March 26, 2019

Stories

  • Jeanne Lupton, Sunday Morning with Mary Ellen
  • Claire Wahrhaftig, A Trip to Kovel
  • Elaine Magree, PussyGrabberRevenge
  • Ethan Davidson, Dragons in The Trees

Music

The Blues Daddies, music for listening and dancing:
Joel Kreisberg (bass and vocals), Joe Pratt (sax, keyboards, and vocals), Natsuhiro Maruyama (drums), Art Swislocki (guitars and vocals)


About the Performers

Jeanne Lupton writes memoir for page and stage, and is happy to be back at Tell it on Tuesday with this work.  She hosts a monthly reading series at Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda and leads a weekly memoir writing group for seniors at her home, Strawberry Creek Lodge in Berkeley. 

Claire Wahrhaftig, a native San Franciscan, closed out her career in arts administration as the Executive Director of the SF Arts Commission. She continues her study of storytelling at Stagebridge where she completed the two-year EPIC program under Kirk Waller.

Elaine Magree has written, directed/collaborated or performed new work at The Marsh, The Magic Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, Z Space, The Working Women’s Theatre Festival, Brava, The Exit Theatre, The People’s Theatre Festival, The National Women’s Theatre Festival and The Minneapolis, Winnipeg and Victoria Fringe Festivals. She taught theatre at Solano College, SF City College, East Bay Center for The Performing Arts and in homeless shelters, recovery centers, and the Sacramento county jail. This is her third solo piece. Sometimes a wave, sometimes a photon: you can’t be in two places at once, or can you?

Ethan Davidson is the child of two science fiction writers. At the age of 14, he was sent to Belize alone to look in on the family plantation. He remained there for a year. He has lived most of his life near or in San Francisco.

The Blues Daddies began in 1995 in Kensington as a Motown-Stax-Rock cover band. The “dads” had children in the same elementary school. Since then, the band has evolved in its sound and has become more agile and progressive. While still playing homage to music of the 1950’s and ‘60’s, more modern music is now part of the repertoire as well. The Blues Daddies are available for your listening and dancing pleasure.

February 26, 2019

Stories

  • Gwen Carmen, 4215 Winrose Way
  • Bill Zarchy, The Elevator in Rome
  • Sarah Matsui, Hello, Boar– You Must Be Hungry
  • Tony Cyprien, The Bus Ride

Music

Doris Moskowitz: early jazz standards 


About the Performers

Gwen Carmen is an activist, actress, educator and writer whose work has appeared in Essence, PLEXUS West Coast Women’s Press, and the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal during the ’80’s and ’90’s. She was editor/publisher of La Morena Women of Color bilingual newspaper, and she will appear in a showcase for new performers at The Marsh in May.

Bill Zarchy worked all over the globe during his 40 years as a cinematographer, as captured in his memoir, Showdown at Shinagawa: Tales of Filming from Bombay to Brazil. Now he writes novels and tells stories. He is a graduate of the EPIC Storytelling Program at Stagebridge in Oakland. billzarchy.com

Sarah Matsui is a Taiwanese and Japanese American writer who grew up in Honolulu and has since been based in Philadelphia, Oakland, and now San Francisco. Her work has been featured in NPR’s Code Switch, Jacobin, and Rethinking School‘s “Our 2016 Picks for Books for Social Justice Teaching: Policy.”

Tony Cyprien was born and raised in Watts, California. Seven years ago, he moved to Berkeley where he discovered improv. He proceeded to step out on stage, ultimately performing at a Moth GrandSlam, two Moth Mainstage events, and being broadcast on National Public Radio. He has also performed with Marin Shakespeare’s Returned Citizen’s Troupe, and at Monday Night Marsh, Tell It on Tuesday, Solo Sundays, and BATS Improv as an invited storyteller for The Gather.

Doris Moskowitz is the youngest daughter of Moe Moskowitz, the original owner of Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue. After graduating from Mills College, she began working with her dad, and now it is Doris who owns and operates Moe’s Books, keeping her father’s legacy alive. With a love of words, stories and old movies she sings and plays songs from before 1940.

January 29, 2019

Stories

  • Lavonne Taft, Ticket to Ride
  • Edwin Richards, Beyond the Safe House 
  • Naomi Puro, Nathan My Grandfather; A Master of Chutzpah
  • Fred Pitts, The California Missions and Race Tour – Part 1

Music

Kadie Kelly (piano) and Suzanne Yada (violin)


About the Performers

LaVonne Taft has been an audiologist for some 35 years, evaluating hearing and rehabilitation of the hearing impaired. She has transitioned from ‘hearing’ to ‘listening’ and ‘storytelling.’

