Don Reed Travels Back to '60s with CAN YOU DIG IT? at The Marsh

Hot on the heels of the hilarious and critically acclaimed East 14th and The Kipling Hotel, Don Reed is back with an installment of his wonderfully wild autobiographical trilogy, Can You Dig It?: The '60s at The Marsh San Francisco. A nostalgic ride through the amusing and oftentimes turbulent 1960s and beyond, Reed's solo show takes place before his father became a pimp, before little Donnie was forced into that door-knocking religion, and includes some mind-blowing and unbelievably true tales never before revealed in the original production. From the Beatles to the Black Panthers, James Brown to the Jerk, MLK to JFK to the KKK-audiences will delight in living vicariously through the eyes of an awkward blinking kid just trying to fit in during the tumultuous '60s. Called "a comedic goldmine. An electrifying performer whose impressions of the colorful characters of his childhood are well-drawn and flat-out hilarious" by KQED, Can You Dig It?: The '60s will be presented 8:30pm Saturdays & 5:30pm Sundays, March 31 - May 6 at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055 (open 1pm-4pm, Monday through Friday).

Called "hilarious" by The New Yorker and "a dynamic performer" by San Francisco Chronicle, Don Reed has created a trio of solo shows that recount his entertaining and at-times downright outrageous coming-of-age journey. Reed's first installment, East 14th, traces his irregular teen years through the '70s-in which his stepfather forced him to become a Jehovah's Witness, while his biological father led the freewheeling life of an Oakland pimp. In The Kipling Hotel, Reed recalls his collegiate years at UCLA through the '80s, as he struggled to supplement a partial scholarship by working as a live-in waiter at an unforgettable retirement hotel frequented by exotic elderly denizens, earnest students, aspiring actors, and drug dealers. His entertaining autobiographical tale comes full circle with Can You Dig It?: The '60s, a "prequel-plus" covering Reed's formative years in a 1960s Oakland grammar school. Filled with Reed's signature theatrical outré and flawless comedic timing, he brings to life a full cast of colorful characters, the story of his wild and wonderful childhood unfolds with a series of hilarious, touching, and incredible anecdotes-including untold tales unveiled on stage for the first time.

Don Reed is the 2016 Theater Bay Area (TBA) winner for Outstanding Solo Production, a 2017 TBA nominee for the same award, a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee, and NAACP triple nominee for Best Actor and Best Playwright. He is presently co-starring in the Amazon Prime series Bartlett, where Reed plays the boss in a struggling ad agency alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and Utkarsh Ambudkar (The Mindy Project). Reed can be seen in the movie Unleashed starring Kate Micucci (The LEGO Batman Movie), Justin Chatwin (Doctor Who), and Steve Howey (Shameless), now on Netflix. Reed has performed, written, and directed for film, television, and theater. As a producer and writer, he has also been working on transforming Charlotte Burley and Lyah Beth LeFlore's best-selling book Cosmopolitan Girls into a television series. Reed was the opening act/warm-up comedian for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for more than 1,000 episodes and is presently the warm-up comedian for Snoop Dogg's game show The Joker's Wild. His voice can be heard on: Spiderman, Johnny Quest, Captain Planet, The Voice, Law & Order, SNL and as the voice of the cat on 2 Broke Girls. He has created promos for The Voice, The Golden Globes, The Academy Awards, MLB, Chappelle's Show, Tyler Perry Films, and the Olympics. Additionally, he has written, directed, produced, and starred in the HBO shorts: Lucky: The Irish Pimp and Pookie Watson: Hood Detective. Reed has written and starred in work for Oprah Winfrey's OWN. He is also a board member of the thriving 51Oakland foundation which aims to keep music and the arts alive in Oakland Public Schools.

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."

Photo Credit: Ric Omphroy

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