Josh Kornbluth's BRAIN IMPROVS Sets 2018 Dates At The Marsh SF

Due to popular demand, The Marsh San Francisco will extend Josh Kornbluth's insightful Josh's Brain Improvs until the end of 2018. Originally set to close March 28, the show will continue every other month on the final Wednesday of each month, with his last performance scheduled for November 28, 2018. Kornbluth, who is engaged in a fellowship at the Global Brain Health Institute, presents Josh's Brain Improvs, a series of improvisations based on his experiences working at the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF, where he is currently a Hellman Visiting Artist. Kornbluth, who is spending his time with people who have dementia and their caregivers, as well as researchers, nurses, social workers, and others, shares stories from the "Brain Place" (as he refers to it) - shedding a personal light on this national epidemic. Each performance includes a post-show talkback with various brain experts, in which audience members can ask questions from those in the field working to combat this disease. The statistics are daunting when it comes to dementia - one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or another type of dementia; every 66 seconds someone in the US develops the disease. Josh's Brain Improvs will be presented 7:30pm on the last Wednesday of every other month from March 28 to November 28 (see schedule for exact dates) at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($10-$25 general admission, $35 and $55 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055 (open 1pm-4pm, Monday through Friday).

Described as a cross between Woody Allen and Spalding Gray, Josh Kornbluth has been performing autobiographical one-man shows since 1987, many of which were developed at The Marsh. The San Francisco Chronicle declared, "Kornbluth takes a world we ignore, or barely observe, and brings it into brilliant comic relief," while The New York Times credited Kornbluth with finding "a comfortable balance between rollicking entertainment and pained self-examination." He launched his career as a solo artist with Josh Kornbluth's Daily World, in which he described his childhood as the son of communists in 1960s New York. Other works include Red Diaper Baby (a Drama Desk Award nomination), The Mathematics of Change, Ben Franklin: Unplugged, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe production Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan, among many others. He is currently working on a solo show based on his experiences as an artist-in-residence and volunteer at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. For two years he hosted an interview program, "The Josh Kornbluth Show," on KQED TV. His latest feature film, Love & Taxes, is his second in collaboration with his brother Jacob; in a review, Variety called him "a nerd for our time." His first feature film, Haiku Tunnel, is currently on HBO. He has appeared in several other movies including concert films of Red Diaper Baby, and The Mathematics of Change; Lynn Hershman Leeson's Teknolust and Strange Culture, the latter a documentary about artist and professor Steve Kurtz; and Francis Ford Coppola's Jack, starring Robin Williams. His second audio-book, titled Ben Franklin: Unplugged ... and Other Comic Tales, has been released on Audible.com.

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: The Marsh San Francisco is collaborating with monologist Josh Kornbluth to present Josh's Brain Improvs. Kornbluth's series of improvisations based on his experience as a scholar at the Global Brain Health Institute, Josh's Brain Improvs, will play 7:30pm final Wednesdays of every other month from March 28-November 28, 2018 at The Marsh San Francisco.

Photo credit: Tue Nam Ton

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