Dan Hoyle's TALK TO YOUR PEOPLE Comes To The Marsh Berkeley, January 28–March 11

Acclaimed actor/playwright Dan Hoyle returns to The Marsh Berkeley with an updated version of his hit show, Talk To Your People, which enjoyed an extended sold-out run in San Francisco last summer. With his trademark ability to shapeshift onstage, Dan Hoyle revisits the panoply of vivid characters he created this show.

The updated material hones into each individual with new insight gained as the perspective of 2020 shifts with continued hindsight. During its initial San Francisco run and tour of the West Coast, this piece of immersion research theater was met with critical acclaim.

Talk To Your People was developed with and directed by Charlie Varon, with lighting design by Jeff Rowlings, directing consultant Erin Gilley, and additional consulting from Mark Kenward and Wayne Harris.

Talk to Your People will be presented January 28-March 11, 2023, with performances at 7:00pm Fridays and 5:00pm Saturdays at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. For tickets ($25-$35 sliding scale; $50 and $100 reserved) or more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org.

Talk To Your People came about when Hoyle was trying to grasp the national reckonings taking place around race, power, and masculinity during the "Black Lives Matter" movement and was urged by a friend to "talk to your people." With his custom brand of journalism, hanging out and listening to deeply human, comic, and complex stories, Hoyle created a portfolio of unique characters that are unique, raw, funny, and moving. In Talk To Your People, audiences meet a NorCal hippie jock wrestling with his activist heart in a "soul-crushing" corporate job, an Argentine Marxist techie uncomfortable with his newfound status in elite circles, a sensitive hipster academic trying to surf the rising tides of outrage politics, and many others - all brought to the stage in Hoyle's signature style.

The Marsh has been home to Dan Hoyle's (Writer/Performer) World Premiere shows Border People (2019), Each and Every Thing (2014), The Real Americans (2010), Tings Dey Happen (2007), and Florida 2004: The Big Bummer (2004). These shows have all received critical acclaim, with The Huffington Post praising Hoyle's brand of journalistic theater for its "emotional depth and intellectual breadth." The 2019 World Premiere of Border People was greeted with unanimous critical acclaim, earning the highest rating from the San Francisco Chronicle, which noted "This is what it is to witness a master of his craft. Dan Hoyle is one of our theatrical gems," and praised the production as "A testament to the core-to-nerve ending commitment and courage" of those living on borders of any kind. After its closing run at The Marsh San Francisco, Border People made its Off-Broadway premiere at the Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres, where The New York Times called it "a master class" and applauded Hoyle for his "empathy and cultural border crossing." The critically-acclaimed Each and Every Thing debuted at The Marsh in 2014, and was praised as "smartly constructed and highly entertaining" by the San Francisco Chronicle and a "poignant, funny comment on the digital age" by The Mercury News. The show's run was extended several times due to popular demand. The 2010 World Premiere of The Real Americans was an instant hit, and went on to receive critical acclaim from major news outlets, with The New Yorker praising his performance as "smart, entertaining, funny, insightful and surprising." In 2007, Tings Dey Happen was awarded the Will Glickman Award for Best Play, while The New York Times called it "funny and poignant." When discussing his work at The Marsh with East Bay Times, Hoyle proclaimed "The Marsh is to me the best place in the country to develop new work...there's nothing else like it."

Charlie Varon (Director/Co-Developer) is an artist-in residence at The Marsh. He has collaborated with Dan Hoyle on his solo shows Circumnavigator, Tings Dey Happen, Each and Every Thing, The Real Americans, and Border People. As a playwright and performer, Varon has collaborated with David Ford to create hit shows including Rush Limbaugh in Night School (1994), Rabbi Sam (2009) and Second Time Around (a duet performed with cellist Joan Jeanreaud, 2016). He also teaches creative writing classes online.

The Marsh is known as "a breeding ground for new performance." It was launched in 1989 by Founder and Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman, and pre-COVID hosted 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." Since its launch in April 2020, the theatre's digital platform MarshStream has garnered more than 100,000 viewers. Notable MarshStream moments include the debut of MarshStream International Solo Fest 1 and 2, The Marsh's first-ever digital festivals, and the U.S. premiere of The Invisible Line, a new documentary about one of the world's most famous social experiments gone wrong. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic MarshStream has hosted over 700 LIVE streams, providing some 300 performers a platform to continue developing and producing art. The Marsh will continue to offer digital content on MarshStream, as well as in- person performances.

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