MISPRONOUNCE Looks At Ingrained Prejudice at The Marsh San Francisco

The Marsh San Francisco presents Irma Herrera's solo show Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?, a new work that weaves history and comedic insights into stories about names, shedding light and throwing shade on societal prejudices and assumptions. When giving her name its correct Spanish pronunciation, she often gets the "where are you from?" question. The assumption: that she is a foreigner. Irma's family has been in South Texas for generations, and the award-winning social justice activist, lawyer, and journalist thinks of herself as American as apple pie. Irma's notes from American history and laugh out-loud humor invite audience members to consider what it will take for everyone to get along. Post-show talkbacks, featuring experts in everything from civil liberties to laws related to baby naming, will be offered throughout the run.

Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? will be presented October 25-December 8, 2018 (press opening: November 3) with performances 8:00pm Thursdays and 5:00pm Saturdays at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved) or for more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh Box office at 415-282-3055 (open Monday through Friday, 1pm-4pm).

Described as "A must-see for anyone who wonders what it will take for us to get along" (Colorlines), Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? has also been hailed by And So Man Dreams for its "subtle and brilliant and biting humor." Originally presented in The Marsh's "Rising Series" in late 2017, Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? returns to The Marsh San Francisco for a seven-week run. The show earned a Best of 2017 San Francisco Fringe Award and is always evolving with new material related to current social justice issues.

Throughout her 30 plus years as a civil rights lawyer, Irma Herrera (Writer/ Performer) fought on behalf of marginalized communities: farmworkers, students of color and women (of all backgrounds, but in particular women of color). A writer, former journalist, and visiting professor of social justice and education law, Herrera's notable accomplishments include the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, National Person of Distinction by Santa Clara University School of Law, and California's NOW Safety, Health and Equal Opportunity (S.H.E.) Award for promoting educational opportunity.

Free talkback engagements following all performances of Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? are:

Thursday, October 25: "The Role of Art in Promoting Social Justice" with Rinku Sen, author, activist, thinker, and former publisher of Colorlines.

Saturday, October 27: "How Technology Can Help Us Learn 'Difficult' Names" with Praveen Shanbhag, Founder of Name Coach (name-coach.com), a software that enables individuals to record their names and append digital links to social media and email.

Thursday, November 1: "Implicit (Unconscious) Bias, What It Is and How We Reduce the Impact of Our Biases" with Christopher Bridges, Attorney for The Equal Justice Society and

Victoria Plaut, Director, Culture, Diversity & Intergroup Relations Lab, and Professor of Law and Social Science, UC Berkeley.

Saturday, November 3: "Naming Your Baby: What's the Law Got To Say About It?" with Carlton Larson, University of California, Davis Law Professor and author of Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming Rights.

Thursday, November 8: "Wherever There's A Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers & Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California" with Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, authors of Wherever There's A Fight.

Saturday, November 10: "National Origin and Race Discrimination in Employment" with Bill Tamayo, (appearing in his personal capacity) who is the District Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Thursday, November 15: "MALDEF: 50 Years Fighting for the Civil Rights of the Latino Community" with Tom Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

Saturday, November 17: "The Lawyer as Storyteller: Lawyers and Solo Performers" with Mark McGoldrick, public defender, writer, and performer of the acclaimed solo play, The Golden Hammer.

Saturday, November 24: "The School to Prison Pipeline: How to End It" with Jason Okonofua, Psychology Professor, University of California, Berkeley and Michael Harris, Attorney and Senior Director at the National Center for Youth Law, specializing in Legal Advocacy and Juvenile Justice.

Thursday, November 29: "Gender Identity, Name Changes, and Preferred Pronoun Use" with Margarita Sánchez, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) immigrant rights activist, and Stevie Campos-Seligman, college student and activist.

Saturday, December 1: "Navigating Disability: Trump Era's Clarion Call for Advocates and Activists to Come Out of the (Inaccessible) Closet" with Ingrid Tischer, disability rights activist and Development Director of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDEF).

Thursday, December 6: "Immigrant Rights in The Trump Era" with Bill Ong Hing, Founder of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) and Law Professor at the University of San Francisco, and Karen Musalo, Director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and Professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Saturday, December 8: "Lawyer Writers: People of Color Making An Impact Through Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry" with Sara Campos, writer, lawyer, and consultant specializing in immigration and refugee issues, and Adam Smyer, attorney and author of Knucklehead.

David Ford (Developer) has been collaborating on new and unusual theater for three decades and has been associated with The Marsh for most of that time. The San Francisco press has variously called him "the solo performer maven," "the monologue maestro," "the dean of solo performance," and "the solo performer's best friend." Collaborators include Geoff Hoyle, Echo Brown, Brian Copeland, Charlie Varon, Marilyn Pittman, Rebecca Fisher, Wayne Harris, and Marga Gomez. As a director, Ford has directed both solo and ensemble work regionally at The Public Theater, Second Stage, Theatre for the New City (NY), Highways (LA) and Woolly Mammoth (Washington, DC) as well as at theaters around the Bay Area including Magic Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. He is also a published playwright.

Rebecca Fisher (Director) is the creator of The Marsh's Writing Cabaret and the co-producer of the long-running Marsh series Tell it on Tuesday. Her solo performance work has been called "smart, challenging, and unmistakably affecting" by the San Francisco Chronicle and has won a San Francisco Best of Fringe award. She has directed solo shows in national fringe festivals, as well as Mark Kenward's Nantucket, and Diane Barnes' My Stroke of Luck, both presented at The Marsh. Fisher was a teaching artist with The Lincoln Center affiliated arts education program in Bay Area schools and has directed theater camps with the Berkeley Playhouse/Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and The Marsh.

Julia McNeal (Character Development) is an award-winning actress and teacher whose distinct technique for Playing Multiple Characters is highly regarded and employed by numerous solo theater artists. She works with solo performers at The Marsh Theater and privately.

The Marsh is known as "a breeding ground for new performance." It was launched in 1989 by Founder and Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman, and now annually hosts more than 600 performances of 175 shows across the company's two venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading outlet for solo performers, The Marsh's specialty has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "solo performances that celebrate the power of storytelling at its simplest and purest." The East Bay Times named The Marsh one of Bay Area's best intimate theaters, calling it "one of the most thriving solo theaters in the nation. The live theatrical energy is simply irresistible."

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