Tell It On Tuesday

Stories

• Monica Bhatnagar, “Bollywood Princess”
• Michael Brown, “Danny, David and Me”
• Martha Rynberg, “Best Feeding”, an excerpt
• Michael Katz, “The Perfect Teacher”

Music

Vanessa Lowe, singer/songwriter/guitarist, www.vanessalowe.com

Monica Bhatnagar is a former engineer turned actress! She recently performed a staged reading of her one-woman show, A Week in the Life of a Bollywood Princess; an extended version of her solo original, Bollywood Princess. Monica has extensive training in Bharatnatyum and Indian folk dance, and has performed across the United States, as well as in Russia and Denmark. monicabhatnagar.com

Michael Brown has created and performed original theater since the mid-Sixties, first in street theater in New York, followed by the critically acclaimed Moving Men Theater Company of Berkeley. His recent work includes staged readings at the Magic Theatre and writing and performing in several full-length productions including his current solo show, Memories and Dreams of the Twentieth Century:  Stories and a Couple of Songs which recently received a CA$H Grant Award from Theatre Bay Area.

Martha Rynberg has been working with W. Kamau Bell’s Solo Performance Workshop for 3 years as a performer—and for the last year as an instructor. She recently launched her first full length show, Best Feeding, one mother’s story of wrestling with the past to make room for the present. In this excerpt: Can adoptive mothers breast feed? Impossible! Crazy talk! Right? Come get all the juicy details. martharynberg.com

Storyteller Michael Katz has been performing for over 20 years throughout the U.S.  He was a featured performer at the openings of both the Getty Center and the Disney Concert Hall.  His radio show Katz Pajamas has been on the air since 1984, and can be heard Saturday mornings streaming live at NPR station KCBX.org. His CD of stories “Far Away and Close to Home” received a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award in 2005. storytellermichael.com

Stories

• Gene Gore, “My life as I see it” (excerpt)
• Mia Paschal, Party Triptych: “You blacked out but I remember”, “The Date”, “A Diamond BBQ”
• Sia Amma, “Uncle’s Children in Africa”
• Shumit DasGupta, “Of Mice and Pants”

Music

Kikelomo Adedeji performing jazz standards

Gene Gore has been telling stories and entertaining since she was a young child. She loved singing the blues when younger, and did a bunch of fun independent films in San Francisco. For the last 3 years  she has been immersed in solo performance at The Marsh, also in San Francisco, working with David Ford. She will perform her full length solo piece early next year there. She has been a nurse since 1955 and her piece explores the  impact of that training on her life, presented with poignancy and humor.

Mia Paschal is very excited to perform again with Tell It on Tuesday. She moved to SF from Milan, Italy to study acting with Ed Hooks, and also studied with David Wheeler while she was an undergraduate at Harvard and Bill Hickey at HB Studio in NYC. She is currently part of the Performance Initiative project at the Marsh in San Francisco, which will be presented in June 2010. For more information, please visit www.miapaschal.com.

Sia Amma is out of Africa. She is a stand-up comedian, writer, dancer, and actress who is best known for making fun of African and American cultures, relationships, life experiences, sexuality and, of course, herself. Her presentations combine humor and celebration that are refreshing, honest, and very informative about the issue of female circumcision. Her newest presentation for mothers and daughters is called “What Mama Said About ‘Down There’”, for which has been a keynote speaker and guest lecturer in schools in West Africa the last 5 years.

Shumit DasGupta is a public school teacher in San Francisco, and has been teaching for over 10 years. On occasion he writes, performs both spoken word and instrumental music, and plans to move his venue to his living rooms when his first baby daughter is born.

Stories

• Pidge Meade, Excerpt from “40 Pounds in 12 Weeks: A Love Story”
• Eric Larson, “The Contents of My Father’s Garage”
• Elaine Stanley, “Do Tell”
• Bruce Pachtman, “Solo Show #2” (a short excerpt)

Music

Bitter Mystics: Original songs spanning genres from bluegrass to folk, pop to swing.

Pidge Meade has been doing solo performance since 2007. She is currently part of the Marsh’s Solo Performance Initiative, where she is working on her full length show, 40 Pounds in 12 Weeks: A Love Story, in collaboration with Charlie Varon, which she will present as part of a festival of solo work at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco in June 2010. Pidge is also a professional actress, who has appeared from coast to coast in everything from Shakespeare to Musical Theatre to really bad murder mystery dinner theatre. Favorite Bay Area roles include Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Amalia in She Loves Me, Celia in As You Like It, and the title role in Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge.

Eric Larson is a prodigal Minnesotan son who has performed his poems, stories and songs on stages from coast to coast as well as in the Czech Republic, where he exiled himself for a year in the early 2000s. Most recently, he has studied clown and mime technique with James Donlon at the Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco and has begun work on a book that introduces readers to their “inner clown” as a tool for self-transformation. Eric lives in Berkeley with a new wife, Andi, and their antique cat, Kochka.

