Talk Story Returns to EXIT Theatre

After a successful inaugural year in 2017, EXIT Theatre brings a treasure trove of storytellers together to Talk Story. As an art form and a means of communication, storytelling is one of our deepest-rooted instincts, and thanks to the phenomenal successes of series such as Porchlight, Bawdy, and The Moth, it's enjoying a renaissance in the Bay Area and across the country. Join us in June as we present a diverse slate of stories, spoken straight from the heart.

Opening our festival, Wednesday, June 6, we'll be hosting legendary San Francisco wordsmith, activist, and performance artist Ed Wolf with It's Hard to Explain. Thursday, June 7 & Friday, June 8, veteran Bay Area actor Shelley Steward returns to Talk Story with T.R.I.P.S. (The Real Inside Personal Stories). Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9, longtime EXIT collaborator Randall Denham will present Hedging the Edge: 1970's, and also performing on June 9, nationally-acclaimed, Chicago-based storyteller Dr. Ada Cheng will appear with her latest solo show: Breaking Rules, Broken Hearts: Loving across Borders.

In addition to producing the San Francisco Fringe Festival (now in it's 27th year!), EXIT Theatre is also home to the Fog City Magic Fest, the Burlesque Extravaganza, and the SF Olympians. Past festivals produced by EXIT include our decade-strong DIVAFest and a recurring "absurdist" season. EXIT Artistic Director Christina Augello's Talk Story contribution from 2017, Denial is a Wonderful Thing, went on to win an award at United Solo in NYC for "Best Storyteller," enjoyed a small run in Chiang Mai's Gate Theatre in early 2018, and has been published by EXIT Press, our independent publishing imprint.

Tickets: $15, http://www.theexit.org/talk-story/

Meet the Storytellers

Ed Wolf has performed at numerous storytelling and performance events around the San Francisco Bay Area since 2006, including the Verdi Club with Porch Light, A Storytelling Series; Viracocha, The Lost Church and the Swedish American Hall with You're Going to Die Too; Geoffrey's Inner Circle with BustingOut Storytelling; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with Beyond Folsom Street Blues: Stories from South of Market Before It Was SOMA; the National Queer Arts Festival in Right About Now; the Contemporary Jewish Museum in Have a Poet for Lunch and the Art of AIDS Activism; Listen For A Change in San Francisco and Oakland; Incivility: Dissent is Patriotic at the Lost Church, and numerous other venues and events. He's featured in the award-winning documentary We Were Here, about the very early years of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, and shared many stories about those terrible times at the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Molodist, Kiev's International Festival in Ukraine, as well as the Side-by-Side LGBT Film Festival in St. Petersburg Russia.

After a successful Talk Story run last year in his debut show G.A.B.S.(Gay Adult Bookstore), Shelley Steward, or as he is affectionately known to his friends and family-Mr. Shelley Steward-has been asked back for another chance at "getting it right," with his latest storytelling foray: T.R.I.P.S. (The Real Inside Personal Stories). What does a rectal exam, a bed-ridden mother, and Diana Ross have in common? Come find out!

Randall Denham received classical training at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating with honors. Mr. Denham has been doing theater in San Francisco since 1975, where he made his debut at the Veterans Auditorium Theater in Parasites Under the Bourgeoisie with San Francisco's legendary Angels of Light. Randall did six shows with the Angels of Light, including both productions of the Critics' Circle favorite Holy Cow. Mr. Denham has worked with the New Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare San Francisco, the Next Stage, and, is a veteran of many shows at EXIT Theatre. He's most proud of the work he did on the first five Ionesco plays that EXIT Theatre produced: Mr. Smith in The Bald Soprano being his favorite role. After a long hiatus as a bookseller, Randall is happy to be returning to EXIT with the "Talk Story" of his early years in San Francisco.

Ada is the winner of 2017 Bughouse Square Debates. She's been featured at storytelling shows in Chicago, Atlanta, Cedar Rapids, New York, Asheville, and Kansas City. She performed her first solo show, Not Quite: Asian American by Law, Asian Woman by Desire, at the National Storytelling Conference, Capital Fringe Festival, Minnesota Fringe Festival, and Boulder Fringe Festival in 2017 and at the Encounter Series at The Collaboraction Theatre in 2018. She debuted her second solo show, Breaking Rules, Broken Hearts: Loving across Borders, with Fillet of Solo Storytelling Festival at Lifeline Theatre in January 2018 and also performed it at the Rhino Fest with the Prop Theatre in February 2018. She'll be taking Breaking Rules across borders to the Toronto Fringe Festival in July as well as to Talk Story in San Francisco in June, and the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York in November. Ada Cheng was a tenured professor in sociology at DePaul University in Chicago for 15 years (2001-2016) before hitting the floorboards as a solo performer.

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