Tag: 2008

Stories

• David Pokorny, “Based On a True Story”
• Jennifer Jajeh, “I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You”
• Lee Granas, “Japanese Music Ensemble”
• Carolyn Doyle, Good Grief; Confessions of a Peanuts junkie

Music

Hobohemians Boxcar Band
Hank – Guitar, Bass & Vocals
Two-Ply – Guitar, Bass & Vocals
LuLu Haiku – Vocals, Bass & Mandin
Ms. Ruby Von Kirsch Saenger – Vocals

Dave Pokorny was able to quit his day job, and make his living as a stand-up comic.  He toured the western half of the U.S. for nearly ten years, opening up for such talents as Jim Carrey, Ellen DeGeneres and Bob Saget to name a few. After becoming the house emcee at San Francisco’s #1 comedy club and a regular at the Rivieria in Las Vegas, he gave it all up to pursue a lucrative career as a stay-at-home dad.  Seven macaroni & cheese filled years later he returns to the stage performing excerpts of his autobiographical solo piece, Based on a True Story.

Jennifer Jajeh is a San Francisco based actor who has appeared in numerous film and theatre productions on both coasts. This August she debuted her solo show, I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You, at the New York International Fringe Festival. The show is currently being redeveloped for a full run.  For more info about the show visit www.ihearthamas.com

Lee Granas is excited to perform with Tell it on Tuesday. After returning from watching Equus on Broadway and studying the great Daniel Radcliffe, she is now ready to make her Bay Area debut. Lee has previously performed in such locations as her friends’ kitchen, the office water cooler, and BART. Lee is grateful for everyone at the Laguna Writers Workshop who encouraged her to bring her stories to a wider audience.

Carolyn Doyle has performed as a writer / solo performer 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

• Elana Isaacs, “Sweet Honey, Pdx”
• Howard Petrick, “Harold” – excerpt
• Jean Ellisen, “Fiji or Bust!”
• Nato Green, “Low-wage work and my ego”

Music

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

Since Elana Isaac‘s former life as a theater major at Syracuse University and graduate of Tamalpa Institute for Expressive Arts Education she has been focusing on solo performance and art that sparks dialogue, and delighting in her work with youth, creativity, and social justice. Two of her favorite roles are Buddha’s mom, Lisa, in a rock-musical-modern-retelling of Siddartha and “The Fun Crazy Aunt” to 3 yr old Lucian. Please sign Elana’s mailing list to stay tuned about the temporarily titled “Whiteness: Unplugged” of which Sweet Honey Pdx is an excerpt.  Big thanks to Kamau, his classes, and the support of my anti-racist artists/friends!

Howard Petrick has performed at The Marsh and the San Francisco Theater Festival.  He has studied with David Ford and Ann Randolph.  This piece, a work-in-progress about a small- town kid with an accordion, was created with Ann Randolph at The Marsh.  He is grateful to Tell It On Tuesday for providing a stage to bring this story to you.

Jean Ellisen has been telling stories all her life, but doing so on purpose for the last 17 years since her Certification In Storytelling from Dominican University in San Rafael.  She has long standing tenure with the corps of storytellers at Asian Art Museum in San Francisco where she tells myths, legends and folk tales.  She also draws from her life experiences (and calamities) for stories of a personal nature.  She is a teller, a teacher, and mentor, who finds great delight in helping others find their voice through storytelling. 

San Francisco native stand-up comedian Nato Green was featured in SF Sketchfest 2008, has been heard on KALW 91.7FM, KSRO 1350AM and Green960AM, and as the Official Comedian of Stephen Elliott’s Progressive Reading Series. Nato has established an SF comedy institution in Iron Comic®, his Iron Chef-spoofing game show, profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle. He also produces Laughing Liberally Local 415, an ongoing political comedy showcase, Laugh Out the Vote, and the New Jew Revue.

Stories

• Randy Rutherford, “Singing at the Edge of the World” – excerpts
• Sigal Shoham, “Sure to Cure Head, Body and All”
• Summer Shapiro, “In The Boudoir” – excerpts
• Mina Morita, “Underella” (performed by Charisse Loriaux and Florentino Macalma Jr.)

Music

Lisa Safran & Chris Faust, Original Folk/Indie Style Music

Randy Rutherford is an award winning writer/solo performer who has created five critically acclaimed solo shows.  He lives in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills with Lovely Linda and Jake the Cat.

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.

Summer Shapiro, a physical comedienne, has just returned from performing her original duo-clown show PANTS! The Best Show Ever in the 3rd Annual New York Clown Theater Festival and this past July premiered her original solo show, In The Boudoir, along side Cirque Du Soleil veteran John Gilkey. Summer has performed in the SF WOW Festival, special evenings at The Magic Theater, and been a core company member with Rhodessa Jones in The Medea Project – Theater for incarcerated women.  She completed her training at the UCLA School of Drama, Samuel Beckett School of Drama in Dublin, Ireland, and The Clown Conservatory here in San Francisco. www.summershapiro.com

Mina Morita is a theatre artist who has produced, directed, and designed theatre in New York City and in the San Francisco Bay Area with companies including, but not limited to: HERE Center for the Arts: The American Living Room Program, FringeNYC, Shotgun Players, Active Arts Theatre, and Brava. She has served on the board of Active Arts Theatre and is the Board Treasurer of Shotgun Players. For 7 years, she has worked at Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Programs (ETP) as a Director and Theatre Business Manager. She received her B.F.A. at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in Theatre Direction and is the 2008 recipient of the Bret C. Harte Directing Internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Stories

• Pidge Meade, an excerpt from “P.I.D.G.E.: My Life as an Acronym”
• David Moss, “Cracked Clown”
• Terri Tate, “Another Kind of Muscle Man
• Frank Turco, “Homo sapiens TODAY with Sir Kensington Longbottom”

Music

Goat Family: Original songs on traditional (and homemade) instruments, generating an infectious, chugging dance beat. Thad Povey, Rock Ross, Dan Janos, Chris Santeramo, Todd Curtis

Pidge Meade has been acting as long as she can remember—in professional, academic, and community theatres from Pacifica, California to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, playing wacky musical theatre nuns, comic Shakespearean heroines, high-minded WASPy matriarchs, and much much more.  This is her first foray into writing her own work (other than subversive school skits) and solo performance. Many thanks to Charlie Varon and the Wool Street Gang for learning and inspiration to last a lifetime.