Edwin Richards has studied with Charlie Varon at the Marsh San Francisco and is a graduate of the Meisner Technique Studio. He is grateful to Charlie and to friends and staff at the Studio for their insights and support.

Naomi Puro studied storytelling at Stagebridge in Oakland, and has performed at Monday Night Marsh, Tell it on Tuesday, and Contra Costa Tale Spinners. She has been teaching Dance & Movement classes to Older Adults for so many years (35) that she has herself become an older adult. She is pleased to have been part of the Blue Wave that helped elect Josh Harder to Congress.

Fred Pitts is a San Francisco-based actor. He is a company member of African-American Shakespeare and Custom Made Theatre companies. This is his first attempt at a writing and performing a solo piece. He was an emergency medicine doctor for 18 years, and is now in recovery from that job.

Kadie Kelly is a classically trained pianist. She plays a mix of classical and minimalist styles and alternative covers. She is a piano teacher and Founder of Superpower of the Song.  

Suzanne Yada is a violinist and a songwriter under the name of @little spiral@.

November 27, 2018

Stories

  • David KleinbergHe Wants to Run
  • Karen Ripley, Memoirs of Resistance
  • Jenn Biehn and Joan Lohman25 Years, 2 Dykes, 3 Weddings, and an Annulment
  • Wayne HarrisRichard James, A Holiday Story  

Music

Andrew Potter, fingerstyle guitar


About the Performers

David Kleinberg was an editor and writer at the San Francisco Chronicle for 34 years, the last 14 as editor of the Sunday Datebook. He spent 10 years doing standup comedy (appearing with Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and Richard Lewis), and has been doing solo theater for 10 years. He had two runs at The Marsh, first with Hey, Hey, LBJ!, about his year as an army combat correspondent in Vietnam. His second show, Return to the Scene of the Crime, was about going back to Vietnam 50 years later to visit where his buddies died and trying to perform ‘LBJ’ under threat of arrest from the communist government. He is also a native of San Francisco, and has lived in The City all his life. davidkleinberg.weebly.com

Karen Ripley has traveled all over the USA and the Caribbean. She was featured in Logo’s Wisecrack, Season 2. Ripley wrote and performed her one-woman show, Oh No, There’s Men On The Land!, at the Marsh in Berkeley. Theater Eddy called it one of the top five for 2015. karenripley.com

Jenn Biehn and Joan Lohman developed and performed this side-by-side story for the EPIC storytelling program at Stagebridge this past spring. Jenn is a retired administrator/instructor at City College of SF and continues to teach a women’s leadership class each year. Joan is long time massage therapist and Rosen Method practitioner, specializing in body work for elders. Both are actively engaged at East Bay Meditation Center in downtown Oakland and Neighbors for Racial Justice in the Dimond.   

Wayne Harris is an award-winning solo performer, writer, educator, curriculum innovator and musician. A gifted artist with wide-ranging interests, he has accumulated an impressive body of work over the years that includes five full-length plays, presentations for schools, directing and designing for pageantry groups as well as various musical projects. He’s currently the Director of Marsh Youth Theater and a Resident Teaching Artist for StageBridge. wayneharris.net

Andrew Potter is a fingerstyle guitarist on 6 and 12 string guitars. He plays an eclectic mix of old jazz tunes, instrumentals, originals and covers. andrewpottermusic.com

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.

September 25, 2018

Stories

  • Julia Jackson, Man Enough to be a Girl
  • Paul Sussman, The Wrong Kind of Pessimism
  • Neshama Franklin, Anne Rosenbaum, Manager Extraordinaire
  • Eva Schlesinger, The Mother Daughter Roller Coaster Adventure Ride

Music

Joshua Raoul Brody, With Or Without Friends: a sublime set of standards, sub-standards, originals and aboriginals.


About the Performers

Julia Jackson is a comedienne and solo artist. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and comedy clubs nationwide.  Her one-woman show, Children Are Forever: All Sales Are Final, won the Best Non-Fiction Show Award at the 2016 United Solo Festival in New York City.  

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 midst the puzzling evidence. 

Neshama Franklin tells every chance she can get, from around the campfire to Moth grand slams. This is her 10th TIOT performance. Check out more of her stories on her YouTube channel, her radio show on KWMR, and her book review blog from the Marin County Library where she works.

