Tell It On Tuesday

Stories

• Violet Juno, Romancing Variable X
• Kevin Rolston, Schadenfeuer the Dragon; Part One: it takes two
• Cassie Angley, Split Chicks
• Michael O’Brien, Go, Don’t Go April

Music

Frank Chigas and Laura Wachtel, singers/songwriters, vocals/guitars, alt/folk

Violet Juno creates interdisciplinary performance often combining storytelling with sculptural props, drawing, movement and sound. Juno has performed and exhibited at over 70 theaters in 30 cities in the United States, Canada and Scotland. She also performs in the sound performance duo RED VIXA and creates site-specific performance in unusual urban and natural environments. www.violetjuno.com

Kevin Rolston is an actor, writer, director, teaching theater artist and performance coach.  He and his man/spouse, (poet Ronald Palmer), have lived in San Francisco for ten years.  Their dog/child, (Kylie Fantastic), likes long walks on the beach, naps and cookies.   

Cassie Angley performed, trained, and wrote in New York City for over 15 years, where she wrote, produced, and often performed in more than 12 original plays and musicals. She received a fellowship from the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop where she studied as a lyricist and book writer. Most recently she performed her one woman show, Finding the Michaels, in NYC in the United Solo Theatre Festival and Estrogenius Festival, and at the San Francisco Marsh as part of their Marsh Rising series.

Michael O’Brien is a San Francisco-based writer, performer and improviser, original member of The National Theatre of the Deranged, and co-creator of “Tips on Travel with Karl & Carl” heard frequently on NPR.

Frank Chigas and Laura Wachtel met during preparations for a Sci-Fi drama improv show and discovered a musical affinity.

Stories

• Kenny Yun, The Kim Jong Il Experience
• Peter L. Stein, The Lafee Project (excerpt)
• Sharon Eberhardt, Second Hand Muse
• Jean Gregory, Safe Journey! 

Music

Garen Patterson, singer/songwriter, vocals & guitar

Kenny Yun’s work has been produced at The Marsh theatre San Francisco. The Kim Jong Il Experience is his third solo performance project and was developed with David Ford and Charlie Varon. www.kennyyun.com

Peter L. Stein has a long-held passion for telling the stories of his native San Francisco. As a television producer and writer, he won a Peabody Award and numerous regional Emmy Awards for his series of PBS documentaries about the history of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. As an actor, he has appeared over the years in roles with the American Repertory Theatre, George Coates Performance Works, Thick Description, and in obscure 99-seat attic theatres from coast to coast. 

Sharon Eberhardt wrote and performed Savage Arts, which had a run at The Marsh, San Francisco, and at Fringe Festivals in Canada. Her play, Becca and Heidi, was performed by other actors in San Francisco, New York City, and Buffalo, NY.  She was a member of Playground SF, and The Shee Theater. She hopes to have the rest of the story of Second Hand Muse completed soon and coming to a theater (or living room) near you!  

Jean Gregory is a retired elementary teacher having taught in both the Chicago and Oakland school systems.  She is currently active with Stagebridge, a performing arts center for seniors, creating and performing original stories reflecting her life’s journey. She resides in Oakland enjoying her family, her two dogs, and activities such as hiking, camping, singing, involvement with church and community organizations, and traveling.

In addition to being a singer songwriter, Garen Patterson writes and produces solo performance “folk operas”, performing primarily in people’s homes. He’s a graduate of California College of Arts in Oakland with a Masters in Education (Sonoma State), father of seven, grandfather of six, husband of one, and owner of Patterson Painting and Decorating in Sonoma.

Stories

• Howard Petrick, 1965
• Daniel Ari, Fights With Poems
• Erica Lann-Clark and Olga Loya, Believe it or Not
• Lashon Daley, “My Newspaper Lover”, “Check Race Box” and “Audrey”

Music

Stuart Rosh, Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica

Howard Petrick is a solo performer who lives in San Francisco. He has toured North America the last for years with his successful autobiographical solo show Breaking Rank. Tonight’s presentation is part of a new still untitled show, that may or may not be autobiographical or fiction.

Where language eschews the straight lines and plain meanings of prose is the place Daniel Ari finds himself—fascinated and frustrated, maddened and mesmerized. Fights With Poems is a body of work exploring both well-known and original poetry in energetic live performance.

