AXIS Comes to The Marsh in April

The Marsh San Francisco will present Axis, a vivid new production directed and written by Dirk Alphin. It’s July 4, 1976, and while everyone is celebrating America’s bicentennial, the Fogg family are the last folks in a town that’s sinking underground as the largest open-air strip mine on the face of the earth is swallowing up everything in sight. Axis follows Fogg family members Seth, Leora, and Gramps as they navigate storms and harness sparks. Among the issues that surface are illegitimate son Seth’s need to come out, his mother, Leora’s quest for her “pot o’ gold,” and Gramps, who uses a wheelchair, urge to remember old Native songs in order to control and face his personal fireworks. While navigating the desert heat and a crumbling world around them, the Foggs encounter both togetherness and loneliness, as well as an unexpected suiter willing to woo more than one of the clan.

Axis, performed by Erica Clark, Timothy Flanagan, Robert Fraser, Dennis Hasty, Anneliese Stauff, and Alan Brown, will be presented 5:00pm Sundays, April 7-28, 2024, at The Marsh San Francisco Studio, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $50 and $100 reserved) or more information, the public may visit themarsh.org. 

ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVES 

Dirk Alphin (Playwright/Director) has lived in San Francisco for over 40 years. He has worked in the theater and in film/video as an actor, director, playwright, producer, and designer. He helped create and manage two landmark performance venues: Valencia Rose Cabaret in the 1980s and Josie’s Cabaret & Juice Joint in the 1990s. More recent work includes plays at the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Park Theater in Danville, CA and last year’s extended production at The Marsh of his play Reciprocating Pumps. He has written and has produced several full length, one-act, and solo performance pieces. He is also a fine arts painter whose work has been featured in galleries and museums, including the de Young in San Francisco.  

The cast includes Erica Clark (Leora) making her theatrical and Marsh debut and Timothy Flanagan (Gramps) who returns to the stage after an extendedhiatus. Flanagan was a mainstay in local theater throughout the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in productions at San Francisco Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and The Marin Shakespeare Company, as well as major roles at the Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, The Z Collective, and Theatre Rhinoceros where he played Max in its acclaimed production of Bent by Martin Sherman. He toured to Washington D.C. in the midst of the AIDS crisis in More Than Names, a story of the making of the AIDS memorial quilt. He returned to the stage in 2023, acting in the production of Reciprocating Pumps at The Marsh, written and directed by Dirk Alphin. Also making his Marsh debut is Robert Fraser (Seth) who studied acting at A.C.T. Conservatory. A talented concert pianist, Fraser is at work on an upcoming pop album. 

Rounding out the cast is Dennis Hasty (Geoffrey) who has played lead roles in Reciprocating Pumps, Birdbath, The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis, and Am I Blue.  He has also appeared onstage at The Alcazar in The Real Live Brady Bunch and performed in musicals including The Apple Tree and Starting Here, Starting Now. Hasty is joined by Anneliese Stauff (Opal) and Alan Brown (Reverend Harms). Stauff made her debut as Bridget Bishop in History Alive!’s production of Cry Innocent and has served as stage manager for numerous Bay Area theater organizations including the Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, Campo Santo, 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, and the Live Oak Theatre. She regularly performs as Magenta in Barely Legal’s shadow cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Brown played Agatha Trunchbull in Pied Piper Players’ production of Matilda as well as the transmutable John in Naomi in the Living Room and the dependable butler Foote in Nina in the Morning, written by Christopher Durang and directed by Dirk Alphin. 

Elena Kobylina serves as assistant director for Axis. Kobylina is a teaching artist, theater professional, and performing artist. She is currently working on her solo show: From Russia With Love, For Tomatoes about her journey as an immigrant and unsettled upbringing in Russia. 

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