1:00). He also studies and volunteers at Stagebridge and is a member of the board of directors of the Storytelling Association of Alta California.

Dana Chernack quit the gardening bussiness the summer of 2001. That winter, he got a job in a warehouse. Chernack lives in Oakland with his wife, Pat, the noted horticulturist. They have two grown children.

Michael D. Brown was co-founder, performer and primary writer for both the celebrated Moving Men Theatre Co. of Berkeley (1972-83) and New York's most notorious street theater, The Pageant Players (1965-71). His recent plays, Rachel & Charlie and The Storyteller And The Silence were produced at Speakeasy Theater, Shotgun Players, Yugen/Noh Space, and in two staged readings at the Magic Theater. His first successful solo performance was in 1953 when he got Howie Kratznik - the toughest kid in the neighborhood - to listen, think, then laugh, and thereby escaped being beaten up.

Storyteller Tim Ereneta of Berkeley enjoys sharing traditional tales with adult audiences at Fringe Festivals, house concerts, and stages like this one. Past performing credits include the mainstage company of BATS Improv and a water molecule at Lawrence Hall of Science.

Robert Pina studied acting with Jean Shelton and Christian Phillips, and writing and solo performance with Charlie Varon. Robert was a performer in The Marsh's New Artists Festival in 2006 and has received Theatre Bay Area's CA$H grant award.

STORYTELLERS
• Jeff Byers "One Eyed Birds for Sale"
• Tureeda Mikell "Mother Do Tell"
• Liz Nichols "The Mother Bird"
• Sharon Noteboom "The New Blue Leg"
• Bertha Reilly "In My Back Yard"
• Elaine Stanley "The Day Luck & Intelligence First Met"

Jeff Byers began telling stories the first time he got in trouble with his mother, but he learned to do it for fun as a member of the Storyteller Corps of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He is a board member of the Storytelling Association of Alta California, and studies and volunteers at Stagebridge, telling stories to diverse audiences, from school children to nursing students.

Tureeda Mikell is a story medicine woman or jdeli (African word for French word griot). She is a poet, writer and word historian. Her unique style blends biology, astronomy, African folk tales, and rhyme into her poems and stories. She has worked extensively as an artist-in-residence in local schools, with Stagebridge, California Poets in the Schools and other arts programs.

As the Storytelling Director of Stagebridge, the nation's oldest senior theater company, Liz Nichols teaches storytelling classes and plans storytelling events and programs throughout the local community, in schools, senior facilities, conferences and public venues. Although she got her invitation to join AARP last year, she prefers to be an honorary senior at Stagebridge where the role models are funnier, more creative and way better looking.

Sharon Noteboom's storytelling adventures began when she was teaching fifth grade in San Francisco. She found that telling realistic stories to her students, provided a real springboard for deep communication, understanding and discussion. Since retiring, she has been studying and telling stories of all kinds with Stagebridge.

Bertha Reilly grew up with stories all around her in Ireland. For the past ten years she has been a storyteller and actress with Stagebridge, sharing her tales of long ago and far away with little children in schools, older adults in senior facilities, nursing students in local colleges, and public audiences of all ages.

Elaine Stanley is a "Weaver of Stories for Head, Heart and Soul". A graduate of the Dominican College Storytelling Program, Elaine delights in the gathering of people to share the gifts of story. She enhances her stories with the use of Sign Language, facial expressions, and brings the stories alive with her enthusiasm and energy.

Olga Loya, nationally known as Latina storyteller, performance artist, teacher and author, dramatically mixes Spanish and English in performances for adults, children and families. Her repertoire demonstrates how diversity embraces the richness of cultures in the commonality and individuality of lives. Loya's personal stories explore the struggles, complexities, and joys of being bicultural - Mexican American in the United States.Loya has performed for audiences from pre-schools to senior citizens.

Wayne Harris, one of the Bay Area’s premier storytellers, has created a series of stories about growing up in St. Louis. His latest piece, “The May Day Parade”, commissioned by the Marsh Theatre continues the theme of the African American experience in the US. Wayne has performed at Fringe Festivals in Canada and the US and has taken his stories into many bay area schools. He is very happy to be sharing with the “Tell It On Tuesday” audience and hopes you enjoy parade!

Gillian Summers grew up in Liverpool, UK and trained as an RN. She emigrated to Australia and in 1991 graduated from The Drama Action Centre in Sydney. Since 2005 Gillian has been writing and developing hush, a full-length solo play, with the Marsh’s David Ford. Throughout 2006 Gillian studied improvisational, autobiographical storytelling with Nina Wise and Motion Theatre.

