Lynne Kaufman's World Premiere of EXTREME ACTS to Play at The Marsh SF

The Marsh San Francisco will present the world premiere of Extreme Acts, the thought-provoking latest work by award-winning playwright Lynne Kaufman, directed by Molly Noble. Showcasing Kaufman’s signature style of capturing extraordinary people at crisis points, Extreme Acts offers up two one-act plays. The first, I Am Here, follows a passionate performance artist who challenges the limits of endurance in life and love. It is paired with I Witness, a searing look at an assault that has forever altered the lives of the accuser and the accused. Both one-act plays will be performed by Arwen Anderson and Johnny Moreno. Extreme Acts can be seen Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 5:00pm, May 11-June 2, 2024, (press opening: 8:00pm, Saturday, May 11) at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco.
 
Extreme Acts opens with I Am Here, which finds Sophia (played by Anderson) preparing for the last night of her performance art piece “Being Present.” As she gets ready, Sophia relives a similar piece she performed with her lover, a former extreme sports jumper (played by Moreno), and the rupture that work caused in their relationship. 
 
In the second one-act play, I Witness explores the dynamics between accuser and accused. The work follows Jessica (Anderson) who endures a sexual assault at college. She positively identifies her assailant (Moreno), who is then sentenced to 20 years in prison, but upon his release, new evidence is found.  
 

ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVES 

Arwen Anderson (Performer) returns to The Marsh where she worked with Lynne Kaufman on a staged reading of her musical, Map of Your Mind.  Selected regional credits include Testmatch, Men On Boats, Heisenberg, Let There Be Love, A Christmas Carol, and Tales of the City (workshop) at A.C.T.; King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and The Verona Project (world premiere) at California Shakespeare Theatre; August: Osage County, Anne Boleyn, Circle Mirror Transformation, Bellwether (world premiere), and A Streetcar Named Desire at Marin Theatre Company; An Accident, Mrs. Whitney, Expedition 6, The Rules of Charity (all world premieres), and Mauritius at Magic Theatre; A White Girl’s Guide to International Terrorism, The Fit, and 77% at San Francisco Playhouse; Miss Julie at Stanford Rep; Lobby Hero and The Shape of Things at Aurora Theatre Company; You Know When the Men Are Gone and 4 Adverbs with Word for Word; and roles with American Stage Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, Brava Theater, Encore Theatre Company, and Central Works Theater Company. Her film work includes Hog Island, Ashley 22, and Dark Retreat.  

Johnny Moreno (Performer) has appeared at theatres throughout the Bay Area including A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, San Jose Stage Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, Center Repertory Company, Marin Theatre Company, Crowded Fire Theater, Thick Description and Pacific Repertory Theatre. Favorite roles include Iago in Othello, Macheath in The Threepenny Opera (TBA Award for Best Actor in a Musical), Ralph Bates in Period of Adjustment, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (SFBATCC Award for Best Actor in a Musical), Palo in Gibraltar, Mortimer in Mary Stuart, and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Film and television credits include Betas, Callback (winner of the Chicago Indie Fest for Best Film), Upside Out (with Olympia Dukakis), Paradise Club, and I’m Still Here (with Joaquin Phoenix).  

Molly Noble’s (Director) recent directing projects include A Doll’s House and Twelfth Night at College of Marin, Cry It Out at Cinnabar Theater. Past directing credits include The Kepler Story (CU Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium), The Surrogate (Centenary Stage Company, NJ), Bad Dates (Cinnabar) Middletown, The Skin of Our Teeth, David Copperfield, The River Bride, Seagull, Arabian Nights, Maple and Vine, Misalliance. Almost, Maine, and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (College of Marin), You Can’t Take It with You and The Prince and The Pauper (Conservatory Theater Ensemble/Tam Drama). She has directed projects with incarcerated artists at San Quentin. Noble has acted with Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, Z Space’s Word for Word, Aurora Theatre Company, Cinnabar Theater, Shakespeare & Performing Arts Regional Company (SPARC), Main Stage West, and her own Porchlight Theatre Co.  

Lynne Kaufman (Playwright) is the author of 20 full-length plays that have been produced in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Louisville at such theatres as Magic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and many more – with Extreme Acts being her most recent work. Four of Kaufman’s plays, Acid Test, Two Minds, Who Killed Sylvia Plath, and Poetic Justice have premiered on stage at The Marsh, while two others, Exposing Margaret Mead and The Smartest Woman in America have appeared on The Marsh’s digital platform, MarshStream. Who Killed Sylvia Plath went on to win Best Play in The Marsh’s 2020 MarshStream International Solo Festival. Kaufman’s plays have won many awards including the Glickman Award for Best New Play (The Couch), the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays Award (Speaking in Tongues), and the Neil Simon Festival New Play Award (William Blake in Hollywood). Kaufman has published four novels and her short stories have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and McCall’s. She was also the recipient of the Otis Guernsey Outstanding New Voice in American Theatre Award from the William Inge Theatre Festival. 

Photo credit: David Allen

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