The Marsh Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Eclectic 2009 Fall Season

The Marsh is pleased to celebrate its twentieth anniversary by announcing a varied, eclectic and intriguing 2009 Fall Season. The coming months will bring two highly anticipated new shows from Ann Randolph and Dan Hoyle, the return of Charlie Varon's blockbuster hit, RABBI SAM and the extension of both Rick Reynolds' new show about middle age as well as Don Reed's sleeper hit, EAST 14TH, now entering its fourth month at The Marsh. In addition, the US State Department has invited Dan Hoyle to perform his award-winning TINGS DEY HAPPEN on a whirlwind two week, five city tour of Nigeria, sponsored by the U.S. State Department as part its focus on corruption issues. To prepare him for this important audience, he will be performing TINGS on the Marsh stage in September. When Stephanie Weisman started The Marsh by reading poetry in the Hotel Utah twenty years ago, she could have only have dreamt her theater would become part of the international dialogue.

To round out the season, Marsh Youth Theater's Teen Troupe will perform Ron Jones' THE WAVE, a story based on an experiment in fascism Jones conducted in the sixties while a history teacher in Palo Alto, with interaction between the original students and MYT's young performers. And last, but not least, The Marsh is hosting an International Czech Theater Festival, the result of a long standing exchange between artists, clowns, and directors connected with Ctibor Turba in the Czech Republic and James Donlon of the Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco. The long range goal is for Marsh performers to tour in Central and Eastern Europe.

For two decades, The Marsh has been a breeding ground for new performance and, as our fall season attests, the well never runs dry.

The Marsh is located at 1062 Valencia Street at 22nd Street. For more information, the public can call 415-826-5750 or visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org. To purchase tickets call 1-800-838-3006 or go to www.themarsh.org.

EXTENDED! Through October 10: Don Reed's EAST 14TH - TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER
Friday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 8:30 pm; Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets: $20-35. Reserved Seats $50.

NAACP Double Nominee - Best Actor Best Playwright. This sold out show, which debuted on May 8, is currently in its second extension.

Back in 1970's Oakland, his stepfather forced him to be a straight A, God-fearing church boy - but he wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn't know dear old Dad was a pimp. Don Reed has performed and written for film, television and theatre. His work on an HBO special of up-and-coming comedians years ago caught the attention of Bill Cosby and led to the creation of a guest-starring role for him on "The Cosby Show." Don went on to play the recurring role of Chip in "The Cosby Show" spin-off "A Different World" and was recently in "Bee Movie Shorts" starring Jerry Seinfeld. You may have heard his voice on: "ER", "Frasier", "Friends", "Scrubs", "Will & Grace" and "Law & Order. He has written/developed screenplays with Spike Lee's 40 Acres and Mule Filmworks and Maverick Films. For more information, visit www.east14th.com

EXTENDED! Through September 26: Rick Reynolds' ONLY THE TRUTH IS FUNNY: MID-LIFE AT THE OASIS
Through August 30: Saturday at 5:00 pm & Sunday at 7:00 pm on the MainStage. September 1- 27: Friday & Saturday at 8:00 pm & Sunday at 7:00 pm in the Studio Theater. Tickets: Sat $22-35 Sliding Scale; Thurs & Sun $15-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved Seats $50.

The Marsh is proud to present the San Francisco debut of critically acclaimed comedian Rick Reynolds' new one-man show, ONLY THE TRUTH IS FUNNY: MID-LIFE AT THE OASIS. This hysterical and touching autobiographical piece picks up where Rick's first two shows, the Emmy-nominated "Only The Truth Is Funny," and the wildly successful "All Grown Up... And No Place To Go" (which was spun off into the CBS sit-com "Life and Stuff") left off. It combines elements of all three of Rick's former shows to create the kind of theater experience The San Francisco Chronicle has called "belly laughs for the heart."

September 10-26: Dan Hoyle's TINGS DEY HAPPEN, back for a special run before leaving to perform in Nigeria at the invitation of the US State Department.
Thursday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 5:00 pm; Sunday at 7:00 pm. Main Stage. Tickets: Thursday: $15-35; Saturday: $25-35; Sunday: $21-35. Reserved Seats $50.

This award-winning solo show, based on Hoyle's year in Nigeria studying oil politics on a Fulbright Scholarship, is scheduled for a whirlwind two week, five city tour of Nigeria, sponsored by the U.S. State Department as part of the its public diplomacy focused on anti-corruption issues. To help Hoyle prepare for perhaps his most important audience yet, The Marsh will present a short nine-show revival of TINGS DEY HAPPEN during the last three weekends in September.

The State Department originally contacted a prominent American professor, author of a well-received book on corruption. The professor, however, recommended "Tings", which he had seen in New York, as a more dynamic alternative to another lecture from a visiting academic. Both Hoyle and the State Department are hoping the show's humor and empathy can contribute to revitalizing a strained dialogue between the Nigerian government, its citizens and the oil companies. Ongoing attacks by militants on oil infrastructure have cut Nigeria's oil production to almost half of its capacity, but it remains the U.S.'s fifth largest supplier of crude. Hoyle won the prestigious 2008 Will Glickman ‘Best New Play' Award for "Tings," which enjoyed extended runs both Off-Broadway, where it was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, and at The Marsh.

October 1 - 31: Ann Randolph's DEARLY DEPARTED...A MILE-HIGH COMEDY
October 17- November 22. Days and times to be announced. Studio Theater. Tickets: $20-35 Sliding Scale. Reserved Seats $50.