Eva Schlesinger’s writing has appeared in over sixty publications, including the Chicken Soup For The Soul anthology, Thanks To My Mom. She has featured at BATS Improv, Weekday Wanderlust, and Lip Service West. Eva is a two-time Moth StorySLAM winner, and has been a Grand SLAM contender on The Moth Stage, where she made the audience of 1,400 laugh nonstop.

Joshua Raoul Brody has been a regular at all the Marsh venues over its nearly 30-year history, collaborating with Merle Kessler, The Residents, A Karen Carpenter Xmas, Marga Gomez, Josh Kornbluth, Pulp Playhouse, and countless others, as well as doing his own work. He’s also done a bunch of other stuff. Drop him a line at mail@jraoul.org to be put on his mailing list, or just to say hi.

August 28, 2018

Stories

  • Lisa RothmanTrolls in Yoga Pants
  • Joshua A. HattamThe Fireman Song
  • Jared KarolThere’s More to Life Than El Cajon
  • Enid HunkelerGone with the Windbag
  • Kenny YunGet Over It!

Music

Laura Wiley (vocals and flute), Geoff van Lienden (guitar) and Bruce Barrett (bass)


About the Performers

Lisa Rothman’s show Date Night at Pet Emergency was extended three times at the Marsh in Berkeley and SF. In addition to raising children, Lisa’s other adventures include producing KPFA’s Morning Show when Andrea Lewis and Philip Maldari were the co-hosts, hosting a nationally distributed radio show at a food truck park, and ballroom dancing in China. She currently helps everyone, from construction workers to scientists, make better presentations and figure out next steps with important projects and their careers.

Joshua A. Hattam dropped out of school in the seventh grade to pursue a life of crime. He learned to write while serving over a decade behind bars. His writing has been featured in Out of the Gutter and Bareknuckles Pulp. He lives in San Francisco, with his fiancé, their two dogs, and cat. He is finishing his first book, a memoir, The Fireman Song.

By day Jared Karol is a leadership development coach and diversity & inclusion facilitator working at the intersection of purpose, storytelling, and belonging. By night, he is usually sleeping—unless he is playing music in a variety of local bands and venues, experiencing the urban serendipity of the Bay Area, or hanging out with his partner and nine-year-old twins.

Enid Hunkeler is a medical scientist. After 40 years at Kaiser Permanente, she retired last year, and began her encore career as a comedic writer. Enid was egged on by her mentor, one of the original leaders of Kaiser. Her colleagues blackmailed over the years into performing her satirical plays rejoiced. Raised in New York, Enid’s on-stage experience began and ended in the late 60’s when she was the highest paid go-go dancer in Boston. Enid likes to write about serious issues from a comedic viewpoint. As a new performer, like Blanche DuBois (A Streetcar Named Desire), Enid relies on the kindness of strangers.

Kenny Yun is currently developing his fifth solo show. He is a coach, director, and solo performance teacher at The Marsh. Kenny has an English Literature degree from UC Berkeley. Kennyyun.com

Laura Wiley sings and plays flute in various Bay Area groups, such as Resonance Jazz Ensemble and the Laura Wiley Electrical Quartet.

Geoff Van Lienden has played guitar professionally since the 60’s. Early years included R & B cover bands, rock and roll groups and folk music with friends. More recently he plays jazz with various vocalists and instrumental groups, and celtic/fusion music with Colm O’Riain.

July 31, 2018

Stories

  • Maria Grazia Affinito, “Mamma, leave my breasts alone!”
  • Harriet Patterson, “Unfriending Texas”
  • David Jacobson, “Dog’s Misery Swamp”
  • Vivien Cook, “Heaven Custom Made”

Music

Bekah Barnett, the Urban Minstrel


About the Performers

Maria Grazia Affinito is a local equity actress. 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). 

Harriet Patterson is a Bay-Area based writer, solo performer and nonprofit executive. Alongside her 20+ year career in health nonprofits, she has appeared on Bay Area stages at Solo Sundays, Monday Night Marsh and Tell It On Tuesday. Her first solo show, Sail On!, debuted at the Boulder International Fringe Festival in 2017. She will make her Bay Area debut with Sail On! in September 2018 at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. A native of Dallas, Texas, Harriet lives in the East Bay with her husband and cat where she enjoys breakfast tacos, photography, and spending time outdoors.