Elaine Stanley, a “Weaver of Stories for Head, Heart and Soul”, has been a working storyteller since 1994. Telling in varied venues to audiences of all ages. A graduate from the Dominican Storytelling program, she delights in having fun with stories and people.  She enhances her stories with the use of Sign Language, facial expressions, body movement and heart, bringing her gifts of story alive with her enthusiasm and energy. Elaine is a member of the National Storytelling Network and the Storytelling Association of California, and works with StageBridge on numerous projects. She has worked on the Bay Area Storytelling Festival Committee for 15+ yrs.

Bruce Pachtman credits W. Kamau Bell, Club Solo and David Ford as the creative forces behind his first solo show, Don’t Make Me Look Too Psychotic, which ran in San Francisco, Philadelphia and LA for a combined 100 weeks. Much of the development for the piece you’ll see tonight occurred in the Solo Performance Workshop (which Bruce and Kamau founded together). He recently initiated a solo performance series in San Francisco called “Solo Sundays” which features many of the Bay Area’s finest actor/writers. For the past ten years he has worked as a producer/publicist.

Bitter Mystics: Smooth and sultry vocals backed by masterful acoustic rhythm and lead guitars and violin energizing original songs spanning genres from bluegrass to folk, pop to swing. Lisa Safran (singer/songwriter and rhythm guitar), Chris Faust (lead guitar), Misha Safran (harmony diva), and Liz Matthews (violinist) www.myspace.com/bittermystics

Stories

• Lauren Crux, “Dinosaurs & Haircuts” (excerpt)
• David A. Moss, “Cracked Clown”
• Maryclare McCauley, “Tuna Surprise”
• Jeff Byers “Two Roads Diverged…”

Music

The Western Whistleblowers: Guitar & Vocals – Aaron Thomas, Violin & Vocals –Ashley Schaeffer, Accordian & Vocals – Zack Christensen, Bass & Vocals – Jamie Christensen

Lauren Crux travels the boundaries between story-telling, the monologue, and performance art. Known primarily as a solo performer, she also co-creates community based collaborative performance projects. Santa Cruz is home, but she hails from Vancouver, Canada. She is just returned from a month residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for the Arts in Ireland.

David A. Moss just completed the season at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, where he appeared as Casca in Julius Caesar and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s  Dream. He is thrilled to be back at TIOT.

Maryclare McCauley will tell a personal story that takes a closer look at the similarities between birth and death, animals and humans, and tuna casserole and cat food. While witnessing a pet give birth may not be a life changing event, see how it could be a life accelerating lesson. Maryclare enjoys writing stories for children and adults.

Jeff Byers has delighted audiences with personal and traditional stories at the San Francisco Theater Festival, The Magic Theater, the Chicago Calling Arts Festival, KPFA, and Tell It On Tuesday. He has told stories in classrooms from elementary school to graduate school, and has been the featured teller at story gatherings throughout the Bay Area. He is a board member of the Storytelling Association of California.

Stories

• Kikeloma Adedeji, “Luscious! In Love at Last”
• Victoria Doggett, “I Prefer Fur”
• Paul Sussman, “True Enough”
• Ann Riley, “Macha’s Curse”

Music

Joshua Raoul Brody on piano

Kikelomo Adedeji has been writing and performing her own solo plays in the Bay area for over 15 years. She is an actor, singer, writer, acting coach and solo performance director. This is her first cabaret solo play.

Victoria Doggett has been doing solo performance in the Bay Area since 1992, with a sizeable gap that ended, fortunately, three years ago. Typically, her work is a distortion of her own life experience (Kiss My Booth, performed at the 2007 SF Fringe Festival was inspired by her time as an exhibitor during fancy food shows). While the kitty in the postcard photo is actually her own cat, Angelo, this piece is a rare departure into the world of fiction, with accordion accompaniment. I Prefer Fur will be performed in its entirety during the San Francisco Fringe festival this September! 

Paul Sussman developed his approach to melodrama and farce through years of work in financial management with Bay Area nonprofit organizations. He has written and performed a series of solo pieces through the eyes of road-ragers, insects, Anabaptists, cannibals, and others who persist in the search for meaning amidst the puzzling evidence.

Ann Riley first started telling stories as a kid to try and stay out of trouble. That grew into telling stories about historical figures to her class as a school teacher. Now she tells at the Asian Art Museum, for Stagebridge, and in libraries. She is on the board of the Storytelling Association of California.

Stories

• Sigal Shoham, “Dr.Amelia’s Medicine Show”
• Neshama Franklin, “The Hippy Dance of Love”
• Dave Pokorny, “Based On A True Story”
• Jeanne Haynes, “New York! New York!”  excerpt from The Stove Is White
• Carolyn Doyle, “Good Grief: Confessions of a Peanuts Junkie”

Sigal Shoham has been a performer and theater-maker for over 10 years. This is her first solo creation. Recent works include two original ensemble pieces with A Traveling Jewish Theater, one that toured nationally. Sigal is also a mediator and teaches conflict resolution with Bay Area Nonviolent Communication.