Erica Lann-Clark, a nationally known storyteller, playwright and solo performer, has told at major storytelling festivals, like The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesorough, Tennessee, and at venues from coast to coast. Her solo play, Shopping For God, ran to critical acclaim at the Marsh Theater, SF. She loves to tell where the heart of the story meets the heart of the listener.

Olga Loya, a nationally known Latina storyteller, solo performer and writer, uses her voice, body and sometimes music and dance to draw her audience into the imaginative and surprising worlds of the tales she tells. She has been a featured teller at many festivals including the Guadalajara, Mexico Festival and the Jonesborough National Storytelling Festival and has performed and taught workshops at colleges, schools, libraries, conferences, festivals, theaters, museums, bookstores, and corporations. She tells stories because they have a way of entertaining, teaching and giving people strength.

Lashon Daley was born and raised in Miami, Florida and enjoys listening to Will Smith’s song about her hometown. She received her M.F.A in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College in 2008 and plans to be an author when she grows up. She came to Berkeley to pursue an M.A. in Folklore because she believes that everyone has a story to tell.

Stuart Rosh sings slice of life songs that harken back to the days when songwriters all spoke Yiddish (or tried to), men knew how to dress, and every lady of bearing proudly owned at least one pearl necklace.  He’s recorded four CDs (some of which contain infernal rock and roll), a memoir published by Oxford University Press, and a novel about Russian emigre mathematicians, Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, that should be out next year. He is currently working on an opera with a classical music composer.  

Stories

• Laurie Guerin, Discombobulated
• Terry Stokes, Teach Your Children Well
• Angela Neff, Beached  
• Doug Cordell, The Accidental Cop

Music

Julio Reyes: classical guitar

Since taking her first workshop with the irrepressible Ann Randolph three years ago, Laurie Guerin has written and performed ten pieces throughout the Bay Area. She loves The Marsh! She also co-produces Word Up, a storytelling venue in Santa Cruz, California. www.wordupsantacruz.com

Terry Stokes is a retired Film Editor turned storyteller, singer and actor. He’s performed in a variety of productions since moving to the Bay Area in 2006. A regular with Never Too Late of Stagebridge, he’s told at Tell It On Tuesday and several other local story swaps. Personal adventures and tragedies, fables and fairy tales, and literary stories are among his favorites, although he’s never met a good story he didn’t like.

Actress and playwright Angela Neff, will perform an excerpt from Beached, her third solo-play, currently in development at The Marsh. Beached is a provocative and at times hilarious exploration of the choices patients and their families make in the face of extreme illness in a world where Western medicine too often falls short.

Doug Cordell is an Emmy-nominated writer and performer who has appeared at venues in New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. His radio stories can be heard on NPR’s Snap Judgment and APM’s Marketplace, and his writing was recently published in Pieces of a Decade: Brooklyn Rail Nonfiction, 2000-2010. dougcordell.com

Stories

• Linda Wright, 100 Years Ago, Harriet Tubman Lived
• Gene Gore, Cheesecake and Demerol
• Kurt Bodden, Steve Seabrook: Better Than You
• Laura Wiley, Driven Bananas

Music

Laura and Bernie Duo: flute, vocals and guitar

Oakland native Linda Wright is a UC Berkeley graduate who works at two elementary schools as a Second Step guidance teacher. A wife and mother of 3 (two in college and one in high school), she leads assemblies on African American history and tells tales from around the world.

Gene Gore is an award-winning acting professional with experience in live theater, film, commercials, and voice-over work.  A resident of San Francisco since 1991, she studied with Ed Hooks, David Ford, Bobby Weinapple and currently is being directed by Wayne Harris.  Her autobiographical work Cheesecake and Demerol was featured at the 2012 San Francisco Fringe Festival where Gene performed to sellout audiences and earned a “Best of Fringe” award. 

Kurt Bodden has performed improv at the Edinburgh Fringe, hosted a talk show at a nightclub, and toured as a standup. Recently he completed a few years of study in physical performance at Flying Actor Studio. Tonight’s performance is an excerpt of the full-length show that will open at the Marsh San Francisco on February 22. Steve Seabrook: Better Than You is directed by Mark Kenward. See kurtbodden.com.

