The Marsh Tracks Public Defender's Rise From Juvenile Delinquent To Advocate in Four-Part Monthly Series

The rise from turbulent teen years of drug use and delinquency, through a life-changing accident that left him paralyzed, to his current role as a veteran Public Defender helping others, are chronicled over multiple episodes in Mark McGoldrick's Countercoup, presented as The Marsh's first broadcast series.

In four monthly installments actor/Assistant Public Defender McGoldrick, who has amassed a dedicated following through his past performances at The Marsh, will offer up the story of his harrowing journey from juvenile delinquency to Harvard Law School, and on to representing people, mostly of color, charged with the same offenses of his earlier days.

The series kicks off with Riding for a Fall (May 1-2), in which audiences meet the barely-in-control teenager determined to push away caring loved ones and do what he wants, regardless of the consequences. McGoldrick's reckless decisions catch up to him in Close to the Edge (June 5-6), fighting for his life after a near-fatal accident that left him with a fractured skull and broken neck.

McGoldrick describes months of intensive inpatient rehabilitation in Now, The Hard Part (July 3-4), as he struggles to regain independence and learns to navigate the world using a wheelchair. The series concludes with The Journey with Jim (August 7-8), as McGoldrick bonds with a rehab buddy, and then sees how each man follows a drastically different path.

After each performance McGoldrick will be joined by The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman for an exclusive Q&A. Part of the Solo Performer Spotlight series, Countercoup will be presented the first weekend of each month, May 1 - August 8, 2021 with a new installment performed each weekend at 7:30pm (PDT), Saturdays and 5:00pm (PDT), Sundays. For more information, please visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

Playwright/performer Mark McGoldrick has served as Assistant Public Defender for Alameda County for over 25 years. His stage stories draw from his daily world, exploring people on the fringes. McGoldrick started his performance career with A Public Defense, a collection of short spoken-word pieces about the people who inhabit the world of indigent criminal defense. His first full length show was the acclaimed The Golden Hammer, which was performed at The Marsh San Francisco in 2005 and reprised at The Marsh Berkeley in 2016. This work brought to vivid life the ongoing battle over how often and badly the legal system fails, with the tale of a juvenile, a predatory adult, and an Oakland Public Defender fighting caprice in criminal courts. McGoldrick mounted an earlier version of Countercoup in 2007, tackling the elusive subject of why some succeed while others struggle, and how a former angry young man finds himself defending other angry young men in court. This revised production will mark The Marsh's first developmental series.

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