David Moss recently played the title role in Othello, performed in two short films he wrote and can be seen in A.C.T.’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running in the fall of 2009.

Terri Tate is a keynote speaker, performer and storytelling coach. Her solo show, Shopping as a Spiritual Path, has played to packed houses and standing ovations from Berkeley to Boca Raton, was voted “Best of the Fringe” at the 2007 Fringe Festival and is now out on DVD! In September, Terri and actress Annan Paterson will premiere An Inconvenient Tumor, a show that looks at facing global warming with humor and stories. www.territate.com

Frank Turco studied theatre in college and at The Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre. He is delighted to be returning to TIOT with “Homo Sapiens Today” and of course, Sir Kensington. You can also see him, (without a mustache) playing in Tony and Tina’s wedding on Pier 39 through September. Then it’s off to swinging London to begin his MFA in Lecoq based Physical Theatre ~ Weeee!

Stories

• Enzo Lombard-Quintero, Excerpt from “Love Humiliation Karaoke”
• Lauren Crux, “Still Running”
• Jeff Byers, “Looking for My Dad”
• Maryclare McCauley , “Tuna Suprise”
• Nina Wise, “What Just Happened?”
• Erica Lann-Clark, “The Lion in the Bronx Zoo”

Enzo Lombard-Quintero grew up in Baltimore’s Little Italy in a very musical and theatrical family. Enzo sang professionally from age 7, appeared on children’s television, studied acting in London and New York City, and has been a songwriter, documentary director, and travel columnist over the past 15 years. Enzo is currently producer of SoloHouse at Shelton Theater and co-producer of WordsFirst at CounterPulse in San Francisco.

Primarily a solo performer, Lauren Crux is known for monologues, stories, and social commentaries that are rich with insight and intelligent humor. She looks at the fabric of social relationships and the world and asks:  what holds us together? what tears us apart? Her work is good, it’s current, it’s tough, it’s stirring,and it meets a social/political need.

Jeff Byers tells stories at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and at various East Bay venues, working with Stagebridge in Oakland,. He’s performed several times at Tell It On Tuesday at the Julia Morgan Theatre, on KPFA Radio, in the Chicago Calling Arts Festival, and at house concerts on both coasts. He’s a board members of the Storytelling Association of Alta California.

Maryclare McCauley loves to tell stories. She brings humor, suspense, discovery and colorful characters to the stage through her personal experiences. She has a broad range of experience in theater for the past 30 years which includes dance, circus and street theater.

Nina Wise is the founder of Motion Theater, a form of autobiographical, physical, improvised theater. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. She has been called a “metaphysical vaudevillian for the new mellenium” by a NY Times columnist. Her work is funny, moving, intelligent, uplifting, provocative, and as people leave the theater they are heard muttering,”I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Nina is the recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous other awards.

In a tiny Brooklyn apartment, Erica Lann-Clark grew up listening to her immigrant family tell tales of a vanished world. From their kitchen table stories, Erica conceived a passion for the healing power of story.  She became a playwright, poet, storyteller, solo performer and teacher of tellers. For the last two decades, she has consistently worked at the place were story and theater meet. She’s performed for audiences of all ages across the country and overseas. In 2007, her solo play, SHOPPING FOR GOD had an extended run at The Marsh Theatre.  In October, 2008, she will be a Featured Teller at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Stories

• David Jacobson, “Silver City, 1981”
• Kenny Yun, “Bucky”
• Theresa Dailey, “We Must Attend”
• Erica Lann-Clark, “Problem Children”

Music

Somewhere Down the Road: R&B, jazz and rock played with just the right amount of notes

David Jacobson is a San Francisco-based writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, Fortune, Business 2.0, Maxim, Jungle and Details. He was a reporter for 15 years at the Detroit News, Hartford Courant and other newspapers. He misses the camaraderie of newsrooms—and also having dental benefits. This piece, about a young journalist’s first big story, was created with Charlie Varon at The Marsh and with the Varonic Soloists.

Kenny Yun is currently developing his one-man show with David Ford at The Marsh. He is a standup comedian and has acted in The Tempest, The Cherry Orchard, and Twelfth Night. He trained in theatre arts at Studio A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep, and he has a degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley.

Theresa Dailey performed in various theatre venues in San Francisco—SF Fringe Festival, Venue 9’s Women’s Work Theater Festival, BRAVA.  After taking a hiatus from acting for a number of years, she took a workshop with Motion Theatre that lead her to exploring more of a autobiographical in the moment process.  She is new to solo performance and is grateful to Tell It On Tuesday for providing a stage for such an animal.

Erica Lann-Clark grew up listening.  To bring their history to life, her immigrant family told kitchen table tales of a vanished world. These tales inspired in Erica a passion for the healing power of story.  She’s been featured at many storytelling festivals.  In October, she will be a New Voice Teller at the upcoming National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Somewhere Down the Road features Bruce Pachtman on drums, Phil Casey on piano, and Bobby Nakamoto on saxophone.