Laura Wiley will perform Driven Bananas, an excerpt from her second solo show.  She performed her first solo show, Panic!, at the 2012 SF Fringe Festival. It was a comedy about the onset of panic attacks while attempting to teach Hamlet to a roomful of college students. Both Panic! and Driven Bananas are directed by Rebecca Fisher.  In addition to acting and writing, Laura also play the flute, sings, and paints. Her websites are: www.lauraaustinwiley.com and www.resonancejazz.com.

Stories

• Sally Holzman, Women’s Work
• Jerry Gillies, 5 Unpeelings of the Jerry Onion
• Maria Grazia Affinito, Eating Pasta off the Kitchen Floor (excerpt)
• Bruce Pachtman, How Would I Know I Was in the Movie if No One Told Me?

Music

Rana Weber, Singer/Songwriter

A week after retirement, Sally Holzman joined a storytelling class and has been practicing this great oral tradition ever since in schools, senior facilities on stage and radio. She is host of a monthly story telling swap at the Orinda library (ask her about it), a member of Antic Witties Improv troop, as well as an active participant in the Stagebridge program.

Jerry Gillies has been an NBC newsman in New York, a comedy writer for such legends as Phyllis Diller and Henny Youngman, a workshop leader and motivational speaker, and a bestselling author of self-help books (Moneylove; Transcendental Sex). He has lived in a motorhome, on a houseboat, in a sex commune, and in a 4 by 8 cell at Folsom State Prison. He will soon make the transition from ex-convict to expat, living in Panama City, Panama, and starting a new career as that nation’s first English language stand-up comedian. There’s a lot of layers of this fat onion to unpeel, but Jerry will attempt to take an uplifting, sometimes poignant, often hilarious shot at five of them.

Maria Grazia Affinito is a local equity actor. She has performed with various companies in the Bay Area and in several independent films. A sampling of her stage credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (SF Shakespeare Festival), Ana in Displaced (Marin Theater Company), and Nancy in Gaslight (California Conservatory Theater). Eating Pasta Off the Kitchen Floor is being developed with David Ford at The Marsh. She will be performing a larger excerpt of this piece at Solo Sundays, Stage Werx Theatre, January 27, 2013.

Bruce Pachtman wrote and performed a solo show titled Don’t Make Me Look Too Psychotic which was developed with Club Solo and directed by W. Kamau Bell. It ran for 300 performances. Bruce currently co-produces three monthly series at Stage Werx Theatre in San Francisco: Underground Sound (music), Previously Secret Information (storytelling) and Solo Sundays (solo performance). Tonight, Bruce will be telling a story.  

Rana Weber is a Bay Area actor, singer/songwriter, director, coach and teaching artist. She is currently working to complete her first album, which will be released some time in mid-2013. Thanks for listening!

Stories

• Lauren Crux, My Lunch with Sophia Loren
• Kirk Waller, Separate and Unequal
• Safiya Martinez, So You Can Hear Me (Excerpt) 
• Rana Weber, I’m Sorry, WHAT?

Music

Vanessa Lowe, singer/songwriter/guitarist

After receiving her MFA a bit late-ish in life fifteen years ago, Lauren Crux, who was a writer and photographer, began her performance career. Before that she was a perfectly nice person. She was born in Canada but makes home in Santa Cruz, CA. More Info: laurencruxartist.com. 

Kirk Waller brings musicality, mime and emotion to his broad range or stories for young and old alike.  His performance venues range from local libraries to the National Storytelling Festival and events across the country. He is currently the Director of Storytelling at Stagebridge Senior Theater and Chair of the Storytelling Association of California.

Safiya Martinez is a playwright, performer, poet and educator. She is currently shopping her one-woman show entitled So You Can Hear Me, based on her experience being a first-year teacher in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She has performed her self-produced works in New York City and the Bay Area.

Rana Weber is a Bay Area actor, singer/songwriter, director, coach and teaching artist. Recent acting credits include Ruth in Pirates of Penzance (Jon Tracy) and Evelyn in Alaska Leavin’ (SF Fringe). This is Rana’s first attempt at writing a solo show. Eek.

