AREN'T YOU...? Comes to The Marsh This Month

Following a successful East Bay run and a transfer to San Francisco, Fred Pitts’ Aren’t You…? returns The Marsh San Francisco. In this lauded solo work, Pitts recounts his hilarious journey to visit all 21 California Mission churches, where he discovers that being Black makes him an instant celebrity – the question is which one? 

Aren’t You…? follows Pitts on a summer-long tour to one Mission after the next, encountering docents and fellow tourists. In this riotous reflective solo show, audiences encounter experts on the Catholic Church, Native American history, and ...everything else. Yet, they have one thing in common: they are all experts on which famous Black person he resembles.

Full of Pitts’ personal experiences and love of history, Aren’t You...? perfectly blends delightful insights into the Missions, cogent thoughts on early California settlers’ interactions with Native Americans, and the experience of walking in the shoes of an African American male. 

Aren’t You…? will play September 23 – October 21, 2023 with performances 5:00pm Saturdays at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($25-$35 sliding scale, $50 and $100 reserved) or more information, the public may visit themarsh.org. 

Fred Pitts’ first solo show (under an earlier title), had its debut at PlayGround Solo Performance Festival in January 2019. It went on to be featured at The Marsh as part of its Marsh Rising Series (May 2019), Dragon Productions Theatre's Inaugural Singular Stories (August 2019), and PianoFight (August 2019). In April 2020, Aren’t You...? was scheduled to return to The Marsh San Francisco for a full run but was canceled due to the pandemic. Since then, it has performed in several Bay Area venues, including a limited run with Palo Alto Players in fall 2021, a five-week run at The Marsh Berkeley in spring 2023 and a popular run in summer 2023.  The work was directed by ShawnJ West, with development and dramaturgy by David Ford.