Gregory Scharpen is (possibly most relevantly) a founding member of the Oneiromantic Ambiguity Collective, an of-late fallow organism dedicated to the assembly and dissemination of unsettling visual, aural, and textual detritus. He is also a theatrical sound designer, and (under the moniker Thomas Carnacki) a so-called "experimental" musician. Dean Santomieri is a writer, musician, video-maker and performer. His multimedia performances usually feature narration, music, and video. Matthias Bossi has very recently started the mercurial project CorpseFlower as an outlet for his vocal dexterity. He hits things for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Book Of Knots.

Music
5 Cent Coffee
Neo-Skiffle Junk Yard Blues
Doodles Larue - Button Accordion, Washboard, Kazoo, Chain, Vocals
Smitty "Spitshine Delacroix - Ukulele, Guitar, Washboard, Vocals
Slick Macoy - Bass, Vocals
www.fivecentcoffee.com

STORYTELLERS
• Tim Ereneta, "Two Sisters"
• Maryclare McCauley, “Where Yer From” (Part 2)
• Neshama Franklin, “Grand Canyon”
• Bruce Pachtman, “Solo Show #2”

Storyteller Tim Ereneta enjoys sharing traditional tales with adult audiences at Fringe Festivals, house concerts, and stages like this one. Past performing credits include Fringe Festivals in Edmonton, Orlando, San Francisco, and Fresno and the mainstage company
of BATS Improv. He was formerly a singing dinosaur at Lawrence Hall of Science.

Neshama Franklin has been around the block, in NYC, SF, and finally Bolinas. She started to tell stories with her first words but honed her skills down the line at the Fairfax library where she works and with David Roche, et al. Now she offers folktales and personal stories at many venues and is delighted to be back at Tell It On Tuesday. She has a local radio show in which she reads whatever has caught her fancy--and she reads omniverously.

Maryclare McCauley has been involved with theater in one way or another for the past thirty years. She began studying the craft of storytelling about two years ago, with David Ford. For an audience member, is seeing Part 2 (of a three piece show ) similar to coming in at the middle of a performance and leaving before it's over? She hopes not! Not tonight anyway. Enjoy!

Metreon 2, 1:15-1:45
Stefanie Goldstein * Carolyn Doyle

Screening Room, 2:10-2:40
Frank Turco * Liz Nichols

Screening Room, 2:45-3:15
Steve Budd * Sandra Niman

OUR TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
June 26, 2007

• Lauren Crux, This Is Just To Say...
• Nina Wise, improvising
• Ruth Halpern and Kurt Bodden, Storytellers Unplugged
• Terri Varela, Ricochet...life flashing before your eyes

7 PM MUSIC - CZ and the Bon Vivants, a Cajun/Zydeco band

A B O U T T H E S T O R Y T E L L E R S
Lauren Crux is primarily a solo performer, known for blurring the boundaries between storytelling, poetry, performance art, and theatre. She has produced three solo shows as well as numerous collaborative works, and performs throughout California. Although her pieces often integrate a variety of media, tonight her piece is simple: Lauren, and a few notes. Beginning with the hidden life of the humble note, this is a journey of language: how just the right word can make our pulse race, our spirit fly, or stick like a piece of sand in our soul.
Nina Wise is the founder of Motion Theater, a form of autobiographical, physical improvisation. She is the recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and her work has received seven Bay Area Theater Critics' Awards. She performs and teaches Motion Theater in the SF Bay Area, NY and LA as well as venues around the world. Her book, A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life was nominated for a Nautilus Prize.
Ruth Halpern has been making things up since before she learned how to talk. She has been teaching "Improvisational Storytelling" for over 10 years, as well as making up stories with audiences of all ages on 4 continents. She also teaches the discipline of "Business Narrative" in corporate settings and law firms. Her motto is, "Make it up as you go along."
Kurt Bodden honed his improv skills at BATS (where he was a Company member and instructor) and at the Groundlings in Los Angeles. He also performs standup and sketch comedy. He'll appear this fall in the SF Fringe Festival, and in July he starts hosting a monthly live talk show at the Purple Onion in San Francisco. See kurtbodden.com.
Terri Varela has played numerous roles throughout East Bay, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas, and a solo show in Canada for the Vancouver Fringe Festival, entitled, To Dye A Thousand Cuts. She is very pleased to be a part of the anniversary show at the Julia Morgan Theatre.

May 29, 2007

Margery Kreitman
"Rachel Fein, You've Got a Lovely Mother."

