October 27, 2024

Stagebridge Partnership Performance

Collage of headshots: Linda Wright, Jordan Feinstein, Eleanor Clement Glass
Collage of headshots: Samir Saad, Melinda Ginne, Cynthia Cudaback

Music

Jordan Feinstein Piano and vocal / singer-songwriter
Very cool sounds from one of the Bay Area’s most sought after performers. Playing everything from Jerry Garcia to Professor Longhair, Jordan will take you on a musical journey!

Stories

Cynthia CudabackRaven and the Tides
A personal variation of a traditional Native American story. Cynthia hopes it will inspire you to listen to the original, perhaps as told by Gene Tagaban.

Eleanor Clement GlassWar Bride
The story of how Eleanor’s father and mother met, fell in love, and, against all odds, married—just after World War II in the Philippines. 

Melinda GinneSigns and Symptoms
A look back at the career of a psychologist from one of the first patients she ever saw to one of the last. Some lessons take time to be learned.

Samir SaadTransitions
Samir lived in New York City for a while… and loved it! Good money and good friends, but the weather in summer and winter was horrible. So Samir moves to Oakland, California, and settled into a weather agreeable all year around and MAGIC happens!

Linda WrightThe Spirit of Fanny Lou Hamer
Do you know what it was like to grow up in Mississippi in the early 1900’s poorer than dirt? How did a child feel, raised in miserable poverty, crushed by injustice and cruelty? Fannie Lou discovered her breakthrough and turned her freedom into a rallying cry for the entire world: “Nobody’s Free until Everybody’s Free.”


About the Performers

Jordan Feinstein is one of the Bay Area’s go-to keyboard players—a regular in 30 or so bands as well as leading his own, Jordan and the RituaL. He is the musical director for Jay Lane and the Mayhem, and regularly plays with Joe and Hattie Craven and the Smokedaddies (to name a few). Jordan is a partner in True Productions, a Bay Area music and event company. He also runs a recording project studio in San Francisco, Studio 352.

Cynthia Cudaback loves to combine her passions for science, exploration, teaching and storytelling. Her stories join the mystery and myth of the ocean with personal experiences and real science. From gentle tales of love and longing to tall tales salted with sea spray, prepare to experience the ocean in all its moods.

Eleanor Clement Glass tells folktales from around the world as a volunteer with the Storyteller Corps of the Asian Art Museum, in libraries, public elementary schools and the YouTube channel Asian American Storytopia. She also draws stories from her Black and Filipino heritage for the personal stories she shares at local Bay Area and national storytelling venues. She earned her storytelling chops from the storytelling training programs at Stagebridge and the Asian Art Museum, where she is currently co-teaching a New Storyteller Class for 47 budding storytellers. She lives in Oakland.

Melinda Ginne, Ph.D., is a psychologist with over 40 years of experience in geriatrics and treating the psychological aspects of major medical illnesses. She draws inspiration from Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke), Oliver Sacks, Sid Caesar, and Imogene Coca. For generations, her family lived in Boyle Heights, the Jewish-Latino comunidad of East Los Angeles where tacos were kosher and the Shul was directly across the street from the Catholic Church. The language of the streets and of her family is English, a bissel of Spanish y un poquito of Yiddish. She is a graduate of the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge in Oakland and has been telling stories on Bay Area stages for many years.

Samir Saad, resides in Oakland. retired in 2015 from Child, Family and Community Services. A good friend referred him to Stagebridge, which offered courses in Playwriting and Storytelling… and he got the STORYTELLER BUG! Samir has been at Stagebridge for nine years now!

Linda Wright: Rooted in Oakland, graduated from UC Berkeley, married to Randy with three adult children, writer of children’s books, retired educator, amazing storyteller, and a huge fan and supporter of Stagebridge Performing Arts.

October 29, 2023

Stagebridge Partnership Performance

Collage of performers: Eleanor Clement Glass, Magda Peck, Gerry Keenan, Melinda Ginne

Music

Misha Safran, Singer/Songwriter

Misha Safran singing

Stories

Eleanor Clement GlassNot in Kansas Anymore!