Like you, David Jacobson is home to 40 trillion bacteria that weigh as much as his brain, crucially affecting his health and mood. Microbes also play key roles in Dog’s Misery Swamp, his latest solo play directed by Mark Kenward and developed with Charlie Varon. In June, Swamp went to the London (Ontario) Fringe. In August, David and his microbiota perform at Edmonton Fringe. dogsmiseryswamp.com

Vivien Cook grew up in industrial England and emigrated to the US in her early twenties. She is a writer, poet and storyteller particularly intrigued by ancestry and history. She is also a high functioning if distracted grandma. This is her third visit to Tell it on Tuesday.

Bekah Barnett sings songs from the heart. Her pure and clear voice is perfectly complimented by the simple and melodic piano landscapes she composes. One of the bay area’s hidden gems, she has recorded two full length albums of original songs and is currently working on material for a third. Her live performances are always special events, sure to captivate and enthrall you.

June 26, 2018

13th Anniversary Performance

publicity photos collage: Trish Mulholland, Eclair de Lune, David Rodwin
Publicity photos: Ben Tucker, Kathryn Keats, Lee Archer

Stories

  • Trish Mulholland, My Radio Days
  • Kathryn Keats, The Hummingbird 
  • David Rodwin, Square One
  • Ben Tucker, More Than Meets The Eye
  • Lee Archer, I am trying to think of some way to make the title shorter because this one is way too long I think we can all agree.

Music

Eclair de Lune Gypsy Jazz Ensemble


About the Performers

Trish Mulholland was a top-rating radio announcer in Australia in the 1980s. Her show is a darkly funny flashback to this time when hair gel and punk transformed commercial radio, and radio in Australia sold out. Trish took a one-way ticket to London but wound up in unexpected places. She has been a theatre artist in the Bay Area for 20 years.

Kathryn Keats first began developing The Hummingbird at Berkeley Rep’s The Ground Floor. She is thrilled to be continuing her work with David Ford at The Marsh. 

David Rodwin is a Moth StorySLAM champion and writer/director who’s toured seven solo shows around the country including his newest, F*ck Tinder: a love story. He’s created 12 evening-length works for the stage, from the one-man, hyper-opera Virtual Motion to the huge avant-musical WARNING!: eXplicit Material. Lastly, he founded the NY-based Raw Impression, Inc./RIPFest, with which he commissioned and produced 170 ten-minute musicals and 60 short films. www.f-tinder.com

Lee Archer is a work-in-progress based in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is his first performance thingy, though he has appeared briefly at Monday Night Marsh, Marsh Madness, and Solo Sundays. He will be materializing at the 2018 Chicago Fringe Festival during Labor Day weekend.

Ben Tucker is a retired UC administrator, Stagebridge Epic Storyteller Graduate, and memoir author (A Good Run). Brother Ben has performed in local community theatre and participates in jazz and storytelling open mics. He will be a member of a Storytelling Cultural Exchange to China in October with the Eth-Noh-Tec theatre company.

May 29, 2018

Stories

  • Bruce Pachtman, “50 People Who Look Just Like Me”
  • Liz Callahan, “No One Says This Thing I Know to be True On Being a Grandmother”
  • Adrian West, “The Headless Hunter”
  • Joan Chaplick, “The Reunion”

Music

Doris Moskowitz: Early Jazz Standards


About the Performers

Bruce Pachtman’s first show, don’t make me look too psychotic, was developed with Club Solo and directed by W. Kamau Bell. It ran in SF, Philadelphia and LA for a total of 300 performances. The scene Bruce performs on May 29 is included in his not-yet-completed (or titled) second show. It was co-written with Kamau. 

Liz Callahan is immensely grateful to her husband, children, stepchildren, and grandchildren who she hopes will never see this piece. And to her talented sister, Ellen Jay, who invited her to share the stage with her both literally and figuratively. And to Jeanne Haynes, her storytelling teacher, for her encouragement, enthusiasm and expert direction. She owes this award to all of them.

Adrian West moved to the Bay Area from Montreal in 1995 and lives in Oakland with his wife and two daughters. He is a singer-songwriter and musician who leads the Adrian West Band and performs often around the Bay Area. Recently he has been putting on a multimedia show, An Evening of Music & Science, in San Francisco and Berkeley, which weaves together his music, synchronized video, poetry and an exploration of abiogenesis, the study of how life began on Earth. adrianwest.com.

Joan Chaplick lives in San Francisco, works in Berkeley, grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Try to figure out those values and politics! Joan’s studied at the Marsh with David Ford, Charlie Varon and Ann Randolph for many years. She’ll be performing in the SF Fringe Festival in September 2018. 

Doris Moskowitz sings and plays songs from before 1940. With a love of words, stories and old movies she accompanies herself on the piano.