Margery is a playwright, performer and monologist. Her plays include "Please Wait For The Beep", the Jane Chambers' Award winning, "Picture Me", and the lesbian hit comedy, "Sax and the Single Dyke", all produced in S.F. Her solo pieces include "Bouncing," the award-winning, "Home Plates," "Mug Shots," and "Thirty Years Later". She has performed and read her work at the Marsh, The Magic Theater, The New Conservatory Theater, Venue Nine, and numerous other Bay Area venues. She has been working with director Jayne Wenger.

Zoe Sheli Sameth
excerpt from “Taste of Enlightenment”

Zoe Sheli Sameth is working with director David Ford on a solo show about her topsy-turvy experiences as a young woman living in Sri Lanka who lost and found herself many times over in an extraordinary country far, far from home, while wandering the maze of new relationships, a very foreign land, and the beginning of the country's ongoing civil war. Zoe is a recipient of the Truman Scholarship, which funded travel and graduate studies inspiring her piece. (www.zoeplanet.com)

Dana Chernack
“Marvin Feldman, Queen Victoria, Murray and the Puppet”

Dana Chernack became disabled when he fell head first into a bin full of packages. The blow to the head combined with anti-depressents resulted in a personality change. He decided to write. When no one would print any of his stories, he decided to take it to the streets, telling stories to any one who would listen. He has been married thirty-seven years (to the same woman!) and has two grown children.

Jeff Byers
“It is written here...”

Jeff Byers began telling stories the first time he got into trouble as a child, but learned to do it for fun as a member of the Storytellers at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (stories in the galleries every Sunday at 1:00). He has been nominated to join the board of the Storytelling Association of Alta California, and is looking forward to the Bay Area Storytelling Festival May 19 and 20.

April 24, 2007

Motion Theater, Directed by Nina Wise
An evening of improvised, autobiographical theater
Beth Sperry, Simone Rodin, Robert Young, Sybil Meyers, Laura Chase, Thalia DeWolf, Nina Wise

Otto Voici; a subset of the Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus:
Peter Dempsey, Jose Colon, Brad Niess, Kevin Allen, Dan Stump, Darin Menlove, Carlos Esteban, John Marquez

Motion Theater
Motion is a form of autobiographical improvisational theater created by Nina Wise. Performers create instant performances from the stories of their lives in solo, duet and ensemble forms that rarely fail to surprise and move the heart to laughter and to tears.

Beth Sperry
Before moving to Marin County, Beth Sperry trained and performed in New York and Los Angeles. She has worked with Nina Wise and Motion Theater for four years.

Simone Rodin
Simone has performed with improvisers at The Marsh and Cafe Rasa. When not in front of an audience, she uses her improvising skills to help parent her two feisty daughters.

Robert Young
Retired from a career as a psychologist, Robert is now exploring body work and qigong, continuing his life long study of drumming, and dabbling in improv - where his extroverted persona is coming out of the shadows.
20526 Birch Road, Sonoma, 95476 // 707 996-7880

Sybil Meyer
Sybil is a psychotherapist, dancer, artist, and vision quest guide who has studied and performed contact improv and Motivity extensively. She works part time in private practice and part time in public mental health.

Laura Chase
A retired school teacher, presently tutoring children and adults with dyslexia, Laura has opened up her "creative closet" to start improv and she’s loving it!

Thalia DeWolf
Thalia DeWolf has been practicing Motion Theater for many years, with a respite during which she gave birth to two children. A writer, mover, and improviser, she brings her array of talents to the stage.

March 27, 2007

STORYTELLERS
• Jeff Greenwald, excerpts from Strange Travel Suggestions
• Paul Sussman, The Boundary Lands
• Mark McGoldrick, excerpts from COUNTERCOUP
• Stefanie Goldstein, Blame it on the Bossa Nova (Part I)

7 PM MUSIC - Jugology: A jug-style band featuring mandolin, ukulele, guitars and vocals. Christoper Richards, Michael Temerio, David Sullivan, Lindsay Dixon, Jeff Norman and Krishna Khalsa

Oakland-based Jeff Greenwald is the author of five travel books, including Shopping for Buddhas, The Size of the World, and an anthology called Scratching the Surface. Highlights of his 25-year travel career include creating the first international blog, celebrating Passover with Paul Bowles, and interviewing the Dalai Lama about Star Trek. Jeff serves as Executive Director of Ethical Traveler, a global alliance of travelers dedicated to human rights and environmental protection (www.ethicaltraveler.org). He launched his stage career in 2003 with a one-man show, Strange Travel Suggestions.

