Steve Budd's OY, WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT LOVE Set Will Come to The Marsh in May
The show runs from May 2 to June 6, 2026.
Acclaimed playwright, actor, and comedian Steve Budd kvetches and kvells his way through the trials of modern relationships in his love-addled show Oy, What They Said About Love kicking off summer at The Marsh San Francisco. As Steve wanders to the ends of the Earth in search of his bashert, or soulmate, one relationship from his past continues to weigh heavily on his heart. Featuring over a dozen characters developed from hours of interviews, audiences are ferried through the tunnel of love as Budd sheds light on how people meet and make it to the chuppah, navigate the push and pull of relationships — and why some can't seem to settle down.
Oy, What They Said About Love will run May 2 - June 6, 2026.
"Steve Budd's show is sharp, warm, and laugh-out-loud funny and one not to be missed," said The Marsh Founder and Artistic/Executive Director Stephanie Weisman. "Oy, What They Said About Love has a hearty helping of the humor and angst of dating and marrying in the 2020s."
Steve Budd's Oy, What They Said About Love premiered at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in July 2024, at the Exit Theatre. It continued with a performance at the Binge Fringe Festival in Santa Monica in March 2025, followed by a featured presentation at The Marsh in Berkeley in April 2025 as part of its Marsh Risings series. In May 2025, Budd brought the piece to San Diego for a live and Zoom hybrid event hosted by Yiddishland California and also participated in the San Diego International Fringe Festival. The show continued its tour with performances at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in June 2025 at the Atelier Theatre, where Apt 613 hailed Oy, What They Said About Love as “a sharp and insightful, polished show.” After Oy, What They Said About Love ran at The Marsh Berkeley in Fall 2025, where For All Events hailed the show as “clever” and “so real,” it played to packed houses in Mexico, Israel, Santa Monica, and New York City.
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVES
Steve Budd (Playwright, Performer) is an Oakland-based actor, writer, storyteller, standup comic, and solo performer. He has performed with numerous Bay Area theater companies, including San Francisco Playhouse, The Custom Made Theatre Co., New Conservatory Theatre Center, Central Works Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, and Marin Shakespeare Company. His solo work has been featured at venues such as The Marsh, San Francisco Fringe Festival, T.M.I., Busting Out, The Shout, The Vent, and Solo Sundays at Stage Werx Theatre. Budd's previous solo shows include Seeing Stars, which ran for six weeks at The Marsh in 2024 and toured to San Diego and Fresno, and was nominated for a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award; What They Said About Sex, developed from interviews and performed in Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Kansas City; and the award-winning What They Said About Love, a Best of the 2016 SF Fringe selection, which played to sold-out audiences in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, New York, Boston, Ottawa, and London.
Mark Kenward (Director) is an award-winning solo performer, director, writer, and producer. A Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee and two-time Best of San Francisco Solo Series honoree, he has performed his work in over 40 cities across the U.S. and Canada, including multiple runs at The Marsh and a reception for the U.S. House of Representatives. Kenward has directed more than 30 full-length solo shows, including acclaimed works at The Marsh such as Hey, Hey, LBJ!, Steve Seabrook: Better Than You, and A Fatal Step. His productions have earned “Best of San Francisco Fringe” honors and widespread critical praise. He is also the producer and co-director of The Formerly Incarcerated People's Performance Project (FIPPP), which supports formerly incarcerated individuals in sharing their stories on stage.
Kenny Yun (Director) is an award-winning solo performer, director, and teacher based in the Bay Area. For over fifteen years, he has taught, directed, and coached solo performers, collaborating with a wide range of artists, including comedians, actors, published authors, professors, therapists, clergy, and healers. His students have gone on to perform on stages across the globe. Yun's performance background spans stand-up comedy, traditional plays, solo theater, and television commercials. He has trained in devised theatre with Pig Iron Theatre Company (Philadelphia) and The Assembly Theater (New York), and is mentored in writing by Karen Finley, acclaimed performance artist and professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. His work is deeply informed by a lifelong immersion in healing, recovery, and spiritual communities.
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