Magda PeckHearing Change

Gerry KeenanAn Ark on Wheels

Melinda GinneThree Therapists and a Psychic


About the Performers

Misha Safran has been singing and creating songs since she was five years young—that’s 50 years! Growing up, Misha also spent a lot of time listening to folk songs, classic rock, and the blues. Today, Misha is a social justice song writer and sings about topics that are sometimes uncomfortable but thought-provoking and relatable to many. Check out Misha’s YouTube channel.

Eleanor Clement Glass delights children with folktales from around the world as a Volunteer Storyteller at the Asian Art Museum. She also tells personal family stories from her Black and Filipino cultures. Eleanor contributes to Asian American Storytopia, a YouTube channel offering Asian folktales and cultural activities by Asian American Storytellers for young children (K-5), as a way to combat Asian hate. As a cultural ambassador with Eth-Noh-Tec, she has exchanged stories with storytellers in China and South Korea. 

Magda Peck has been known throughout her career for weaving powerful personal stories into leadership practice for the public’s health and equity. About 10 years ago, she took a deeper dive into the art and science of storytelling for social change, first as an Urban StoryTelling Fellow with Ex Fabula in Milwaukee, then with StoryCenter and StageBridge, in Oakland.  Her latest intergenerational collaboration, SquareRoot Stories, builds storytelling skills and strategies in communities across the country for healthier women, children and families. Magda loves how a light cracks through when our hardest stories are honed and heard from the inside out.

Gerry Keenan has been telling stories for many years as a writer and fine art photographer. Ten years ago she decided to add spoken word telling to her lexicon of written word stories and the stories her photos evoke. She thinks stories may be in her DNA as she grew up intrigued by her Irish father’s ‘gift of gab’ and her Polish mother’s family tales of ‘the old country’ and credits Stagebridge and its EPIC program for giving her the tools to take her stories on-stage.

Melinda Ginne, Ph.D., is a psychologist with over 40 years of experience in geriatrics and treating the psychological aspects of major medical illnesses. She draws inspiration from Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke), Oliver Sacks, Sid Caesar, and Imogene Coca. For generations, her family lived in Boyle Heights, the Jewish-Latino comunidad of East Los Angeles where tacos were kosher and the Shul was directly across the street from the Catholic Church. She is a graduate of the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge in Oakland and has been telling stories on Bay Area stages for many years.

October 27, 2020

Stagebridge Partnership Performance

Livestreamed Performance

Headshots of tonight's performers: Lois Kincy, Rose Owens, Sally Holzmann, Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig

Stories

  • Lois Kincy, Signifying Monkey and Mr. Lion
  • Rose Owens, My Father Goes a-Courting
  • Sally Holzman, Hair Princess
  • Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig, I Love you, San Francisco!


About the Performers

Lois Kincy has been a clown and is now a writer and teller. A wellness facilitator to a wellness circle of kinship caregivers called I Take Care of Me Too, she has focused on the importance of keeping a life for ourselves as we care for others. As a graduate of the Stagebrige’s EPIC program, she has come to know that any story is a personal story when you find yourself in it.

Rose Owens is a storyteller, writer, artist, mother to seven children, and grandmother to twenty-five grandchildren. She tells family stories, original stories, and her own adaptations of folk and fairy tales, has published the Maryalise Trilogy (three middle grade fantasy novels) and has a master’s degree in Special Education.

Sally Holzman has had many titles in her lifetime—daughter, wife, teacher, mother, storyteller. Tonight you will hear of others, from the world of make believe to today’s reality.

Claire Isaacs Wahrhaftig, after retiring from a career in arts administration, started studying storytelling at Stagebridge. Just when she thinks she is out of stories, one pops up in her subconscious and it is a thrill to share.

October 29, 2019

Stagebridge Partnership Performance

Stories

  • Shirley Smallwood, “DWAB (Driving While Almost Black)”
  • Claire Wahrhaftig, “White Like Me”
  • Ida Johnson, “Weave of Wonders – An Armenian Tale”
  • Ben Tucker, “Play Ball!”
  • Kiran Rana, “Nasruddin Visits the City” 
  • Albertina Zarazúa Padilla, “How? ¿Como?”

