
Music
Lewis Santer and Caroline Testard, Hard to Leave, Harder to Stay
Why did millions of Irish leave their lives and country? Lewis and Caroline present songs in the Irish tradition about love and heartache, famine and opportunity, adventure and longing for a lost home.
Stories
Al Sasser, Suitable Placement
I have never met anyone who was born a criminal. Something has to happen for a person to think, “Maybe I was dealt a bad hand. But, I can trust people.”
Annamarie MacLeod, Medusa Reflects (excerpt)
Medusa is tired of men telling you what happened to her. She’s not dead, she’s not a villain, and she wants to look you in the eyes.
Scott Cohen, Always Start With A Joke
Why do people laugh when someone tells a joke? Scott thought he knew the answer to this question. It’s because the joke is over. Scott had heard and retold thousands of jokes before his seventh birthday. He was intimately familiar with the pattern: Step 1: Say some words; Step 2: Pause; Step 3: Say some more words; Step 4: Everyone laughs. Every joke was the same, until he heard the one about the elephant and the naked man. What the elephant said changed his world, forever.
Rachel Garlin, The Ballad of Madelyne & Therese (excerpt)
When was the last time you saw a show about 1940’s lesbians hiding in plain sight?
About the Performers
Lewis Santer is a luthier and plays in a number of Traditional Irish Music bands. Caroline Testard is a European emigrant with a love for modern and traditional songwriting.
Al Sasser is a veteran performer with FIPPP, the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Performance Project. He has traveled far—all the way from South-Central L.A.
Annamarie MacLeod is a local creator of several solo shows. Her first show, Full Fathom Five, about post-partum depression and mermaids, was accepted into the SF Fringe Festival in 2020. Someday, she wants to write something funny.
Scott Cohen is a storyteller and comedian, but only at night. By day, he is a mild-mannered accountant and no one knows how funny he is.
Berkeley-born Rachel Garlin is a songwriter and playwright who recently produced her first one-person show, The Ballad of Madelyne & Therese. Performed to critical acclaim at The Lost Church in San Francisco, it’s now on the move, with upcoming performances in Colorado and New York.