Paul Sussman developed his approach to melodrama and farce through many years of work in fianancial management with Bay Area nonprofit organizations. He has written and performed a series of solo pieces over the past 6 years, seeing the world through the eyes of road-ragers, insects, cooks, Anabaptists, and others who persist in the search for meaning in a puzzling world.

Mark McGoldrick is developing his new show, COUNTERCOUP, in which a head-strong youth with more energy than wisdom careens through life, crashing into other people, hard objects, and himself. Self destruction and rehabilitation ensue. Mark's earlier full-length show, THE GOLDEN HAMMER, Wounds, Booze, and Forgotten Misconduct, ran at The Marsh in 2005 to critical acclaim. In THE GOLDEN HAMMER, Mark explored justice and truth in a dark and funny way through the stories of people enmeshed in the criminal justice system. He works as a public defender in the east bay.

Stefanie Goldstein is a Bay Area actress, whose favorite appearances include Get it, Got it, Good in the SF Fringe Festival; John Fisher's debut of Schonberg; and Mortified, the cult hit from L.A. She recently finished shooting the indie film The Snake and is involved in this year's Bay Area One-Acts Festival. She began development of this piece under David Ford's tutelage and hopes to find redemption (or vengeance) through its completion.

STORYTELLERS
• Wayman Barnes, She Might Be Egyptian
• Maryclare McCauley, Where Yer From (Part I)
• Carolyn Doyle, A Gal's Guide to Grief
• David Ponkey, Oscar and Etain

7 PM MUSIC - The Simple Things, featuring Kaitlin McGaw & Ray Ruiz - Vocals, Bass & Keyboard

Wayman Barnes has been published in The Funny Times, Comic Relief, Vox Populi, Digress Magazine, Ad Infinitum, and Fetus Noise. He also owns a cat that he is very allergic to.

Maryclare McCauley has worked professionally in many aspects of the theater during the past thirty years. She has been as an actress, director, props master, costumer, improviser and teacher. She began practicing the art of storytelling a year ago, under the direction of David Ford. Her hope tonight is for you to enjoy her piece and look forward to part II.

Carolyn Doyle is a member of the Z Space Writer's Lab, Alternative Theatre Ensemble's Work-Out series and a company member of PlayGround and Rough & Tumble Theatre Company. As a writer/performer she has been seen at The Marsh, the San Francisco Solo Festival and the San Francisco Theatre Festival. Additionally, she can be heard as a panel member on KZSU's (90.1 FM) weekly radio program What Would Your Mother Say? airing on Thursdays from 5:00 - 6:00PM.

David Ponkey serves as a storytelling therapist for Sunny Hills/Children's Garden group homes, and is a member of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum Storytelling Corps. David served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Storytelling Association of Alta California for six years, and is the recipient of three Marin Arts Council grants for storytelling with special needs students. His storytelling tape, Anything Can Happen is the winner of a Parents Choice award.

STORYTELLERS
• Brian M Rosen, Better Loving Through Chemistry
• Allison Landa, Andrea
• Erica Lann-Clark, Excerpts from Shopping for God
• Marijo, Fishtails: Mermaids Who Love too Much

Brian M Rosen is a San Francisco based singer/actor/writer/composer looking for more hours in a day. He has performed with the Lamplighters, the San Francisco Symphony, 42nd Street Moon, the Punk Rock Orchestra, and Cinnabar Opera Theater. He runs an a cappella group called The Richter Scales. Please don't hold that against him.

Allison Landa likes giving it up - she's offered her body and soul at the Marsh Theater, Porchlight, and Inside StoryTime. She earned her MFA from St. Mary's College of California and has just returned from a monthlong residency at the Julia and David White Artists' Colony in Costa Rica. Allison lives on McGee's Farm in Berkeley. www.allisonlanda.com.

Erica Lann-Clark who presents her Make It One for Baubo, is a former New Yorker, a storyteller, an actor, an award-winning playwright, a published poet and an alternative healer. She'd thought she'd stay in Greenwich Village forever, but then the '60's happened and Erica joined the migration of those who came west to find Paradise. She's also a Viennese Jew whose family escaped to Brooklyn's cultural hotbed where she grew up listening to the tales of a vanished world.

Marijo is an actor, storyteller, writer, director, and arts educator. She trained at A.C.T; has performed in theatre, stand-up comedy and storytelling. Marijo has toured her solo works throughout the U.S., Germany, London and Zimbabwe. Marijo is known as a Griot and Truth-Teller!

TELL IT ON TUESDAY ARCHIVES - 2007

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TELL IT ON TUESDAY ARCHIVES - 2007

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