Brian Copeland's New Show GRANDMA & ME Debuts At The Marsh

The Marsh San Francisco presents GRANDMA & ME: An Ode to Single Parents, the highly anticipated new solo show by award-winning playwright and actor Brian Copeland (Not a Genuine Black Man, The Waiting Period, The Scion, The Jewelry Box). Copeland, whose critically-acclaimed Not a Genuine Black Man has earned the title of longest running solo show in San Francisco history, unveils a new work that examines the issues of single parenting, and asks what it truly means to be a father.

GRANDMA & ME will be presented March 20 - April 25, 2020 (press opening: April 4) with performances at 8:00pm Fridays and 5:00pm Saturdays at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved) or more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh Box office at 415-282-3055 (open Monday through Friday, 1:00pm-4:00pm).

With Copeland's trademark blend of humor and poignancy, the lauded performer takes audiences on a journey back to 1979 when his mother died suddenly, leaving behind five young children for his bereaved but fiercely protective 57-year-old grandmother to raise by herself. Twenty-two years later Brian found himself in the same single-parent predicament when his marriage ended, leaving him with three children to bring up. Through the lens of time, Copeland is able to compare and contrast the trials of single parenting in the 1970s with the myriad new challenges brought by the dawn of the tech-infused 21st century. With both laughter and tears, Copland takes a deep look, from both sides, at what children need and crave when a parent is lost, and all the agonizing, infuriating, encouraging, and above all helplessly loving acts that go into being a father.

Brian Copeland (Writer/Performer) has been in show business since he first stepped on the comedy stage at age 18. Soon, he was headlining clubs and concerts across the country and opening for such artists as Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Ringo Starr, and Aretha Franklin, in venues from The Universal Amphitheater to Constitution Hall in Washington DC. Copeland then branched off into television, appearing on comedy programs on NBC, A&E and MTV. He spent five years as co-host of San Francisco FOX affiliate KTVU breakfast program Mornings on 2 and two years hosting San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO's Emmy Award winning afternoon talk show 7Live. His first network special, Now Brian Copeland, premiered on NBC after Saturday Night Live for West Coast audiences in January 2015. In 1995, KGO Radio premiered The Brian Copeland Show. With his unique blend of humor and riveting talk, the program was the most listened to program in its time slot, reaching more than 100,000 listeners.

Copeland's other theatrical work includes Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest-running one-man show in San Francisco history; his acclaimed play The Waiting Period, a story of combatting depression; The Scion, a taken-from-the-headlines tale of privilege, murder, and sausage, the critically-acclaimed Christmas classic, The Jewelry Box, and The Great American Sh*t Show, a collaboration with Charlie Varon featuring monologues on life in the Age of Trump.

David Ford (Director) 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.

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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