The Marsh Presents The Return Of Brian Copeland's Holiday Show THE JEWELRY BOX

The Marsh San Francisco presents the return of the family-friendly Bay Area holiday favorite The Jewelry Box in December. This solo show directed by David Ford. It is performed and written by award-winning performer Brian Copeland, who has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "among the Bay Area's most honest, thoughtful and eloquent storytellers." This hilariously heartwarming story follows a young Brian as he heads to the "mean streets" of Oakland to buy his mom a Christmas present. When he finds the perfect gift - a jewelry box in the White Front Department store - six-year-old Brian sets out to earn the required $11.97 by Christmas. Rife with references to 1970s Oakland, The Jewelry Box recounts Brian's adventures as he scours the "help wanted" ads, applies for jobs, and collects bottles, inching his way toward the perfect Christmas gift. The Jewelry Box will take place 8pm Fridays, 5pm Saturdays, at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia Street. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved) the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055 between 1:00pm and 4:00pm, Monday through Friday.

This year, in light of the recent North Bay fires, Copeland's first The Jewelry Box performance on December 8 of will be a benefit for KGO's Bay Area Fire Relief Fund. After making its World Premiere in 2013, the show was an instant success, selling out shows and proving popular with audiences and critics alike. It was declared "destined to be a holiday classic" by The San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the show "glitters with bright comedy."

Brian Copeland has been in show business since he first stepped on the comedy stage at age 18. Soon, he was headlining clubs and concerts across the country and opening for such artists as Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Ringo Starr, and Aretha Franklin, in venues from The Universal Amphitheater to Constitution Hall in Washington DC. Copeland then branched off into television, appearing on comedy programs on NBC, A&E and MTV. He spent five years as co-host of San Francisco FOX affiliate KTVU breakfast program Mornings on 2 and two years hosting San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO's Emmy Award winning afternoon talk show 7Live. His first network special, Now Brian Copeland, premiered on NBC after Saturday Night Live for West Coast audiences in January 2015. In 1995, KGO Radio premiered The Brian Copeland Show. With his unique blend of humor and riveting talk, the program remains the most listened to program in its time slot, reaching more than 100,000 listeners. The Brian Copeland Show is heard weekday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm on KGO 810 AM.

Copeland's other theatrical work includes Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest-running one-man show in San Francisco history, The Scion, a tale of privilege, murder, and sausage, which received its World Premiere at The Marsh in January 2014, and the unflinching examination of depression The Waiting Period, which won a 2015 Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Production of a Solo Play. His next play, Grandma & Me: An Ode to Single Parents will debut at The Marsh in the spring of 2018.

David Ford (Director) has been collaborating on new and unusual theater for three decades and has been associated with The Marsh for most of that time. The San Francisco press has variously called him "the solo performer maven," "the monologue maestro," "the dean of solo performance," and "the solo performer's best friend." Collaborators include Geoff Hoyle, Echo Brown, Brian Copeland, Charlie Varon, Marilyn Pittman, Rebecca Fisher, Wayne Harris, and Marga Gomez. As a director, Mr. Ford has directed both solo and ensemble work regionally at The Public Theater, Second Stage, St. Clement's, Dixon's Place, One Dream Theatre, and Theatre for the New City (NY), Highways Performance Space (LA), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (DC), as well as at theaters around the Bay Area including Magic Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. He is also a published playwright.

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: Joan Marcus

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