Neshama Franklin, a young mother, dancer, and quasi-hippie signed up during the Summer of Love to help show tourists real hippies in full flower. As she lived to tell the tale, she’s been telling stories for two decades, still dance, work in a library and read omnivorously, and has a radio show in West Marin.

Dave Pokorny made his living as a stand-up comic for over a decade, traveling all over the country opening up for such talents as Ellen DeGeneres and Jim Carrey.  After his first daughter was born he decided that life on the road was no way to raise a family, so he left the business.  Thirteen macaroni & cheese-filled years later he’s back to tell his story. 

Teller and teacher Jeanne Haynes’ venues include The Marsh, ODC Theater and Noh Space at Theatre of Yugen in San Francisco; Julia Morgan Theatre and Ashby Stage in Berkeley, Bay Area Storytelling Festival, regional Telebrations, KPFA-FM Berkeley Public Radio and schools throughout the Bay Area.  She teaches weekly adult storytelling classes at Stagebridge, Oakland, and conducts senior workshops.  As an artist in residence she has taught the art of storytelling to some 2000 students in 17+ Bay Area schools.

As a writer / solo performer, Carolyn Doyle has performed at The Marsh with the Marsh Rising series, CounterPULSE’s Words First series, the SF Solo Festival, Thursday Night Combo at EXIT Theatre, the SF Theatre Festival and with Tell It on Tuesday! Carolyn is a member of the Artists Development Lab at Z Space and is slated for a three-week run at The Marsh with her full length piece, Confessions of a Refrigerator Mother.

Stories

• Kenny Yun, “Lettucetown Lies”
• Lambeth Sterling, excerpt from “Love and Sex in the Spin Cycle”
• Violet Juno, “Idioglossia and Other Daring Feats of Language”
• Angela Neff, excerpt from “Picnics at the Asylum”

Music

Daniel Ari, Accordion

Kenny Yun barely survived his teenhood in Lettucetown, scarred by reruns of Dynasty. Thanks to his friends. Come see his full length show at The Marsh weekends in June.

Lambeth Sterling previews portions of “Love and Sex in the Spin Cycle.”  A super size load of arduous affairs, Bible belt babble and classic cult confusion, also to appear in full at The Marsh, June 3rd.  Lambeth has studied with Bay Area’s best— David Ford, Charlie Varon, Nina Wise, and Amy Muehler

Since 1990, Violet Juno has performed and exhibited her multi-media work at over 70 theaters and exhibition spaces in 30 cities in the United States, Canada and Scotland. Venues include Highways in Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art and PS122 in New York and Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Juno’s storytelling is often multi-sensory incorporating the use of kinetic and fragrant props, soundscapes, flamboyant costumes, live video projection, and an unique form of cognitive mapping. This new work explores the intriguing dynamic between language and language(less)ness including Juno’s experience with idioglossia—or twin language.

Angela Neff has performed her original works at The Marsh; The Exit Theater’s Thursday Night Combo; and with the beloved Wool Street Gang. Her current piece, “Picnics at the Asylum,” tells about growing up with her father, as he goes from being the funniest Dad in Silicon Valley, to the funniest street person on San Jose’s Skid Row. It can be seen in it’s entirety on Wednesday, July 8th at The Marsh Theater as part of their Rising Series.

Stories

• Joe Dunn, “Reasons” 
• Andy Robbins, “Our Starting Point is Not Our Destiny”
• debra netkin “ROY VEY”
• Miriam Mills, “Blueberry Cream Pie; Why I Can’t Play Volleyball; White Flowers”

Music

Cover Girl Strings: Patti Weiss, Marcella Schantz and Catherine Matovich: Playing popular tunes like you’ve never heard them before (but will want to hear again).

Joe Dunn has written (under the expert guidance of Charlie Varon) and performed three one-man shows at the Marsh:  “1984/Loss”, “Home/Darkness” and a couple of versions of “Reasons”, which remains a work in progress. All three shows attempt to mix politics with the personal, without completely losing a sense of humor. Many years ago Joe was a member of the seminal improv group Freefall.

Andy hardly spoke till the age of fifteen, when he left home. He hasn’t shut up since. His life has always unfolded as rich stories, which he loves to share. He has performed at The Marsh, in San Francisco, under the guidance of David Ford.

debra netkin (MzDebra) has been writing and performing solo pieces in the san francisco bay area over the past few years. Her other works include: “childhood mammaries,” “from A to B,”  “getting it right,” “sextile to pluto,” “wandering jewish,” and “tuna on rye”:. She also performs solo 180 days a year in front of her first graders.

Miriam Mills tells folk tales and myths to children as a part of the Asian Art Museum storytelling program.  Tonight she will debut three new personal stories. Being a Big Sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is very important to her, and she is the 2008 National Big Sister of the Year. Family and friends are what brings light to her life!