Vanessa Lowe’s performances feature distinctive rhythmic finger-picking and imagistic lyrics. KFOG DJ Rosalie Howarth says, “She knows how to tell a compelling story in under 3 minutes!” www.vanessalowe.com

Stories

• Jeanne Haynes, A House Under Water
• Kari Kiernan, Mud Slinging
• David Caggiano, Jurassic Ark
• Evan Karp, Other People (excerpt)        

Music

Kaitlin McGaw and the Mr. Right Nows:
Bluesy, Soulful Singer-Songwriter, Vocals, Piano, Bass, Drums, Violin/Saxophone

With her TIOT December performance, Jeanne Haynes celebrated her 15th anniversary of saying “bye bye” to her public relations consulting business to become a full time storytelling performer and teacher. Other venues include the Bay Area Storytelling Festival and in San Francisco: The Marsh, Brava!, City Solo and SF Theater Festival.  She has taught some 300 adults in ongoing Stagebridge classes and more than 3,000 students as a schools artist in residence.  

Kari Kiernan is a San Francisco writer and storyteller whose work has appeared in Skirt! Magazine and The Morning News, as well as onstage in various places including Porchlight, Previously Secret Information, and Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match. You’ll find her sporadically maintained blog at: http://withraisins.blogspot.com

David Caggiano toured with the Celebration Theatre, led by the late Tony Montanaro. As a playwright, his full length original play Walk Like A Man was produced at the Noh Space and his series of one acts: The Arrival, The Tinker, and The Prophet at the Soma Theatre. Jurassic Ark is David’s first solo play.

Evan Karp is working on Other People, a sprawling and sometimes stalling meditation on consciousness, creation, self, friendship, and society. One of his poems was just turned into an original composition by New York based quartet Rose & the Nightingale. He writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, organizes the nonprofit submission-based reading series/press Quiet Lightning, and edits Litseen.com, a daily calendar and video archive of Bay Area readings. http://evankarp.com

Jazz, Hip Hop, Blues, Pop Rock, Children’s music; stalwart fans of these genres would have trouble finding much crossover or similarities between them, but Oakland-based singer songwriter Kaitlin McGaw does them all. Receiving comparisons to Sara Bareilles, Carole King, and Liz Phair, McGaw has a gift for finding herself in prestigious company and collaborations. Her newest project, Kaitlin McGaw and the Mr. Right Nows, is showcasing her vocal and piano abilities in a bluesy pop rock outfit all over the Bay Area. www.kaitlinmcgaw.com

Stories

• Gray, Burst (excerpt)
• Harry Richard Hall, The City
• Maryclare McCauley, A Real Cowboy and Indian Story (excerpt)
• Ron Jones, How I met God and some unusual angels

Music

Kikelomo Adedeji, Cabaret artist: standards, jazz, and show tunes, accompanied on piano by Benny Watson

Gray draws on her eclectic background of improv, theater, dance, gymnastics, linguistics, Zen Buddhism and Corporate America to rub a metaphorical nose in the juicy, blurry spaces between I, me, you, Who? Mu! Gray is on a mission to love Existence with such wild abandon that she inspires in others the courage and enthusiasm to do the same. You game?

Harry Richard Hall is a KCSM Jazz 91 DJ, Sunday Nights from 9 to 11 p.m. for Jazz Sessions. His uncle, Charles Sullivan, was a primary architect of the R&B and Jazz music scene in the Bay Area from 1940 until his death in 1966. This story is about his unsolved murder and those who have hidden the truth about what happened to him. Through workshops at The Marsh, Harry has weaved a story about what happened to his Uncle Charles.

Maryclare McCauley loves to hear and tell stories. She welcomes any comments you may have to help make this work-in-progress better. A feisty young girl from Baltimore thinks she can adapt to living on an isolated mountain top with a sexy, loner, cowboy. But can he adapt to her? Passion and secrets are the ingredients that glue these two together, but also what tears them apart. 

Ron Jones lives in San Francisco where he shares his life with poetry, grandchildren, and a peaceful garden. For info about the plays, feature film, and documentaries developed from his literary work see: www.ronjoneswriter.com. Yes, there are photos of the grandkids… and a few surprises!!! Tonight he tells the true story of getting fired, hired by God, and coaching a Special Olympic basketball team.

Kikelomo Adedeji is an actress and singer and has appeared onstage in Los Angeles, London and throughout the Bay Area, acting in plays, original musicals, and her own cabaret show, In Love at Last. She would love for you to visit her at www.kikelomoadedeji.com