Tell It On Tuesday

Stories

• Jawad Ali, “Mysteries of an Earthquake”
• Carolyn Doyle, “Good Grief! Confessions of a Peanuts Junkie”
• Olga Loya,  “A Different Boy”
• Elaine Magree, “Pilgrimage or, Why I’m not an Indian”

Music

Boundless Gratitude, Guitar and vocals

Jawad Ali is a regular throughout San Francisco’s storytelling scene. He has performed at City Solo, Words First, Solo Sundays and Porchlight Storytelling. This piece was developed at W. Kamau Bell’s Solo Performance Workshop. During the day Jawad designs technology for the Silicon Valley.

As a solo performer, Carolyn Doyle has performed with TIOT and CounterPULSE’s Words First, EXIT’s Thursday Night Combo and the SF Solo and SF Theatre Festivals. Carolyn’s previous solo show, Confessions of a Refrigerator Mother, enjoyed a highly successful 4 week run at The Marsh, playing to sold-out crowds.

Olga Loya is a nationally known bilingual (Spanish) storyteller, performance artist, teacher and writer who presents to all ages from pre-school to seniors. She tells stories that support her beliefs that we can work together as a community,  that we can learn to look beyond racial and class lines and that we can take the time to enjoy ourselves through stories and song.  For the last thirty years Olga has performed and led workshops all over the USA and Mexico and  has been featured in many festivals including the Guadalajara Storytelling Festival and The National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Elaine Magree
A California native: sometimes a wave, sometimes a photon—because you can’t be in two places at once—or can you?

Hassaun Ali Jones-Bey introduces himself as Boundless Gratitude (or BG) to describe his style and motivation for musical storytelling. BG delivers honest words and evocative imagery in a warm and expressive voice, accompanied by intoxicating harmonies and rhythms of a nylon-stringed guitar deftly mining ancestral memories from BG’s DNA. From social commentary and love songs to folk, pop and jazz ballads and children’s music, BG refuses to either dodge issues or be negative.

Stories

• Ruth Halpern, “PCs vs. Macs: Love in the Electronic Age”
• David Jacobson, “Theme Park” (an excerpt)
• Dona Budd, “Strange Bedfellows.”
• Terri Tate, “An Angel in Hell’s Kitchen”

Music

Rachel Efron, Singer/Songwriter/Pianist

Ruth Halpern has been telling stories professionally for over 20 years. As a business narrative consultant, she works with corporations and professionals to help them tell their best stories. She also teaches kids to tell stories via residencies in schools. Her repertoire includes improvisational stories, folktales, and really true true stories.

David Jacobson is a humorist, journalist and free-range ant farmer. He has performed his solo pieces at The Marsh, WordsFirst, City Solo and Solo Sundays. He’ll be performing a full-length full-plot version of Theme Park several times at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September. Theme Park is directed by Mark Kenward; and was developed with Charlie Varon and the sweet-smelling Wool Street Gang of solo performers.  
 
Dona Budd grew up in North Carolina, where she learned that language creates the world, is as personal as a toothache, and also an everlasting party. She finds the world infinitely delicious, her curiosity is blind to convention, and she never saw a rule she didn’t want to break. Her performance asks: What does the birth of art have to do with hair? Damned if she knows, but her life depends on it.

Terri Tate RN, MS is a inspirational speaker/humorist who thrives in the wake of disfiguring oral cancer from which she had a 2% chance of survival. Her hilarious solo show, Shopping as a Spiritual Path, and her upcoming book chronicle that journey. Terri also delights audiences with keynotes like Humor, Resilience and Hope in the Face of Unwanted Change. territate.com

Rachel Efron presents her all-original piano-based artistic pop songs.  “It isn’t long—about three notes will do it—before singer/songwriter Rachel Efron hooks you by the heart” —David Weigand, San Francisco Chronicle

Stories

• Erica Lann-Clark, “In a word, it’s all wishes, lies and dreams”
• Joya Cory, “The Most Beautiful Showgirl in the World / Irma at the Movies”
• Tim Ereneta, “Chart Toppers of 1349!” (excerpt)
• Michael Kaye, “The Popular Culture Society”

Music

Stuart Rosh, vocals, guitar and harmonica

Erica Lann-Clark grew up listening to stories. Born on the eve of the Holocaust, baby Erica escaped with her Viennese Jewish family across an ocean and landed in Brooklyn’s cultural hotbed. Her immigrant mama and papa spun passionate tales to bring their history alive with tears and gales of laughter. Everything that happened was seed for a future story. These memories inspire Erica’s powerful stories. She tells to honor the past and bless the future.

Joya Cory has been performing since 1971. She is the creator of numerous original theatre pieces, acts, directs & teaches in a wide variety of venues and founded the improvisation troupes, MOTION: THE WOMEN’S PERFORMING COLLECTIVE & LUCKY DOG THEATRE. Her work has been recognized with grants from the California Arts Council, in addition to other grants and awards. She teaches Full Spectrum Improvisation and Solo Performance. joyacory.com

Storyteller Tim Ereneta of Berkeley enjoys sharing forgotten fairy tales and re-imagining familiar ones with adult audiences at Fringe Festivals, house concerts, storytelling events, and stages like this one. Past performing credits include the mainstage company of BATS Improv and a singing paleontologist at Lawrence Hall of Science.

Michael Kaye is a writer and performer who has garnered press in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Los Angeles Times. He has appeared at the Knitting Factory, Dixon Place, the Comic Strip Live, the Comedy Cellar, and Gotham Comedy Club, and he has been a writing fellow at VCCA, the Julia and David White Colony, Ragdale, Millay, andWUJS in Israel. He runs begin2write.com, which helps writers finish and publish their books.