Music

Bunny Numpkins and the Kill Blow Up Reaction: Little Johnny Bowling Ball (vocals and guitar), Miles Steuding (drums), Kelsey Ahern (accordion), Lady Mondegreen (vocals) and Leslie Outhier (bass)


About the Performers

Bunny Numpkins is from Oakland, California. They started around 2005 as a backup band for a puppet and continued on to play quirky pop with songs about months, board games, and geographic musings.

Shirley Smallwood is a vocalist, actor and voiceover talent, and finds it very important to know her family and not lose sight of family history, as she believes we must continue to teach and inform those who come after us.

Claire Wahrhaftig, a retired former arts administrator and  Director of the San Francisco Arts Commission, joined the Eth-Noh-Tec Nu Wa delegation to swap stories with Chinese villagers in 2018.

Ida Johnson loves sharing old tales at Stagebridge programs, school classrooms, and story swaps.  As a retired teacher and school librarian, she finds that a good story can be enjoyed whether you’re 7 or 87.

Ben Tucker (Brother Ben)’s stories includes personal and historical characters that touch on universal themes. His stories take you back to the front porch, kitchen table, or campfire. iambentucker.com

Kiran Rana was born and raised in India, but in 1973 he traveled to the West, where he joined a Sufi mystical school. In 2014, after many years as a publisher of self-help books, he gave up publishing and became a full-time teacher of Sufism. At the same time he started taking storytelling and playwriting classes at Stagebridge. His stories draw on Sufi sources, folk tales, personal stories and his own writing.

Albertina Zarazúa Padilla is Co-Founder of MiHistoria.net, curator for its online story archive, and workshop facilitator. Born to a farmworker family in Monterey, California, Albertina was the first in her family to attend college. Albertina’s storytelling work with farmworker women has led to public presentations before live audiences. 

October 30, 2018

Stagebridge Partnership Performance

Stories

  • Jeff ByersBajan Budiman, Sharpshooter
  • Melissa HobbsThe Wife of Bath Tells the Truth
  • Melinda GinneSam Meets Pearl, Montreal 1916
  • Dana SherryThe City of Women (a Kazakh legend)
  • Gerry KeenanCounting by Sevens

Music

Kate Brubeck (vocals) and Geoff Van Linden (guitar)


About the Performers

Jeff Byers has appeared several times at Tell It on Tuesday over the years (Thank you Rebecca and Bridget!). He has also told at numerous other venues, but most often at the Asian Art Museum, where he is a storyteller and storytelling coach.

Melissa Hobbs is a graduate of the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge in Oakland, CA. She tells stories to children in spiritual virtues training, and tells uplifting stories in the Bay Area and Northern California. Her favorites are biographies of women of excellence. She also tells tales of her own life Ohio and Bodega.

Dr. Melinda Ginne grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, the granddaughter of four Russian emigres. All of whom had escaped the pogroms in Russia 105 years ago. This story is about her father’s family who emigrated to Montreal Quebec.

Dana Sherry was once a respectable historian of Russia until she turned to a life of storytelling. Today, she is the resident storyteller at the Silk Road House in Berkeley and produces “The Caravan of Stories,” a monthly storytelling series featuring the traditional tales of Central Asia.

According to her family, Gerry Keenan’s been ‘telling stories’ since she could talk. It’s only since taking her first storytelling class at Stagebridge that she realized what an art form a well-told story is. This is Gerry’s first theater performance. Her other life? Retired non-profit exec. Now? Photographer/writer/budding storyteller and proud mother of three adult children.

Kate Brubeck—no relation to Dave—is an editor, coach, and writing consultant with a stealth singing practice, with a range including classical music, traditional Irish music, show tunes, jazz standards, folk, Americana, country, and the odd original.

Geoff Van Lienden has been playing the guitar professionally since the 60’s. More recently he has been playing jazz as well as celtic/fusion music with Colm O’Riain. He has studied with teachers as diverse as rock guitarist Joe Satriani and jazz guitarist Brian Pardoe.