The Marsh San Francisco to Present POETIC JUSTICE, Double Bill of One-Act Plays by Lynne Kaufman

The Marsh San Francisco will kick off the New Year with Poetic Justice, taking a deep dive into the true lives of three distinguished writers. Starring Julia McNeal and Charles Shaw Robinson, this double bill features You Must Change Your Life and Divine Madness - one-act plays written by Lynne Kaufman. The evening begins with You Must Change Your Life, revealing the creation of Rainer Maria Rilke's timeless masterpiece, Letters to a Young Poet. Torn between becoming a writer or an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, 19-year-old Franz Kappus writes a poem for Rilke in 1902, asking for feedback. A single letter turns into a series of correspondences. After Rilke's death, Kappus compiles and publishes Rilke's letters to him. But what about his letters to Rilke? A recent discovery provides a surprising answer.

Divine Madness recounts the love story of poet Robert Lowell and writer Elizabeth Hardwick, who were famously divorced when Lowell, who suffered frequent debilitating bouts of manic depression, left Hardwick to marry an English heiress. He then documented the end of his marriage in a volume of poetry, The Dolphin, that scandalized the literary world and won him the Pulitzer prize. Divine Madness follows the couple as they consider reuniting and invites audiences to explore the questions: Is art worth that much? Can love survive madness and betrayal? Poetic Justice will be presented January 7-29, 2023 (Press opening: January 8) with performances at 8:30pm Saturdays and 5:00pm Sundays at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For information or to order tickets ($25; $35* with copy of book; $50 and $100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org. *Divine Madness, a novella, offers a more expansive exploration of their lives in the form of Elizabeth's fictional diary. It was published by Tailwinds Press in 2002, and will be available for $10 as a prepaid item during ticket purchase.

ABOUT LYNNE KAUFMAN

Lynne Kaufman 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 Poetic Justice being her most recent work. Three of Kaufman's plays, Acid Test, Two Minds, and Who Killed Sylvia Plath have premiered on stage at The Marsh, while two others, Exposing Margaret Meadand 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.

ABOUT Lauren English

Director Lauren English most recently directed Significant Other by Joshua Harmon at the San Francisco Playhouse, where she is an Artistic Associate. She was the resident casting director with the Bay Area Playwrights Festival for four seasons and the casting director at San Francisco Playhouse, where she cast over 10 seasons and worked extensively in new play development in The Sandbox Series. Previous directing credits include Non-Player Character by Walt McGough, Zenith by Kirsten Greenidge, 123 by Lila Rose Kaplan, The Mystery Plays by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Good. Better. Best. Bested. by Jonathan Spector. Onstage, English has worked at the Aurora Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, Word for Word, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, and PlayGround, among others. Selected New York theater credits include' The Actors Company Theatre's Off-Broadway production of The Cocktail Party, Hamlet at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and The Idealist at New York Theater Festival, as well as The Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Lark, and the Playwrights Realm. English is a performance coach and works across industries with artists, engineers, and CEOs alike, helping each person discover and deliver their message with purpose and power.

ABOUT JULIA MCNEAL

Acclaimed actor Julia McNeal appears as Writer, Kappus, and Elizabeth Hardwick in Poetic Justice. She has appeared on numerous stages in the Bay Area, including the Magic Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, Aurora Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, TheatreFIRST, Center Repertory Company, and PlayGround, where she is a company member. New York and Los Angeles theatre credits include Neena Beber's Tomorrowland at Soho Repertory Theater, Requiem for a Heavyweight at the Kraine Theater, and Days and Nights Within at the Whitefire Theatre. Among her film and television credits are Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth, Steve Kloves's Flesh and Bone, and Adrienne Shelly's Urban Legend; Law & Order, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. McNeal is a founding member of The Echo Theater (Los Angeles) and of the Obie Award-winning Cucaracha Theatre (New York). She coaches writers and performers in character creation and is the author of 5 Ways In to Character.

ABOUT Charles Shaw Robinson

Another familiar face in the San Francisco Bay Area, Charles Shaw Robinson stars as Rilke and Cal in Poetic Justice. He has been seen locally in leading roles at San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theatre, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, as well as at theatres across the country. His regional theatre credits include the title roles in Hamlet (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Pericles (Center Stage, Baltimore); Scaramouche (Empty Space Theatre, Seattle); and Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Word for Word, San Francisco). Robinson was last seen in Public Enemy: Flint (Unicorn Theatre), for and with the residents of Flint, Michigan.

ABOUT THE MARSH

The Marsh is known as "a breeding ground for new performance." It was launched in 1989 by Founder and Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman, and pre-COVID hosted more than 600 performances of 175 shows across the company's two venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. Since its launch in April 2020, the theatre's digital platform MarshStream has garnered more than 100,000 viewers. Notable MarshStream moments include the debuts of MarshStream International Solo Fests 1 and 2, The Marsh's first-ever digital festivals, and the U.S. premiere of The Invisible Line, a new documentary about one of the world's most famous social experiments gone wrong. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic MarshStream has hosted over 700 LIVE streams, providing some 300 performers a platform to continue developing and producing art. The Marsh will continue to offer digital content on MarshStream, as well as in- person performances.

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