The Marsh San Francisco Presents 40 Pounds in 12 Weeks: a Love Story 2/18-3/26

With Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin occupying opposite camps in the War on Obesity, celebrities extolling the rewards of Jenny Craig, and The Biggest Loser a runaway sensation on reality TV, Pidge Meade changes the game of "thin at any cost" to become the biggest winner in her enlightening one-woman show 40 POUNDS IN 12 WEEKS: A LOVE STORY. Drawing on real life experiences with the weight loss game, Meade tenderly and hysterically brings the merry-go-round of yo-yo dieting to life. With theatrical veteran Charlie Varon at the helm, 40 POUNDS IN 12 WEEKS: A LOVE STORY plays February 18-March 26 (press opening: February 26, 2011) in the Studio Theater at The Marsh San Francisco, 1074 Valencia Street. For tickets, the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 1-800-838-3006.

Huffington Post arts columnist George Heymont will moderate post-show discussions on Feb. 19, Feb. 25, and March 26 involving Meade and other writers and artists who tackle the subject of weight. Heymont, who saw a preview performance, called the show "meticulously crafted and gently sculpted... Anyone who has boomeranged from one diet to another in the hope of finding a new body and/or self image will emit gasps of recognition."

Developed with and directed by Charlie Varon, the show seeks nothing less than to change the American conversation about weight. The play takes its title from Meade's experience at the end of her freshman year of college. As she heads home with loads of new ideas in her head... and too many new pounds on her five-foot-frame, her dad, a world-renowned gymnastics coach, takes one horrified look at his super-sized daughter and issues an ultimatum - shed that weight by summer's end or kiss college goodbye. On working with Meade, Varon says "This show changed the way I think about fat people. It's also very, very funny."

The debate over weight has never had more prominence on the national stage. As Michelle Obama enrolls kids in exercise programs and advocates nutritional standards in schools, Sarah Palin strikes back at the First Lady's War on Obesity, demanding that the government "get off our back" and allow people to exercise "our own God-given rights" to decide what to eat. Which begs the question, do we have a right to be fat? Whose business is it anyway?

In 40 POUNDS, Meade tells her own story but also brings to urgent life the entire modern weight-loss carnival of juice fasters and mindful masticators, cookies and calorie counts, tough love books and reality TV spectacle. The show blends memoir and satire, and refuses pat answers to the hard questions about how and why we eat our hearts out. 40 POUNDS moves forward and backward in time to chronicle Meade's decades-long ride on the weight-loss rollercoaster. While currently on the lighter side of the scale, Meade refuses to bow to the conventional wisdom that equates thinness with happiness. "Weight," says Meade, "is the ultimate red herring. We think it's all about food and exercise, discipline and willpower. It runs much, much deeper."

Pidge Meade has an MFA in Acting from the University of Pittsburgh. Her solo theatre work has been seen at the Marsh, Solo Sundays at StageWerx, Words First at Counterpulse, Tell it On Tuesday at the Berkeley Marsh, and the Red Poppy Art House. Meade also does "regular" theatre, with Bay Area credits that include: "Sarah Brown" in Guys and Dolls, "Amalia" in She Loves Me and the title role in Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge (all at Pacifica Spindrift Players); "Mary" in Merrily We Roll Along at Foothill Music Theatre; "Mrs. Murphy" in The Harvey Milk Show at the New Conservatory Theatre; "Doris" in Same Time, Next Year at Pleasanton Playhouse; "Miss Hannigan" in Annie at Coastal Rep; "Mary" in It's a Wonderful Life and "Dawn/Milton" in All in the Timing at Hillbarn Theatre; "Joan" in Love Song at Dragon Productions; "Celia" in As You Like It at Shakespeare at La Casa; and three shows (Jubilee, The Night Boat, and Face the Music) with 42nd Street Moon. Additional regional theatre credits include a six-month run as "Sr. Robert Anne" in the Pittsburgh, PA production of Nunsense, and three seasons with the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival.

Meade developed 40 POUNDS IN 12 WEEKS: A LOVE STORY as one of six artists invited to join The Marsh's second Performance Initiative in 2009. She performed the show to great acclaim as part of the Festival of New Voices II in June of 2010.

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
WHAT: With Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin occupying opposite camps in the War on Obesity, celebrities extolling the rewards of Jenny Craig, and The Biggest Loser a runaway sensation on reality TV, Pidge Meade changes the game of "thin at any cost" to become the biggest winner in her enlightening one-woman show 40 POUNDS IN 12 WEEKS: A LOVE STORY. Meade takes audiences on a heart-pounding, hair-raising, society-skewering, weight-loss rollercoaster ride in her new solo show, blending memoir and satire, and refusing pat answers to the hard questions about how and why we eat our hearts out.

WHEN: February 18 - March 26, 2011 (no shows March 11-12)

TIMES: Fridays at 8:00 pm; Saturdays at 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: The Marsh San Francisco, Studio Theater, 1074 Valencia Street at 22nd Street
Parking is available at the New Mission Bartlett Garage; 21st St. (between Mission & Valencia.)

TICKETS: $15-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved Seats: $50.
For tickets, visit www.themarsh.org or call 1-800-838-3006

For more information, visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org

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