Stories

• Ruth Fraser, “Tribute to David”
• Clown Conservatory of San Francisco Circus Center, “Monkey King, a Circus Adventure”
• Paolo Sambrano, “Bi-Poseur”
• Courtney Good, “Don’t Touch My Neck”

Music

Baxter Bell, violin, Mark Silva, classical and jazz guitar, Trish Johnson, guitar and Phillip Krohn, guitar

Storytelling is the center of everything Ruth Fraser does. She has been sharing stories all over California and beyond in places as diverse as Laguna Honda Hospital, The Asian Art Museum and San Francisco’s Magic Theatre. Every month stories are shared and enjoyed in her First Sunday Story Group at SF Quaker Meeting House.  She takes great delight in working with emerging storytellers—in class or individually—as they hone their craft. What a joy to be able to do something you truly love!

The Clown Conservatory at San Francisco Circus Center is the only institution in North America offering comprehensive training in circus clowning. It began in 2000 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. To date, 120 clowns have graduated from the program; 70% of these graduates are now working professionally in circuses, theaters and other performing companies.

Some say that Paolo Sambrano has done more than the average twenty-three year old, but less than the above average twenty-three year old. Bi-Poseur is Paolo’s first full length solo show, and was developed in a year and some change under W. Kamau Bell and the Solo Performance Workshop, based in San Francisco. In non-solo performing endeavors, Paolo was nominated for a Golden Gate Award at the 2005 San Francisco International Film Festival, for his work on the short film,“Elements.”

As a graduate student at SFSU and an employee of Aquarium of the Bay, Courtney Good changes her major and her job description in nearly every conversation she enters. Interpretive Naturalist by day, Communication Studies student by night, she is a performer and storyteller for all moments betwixt and between. Courtney believes in the power of story to teach, to empower, and to inspire both a love for the earth and an understanding of ourselves in both the spiritual and natural world.

Stories

• Kirk Waller, “Lost Angel”
• David Kleinberg “The Command Module”
• Daniel Ari, “arising fall”
• Fleur Alexander ‘I don’t fly and I wont fly’ ‘A bitter glass’ ‘Lift away my hate’ and ‘Jan ate a man’

Music

Rob Reich, accordion

Kirk Waller is a professional storyteller and Director of Storytelling at Stagebridge Senior Theater Company in Oakland. This author and recording artist performs at festivals, conferences, schools and wherever he can get a story in! He was recently named the winner of the National Storytelling Network’s J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant.

David Kleinberg worked as an editor and writer at the San Francisco Chronicle for 34 years and was editor of the Sunday Datebook for 14 years. He has been a stand-up comedian for nine years and has worked with Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Sinbad and Richard Lewis. The full Journey Home will be presented at the Marsh Theater in the future.

Daniel Ari writes poems, fiction, and marketing copy; performs spoken-word, music, and the kind of experimental-theatrical thing you’re seeing tonight; and leads workshops in poetry, theater and improvisation. He lives in Richmond with his wife and daughter.

Fleur Alexander is training at the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco. She has a passion for storytelling but is a definite newcomer to solo performance. These stories use metaphors as a way of seeing and understanding people, using a fantasy to more confidently face a reality. They are works-in-progress so any feedback/comments would be more than appreciated.

Rob Reich is an acclaimed accordionist, pianist, and composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A talented instrumentalist and an inventive composer, Rob is steeped in many traditions. In addition to being a versatile solo performer, Rob can be heard playing with many top notch ensembles. He plays jazz with Gaucho and The Nice Guy Trio, composes circus music for Circus Bella, and freelances with many other Bay Area bands. www.robreich.com

Stories

• Kurt Bodden, “Unleashed”
• Cherry Zonkowski, excerpt of ‘Reading My Dad’s Porn and French Kissing the Dog”
• Thao Nguyen, “I Am So Gay”
• Craig Harrison, “Homegrown Humor from the PRB”

Music

Stuart Rosh, Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica

Kurt Bodden has performed improv at the Edinburgh Fringe, solo work at the San Francisco Fringe, storytelling on the circuit in Los Angeles, and standup comedy from here to Montana. He has hosted a monthly talk show at the Purple Onion nightclub and events like Literary Death Match. Currently he’s studying and creating mime, clowning, mask work, and physical theater at Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco—full time!

Cherry Zonkowski, is a Bay Area performance artist whose sold-out Marsh Rising performance, Reading my Dad’s Porn and French Kissing the Dog only proved that she is, has been, and will always be a weirdo. Her college application bio stated that she is “tall, blue, coarse”; nothing much has changed since then. You can be a fan of her on Facebook and follow her on twitter under the name Cherryterror.

Thao P. Nguyen has been been performing solo shows in the Bay Area, under the direction of W. Kamau Bell, since 2007. She recently performed at the 2009 SF Theater Festival as the closing act at the Museum of African Diaspora stage. She also co-produces Words First, a monthly solo performance series at CounterPULSE in San Francisco.

Craig Hackin’ ‘Boo Harrison tells tales in and out of school about growing up in the People’s Republic of Berkeley in the 60’s: Enjoying arts and whine at Berkwood, Selling lemonade during the riots of 1968, and going door-to-door as an 11-year old selling Used Jokes in the 70’s. He is also leader in the Storytelling Association of California and the National Speakers Association, and he co-founded LaughLovers.us. 

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