The Marsh is pleased to announce the premiere of Ann Randolph's new solo show, DEARLY DEPARTED: A MILE-HIGH COMEDY. The audience is advised to fasten their seat belts as Randolph, who has been compared to the late Gilda Radner, takes a crew of outrageous characters on the flight of their life. Sex, Death, Chopin - this is one wild ride in the sky - and all at the cruising altitude of 30,000 feet. DEARLY DEPARTED recounts Frannie's emotional and hilarious journey as she deals with the loss of the biggest love of her life. Randolph's previous solo show, "Squeeze Box," was the Winner of LA Weekly's "Best Solo Show" and the Los Angeles Times Ovation Award for "Best Solo Performer." Its extended run at The Marsh played to sold-out audiences for eight months last year.

October 17- November 22: Charlie Varon returns with RABBI SAM
Saturday at 8:00 pm; Sunday at 7:00 pm or 3:00 pm. Main Stage. Tickets: $20 & Up. Reserved Seats $50.

After a short summer break to direct Dan Hoyle's new show "The Real Americans," scheduled to open at The Marsh in January, The Marsh is thrilled to welcome back on stage our edgy, comic genius and his latest sold-out show! RABBI SAM tells the story of a man who wants to reinvent American Judaism, and the congregation that hires him. Some people love the new rabbi. Some can't stand him. And, of course, some can't stand each other. Varon plays all 12 characters, including the rabbi and eight contentious board members. Funny, moving, bursting with energy and ideas, RABBI SAM is a play for Jews, Gentiles and anyone who has ever attended a meeting.

October 21-28: International Czech Theater Festival in association with the Flying Actor Studio, a series of new plays developed in the Czech Republic
Main Stage & Studio Theater. Tickets: $15-35. Reserved Seats $50.

The festival is the result of mutual cooperation between artists, clowns and directors connected with two leading master teachers: Ctibor Turba in the Czech Republic and James Donlon of the Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco. The cutting edge Prague Theater Alfred managed by Motus o.s. is helping to produce the project, along with The Marsh, The Lit Moon World Theater Festival in Santa Barbara and HoME o.s., a Prague based international alternative theater company. Theater Alfred is a member of the NEW WEB project - a network for the circulation of independent theater projects throughout the Czech Republic and neighboring countries. The long range goal is to provide opportunities for Marsh performers to tour in Central and Eastern Europe through NEW WEB.

The festival will include the award winning ALBERT'S FEAR (the triumphs of a small boy over his timidity and indecisiveness), POLARIS (two 19th century arctic explorers test reality vs. the imagination in the unendurable cold), BRICK CIRK (a green clown with bricks everywhere - classic European clowning from the heart of the rich Prague tradition) and FLUSH (a subversive, imprisoned comic actor and his jailer/interrogator explore a surreal friendship that reveals the guts of power grasped, denied, and surrendered). As part of this new Czech-American collaboration, the artists will also offer workshops and lectures comparing the contemporary Czech and American physical theater scenes at FLYING ACTOR STUDIO in San Francisco.

December: **Family holiday shows to be announced

January 7, 2010: World Premiere of Dan Hoyle's new show THE REAL AMERICANS (originally called "Right?")
Friday at 8:00 pm; Saturday at 8:30 pm; Sunday at 3:00 pm. Main Stage. Tickets: $20-35. Reserved Seats $50.

Determined to understand life beyond the bubbles of our liberal cities, Hoyle traveled across the country through Small-Town America for 100 days. Living out of his van, sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots and meeting with folks on the other side of the political and cultural divide, Hoyle turned his eye and ear on how the other half of the country lives. Sharing meals and conversation with cowboys, coal miners, soldiers, farmers, rural drug dealers, itinerant preachers, gun salesmen, small-town refugees, closeted gay church leaders, creation theory experts, liberal hicks and other everyday characters of Small-Town America, Hoyle sought to find out what binds us as fellow Americans and what makes us think so differently. Hoyle plays all these characters and more. In addition to "Tings Dey Happen," Hoyle, a native San Franciscan, is the creator of two other hit shows, both performed in his unique form of journalistic theater: "Circumnavigator" and "Florida 2004: The Big Bummer."

January, 2010: Marsh Youth Theater's Teen Troupe in Ron Jones' THE WAVE

Ron Jones' THE WAVE is based on a classroom experiment in fascism conducted by Jones in 1968 while he was a history teacher at Cubberly High School in Palo Alto. Almost before he knew what was happening, the experiment got out of control. Fear and violence led the students to accept the will of the group and they began reporting on ‘deviant' behavior among their peers.

Jones described his experience in a short story called "The Wave," which was adapted by Norman Lear into a television drama, and recently made into a German feature film, "Die Welle," which premièred last year at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Through these various adaptations, however, the events of the original experiment became fictionalized and in 2008 the original students from the Cubberly School experiment produced a documentary, "The Lesson Plan," funded by Steven Spielberg. These interviews inspired Jones to create this new version of THE WAVE in which the script and musical numbers are from the perspectives of the actual students who comprised the experiment. Jones plans to use MYT's teen voices to inform revisions of his script and to invite several of the original students to share their experiences with MYT's young performers, challenging them to examine their deepest beliefs about social politics and peer conformity.

This is the second performance by MYT's new Teen Troupe. Their first performance, FEARS OF YOUR LIFE, played to sold out crowds last year.