LOVEBIRDS Coming to Marsh Berkeley this September

LOVEBIRDS, fresh from its New York City premiere at La MaMa Theater, moves to The Marsh Berkeley. A rollicking tale of incurable romantics from GLAAD award-winning solo theater artist and comedian Marga Gomez, LOVEBIRDS enjoyed a critically acclaimed six-month original run at The Marsh San Francisco as well as a tour to the Santa Cruz Fringe Festival. Directed by David Schweizer in his sixth collaboration with Gomez, LOVEBIRDS will transfer to The Marsh Berkeley (2120 Allston Way) with performances Fridays at 8pm and Saturdays at 8:30pm. For tickets ($20-$35, $50-$100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055 between 1 - 4pm, Monday through Friday.

In her tenth solo show, called "captivating" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "funny, whimsical, and poignant" by the San Francisco Examiner,acclaimed performer Marga Gomez portrays a crew of wacky lovers as they chase their hearts' desires - into the night, through decades, and to absurd lengths. Orestes Ramirez is a macho maitre d' infatuated with Gladys, a singer with a tin ear married to an academic who never sleeps and is never awake. On the other side of town Orestes's daughter cuts off her hair, changes her name, joins a coven, and starts dating the captain of a women's football team. Documenting the action is Polaroid Phillie, an ageless nightclub photographer and fixture at gay bars, Spanish restaurants, and anywhere passion happens. LOVEBIRDS received its World Premiere in January at The Marsh San Francisco, where it enjoyed a four-week workshop in 2013. It was also presented in progress at Bruce Pachtman's Solo Sundays, and in New York City at Participant Gallery and Dixon Place.

In addition to LOVEBIRDS, Marga Gomez is the author and performer of her solo shows Not Getting Any Younger; Long Island Iced Latina; Los Big Names; A Line Around The Block; Memory Tricks; Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty & Gay; Jaywalker; The Twelve Days of Cochina; and Proud and Bothered, which, along with her collaboration with Carmelita Tropicana on the erotic horror comedy Single Wet Female, have been produced nationally, internationally, and in New York at The Public Theater, 47th Street Theatre, Performance Space 122, Dixon Place, and La Mama Experimental Theatre Company. Gomez is thrilled to be back at The Marsh where she premiered her first solo show Memory Tricks in 1991. Her acting credits include Off-Broadway and national productions of The Vagina Monologues and roles in Warner Bros films "Sphere" and "Batman Forever."
Gomez is the recipient of the GLAAD Media Award for Off-Broadway Theatre, an Ovation Award for "Best Featured Actress," an HOLA Award for "Best Solo Performance," and the 2010 Bay Area Critics Circle Award for "Best Performance." She was also a nominee for the 2006 New York Drama Desk award. She is a triple winner of the SF Bay Guardian's "Best Comedian" Award, and was named "Best Comedian" in 2011 by the Bay Area Reporter.

Director David Schweizer, who also collaborated with Marga Gomez on her hit Off-Broadway solo show Los Big Names, and her shows Single Wet Female, Proud and Bothered, Jaywalker, and Long Island Iced Latina, has been developing and directing new theatre, performance, and opera works nationally and internationally for over thirty years, from his debut at age twenty-two at Lincoln Center with his radical revival of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, to his recent return to that locale with his triumphant staging of Richard Rodney Bennett's opera The Mines of Sulphur at New York City Opera. Notable work includes his OBIE Award-winning work with composer/writer/performer Rinde Eckert (And God Created Great Whales, Horizon) and his collaborations with innovative experimental theater companies such as TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's New Works Festival, Mabou Mines, Theatre X, and his own Modern Artists Company. Other credits include Charles Mee's Wintertime (Second Stage Theatre); William Hamilton's White Chocolate (Century Center for the Performing Arts); Songs From an Unmade Bed (New York Theatre Workshop); and Mike Albo's My Price Point(Performance Space 122). His extensive work in regional theater includes Tony Kushner's Caroline or Change (Center Stage, Baltimore); Jack Kirkland'sTobacco Road (La Jolla Playhouse); and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest starring Lynn Redgrave (Paper Mill Playhouse). Schweizer attended the Yale School of Drama, and has taught at UCLA, Cal Arts Academy, NYU, Circle in the Square, Bennington College, and elsewhere.

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