The Marsh Shares Compelling Stories in SOLO ARTS HEAL Series

The Marsh presents an inspiring lineup of individuals sharing deeply personal journeys in the MarshStream Solo Arts Heal series, discussing emotionally charged topics that range from facing dementia to sexual violence, jumping into climate change activism to dating someone with a psychiatric disorder, and more.

This Wednesday series features performance excerpts, talkbacks, and Q&A with Heather Harpham (March 17), Jackson Nogahl (March 24), Gabrielle Lennon (March 31), Melinda Buckley (April 7), and Joanna Rush (April 14).

For more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

Heather Harpham's BURNING

7:30pm, Wednesday, March 17

Hosted by Gail Schickele

The Marsh continues its Women's History Month celebration throughout March with Heather Harpham's highly kinetic, semi-comic romp about climate change, BURNING. Using movement, song, monologue, and other otherworldly images - from Hurricane Sandy to apocalyptic movie references, NPR's narcoleptic effect, and the countless trivial tasks that preoccupy the world while Rome burns - this work roams through the absurd landscapes of climate change where comedy, tragedy, activism, and cautious optimism collide. Following the performance, Harpham will join Solo Arts Heal host to discuss raising awareness around this issue, encouraging changes in attitude and behavior that will help our world move towards adapting to climate change related trends.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Heather Harpham is a writer and theater artist now based in New York. Her work has been presented at venues across the US and internationally, including the Kathmandu International Theater Festival in Nepal and the NOTAFE Festival in Estonia. Harpham's 2017 memoir, Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After, was featured as a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub selection, chosen for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers Series, included on the "Indie Next Pick" list by the American Booksellers Association, and is currently being adapted for the screen. Her writing has been recognized with the Brenda Ueland Prose Prize, a Marin Arts Council Independent Artist Grant, support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women, and a New York Innovative Theater Award nomination. Harpham has taught as a guest artist at colleges and universities throughout the US and in Europe, and currently advises in the MFA Writing Program at Sarah Lawrence College.

Jackson Nogahl's The Rain Delay

7:30pm, Wednesday, March 24

Hosted by Rick Davis

Inspired to provide support for others, The Marsh launches a new monthly program relationship with AnCan, the first virtual, real time audio/visual peer-to-peer support group platform. Designed for every serious disease and condition, AnCan removes all barriers for widespread participation, especially to those geographically, physically, or socially disadvantaged. AnCan Founder Rick Davis will begin hosting Solo Arts Heal every fourth Wednesday of the month. The debut features guest Jackson Nogahl, who will be performing an excerpt performance of The Rain Delay. Chronicling his first day back to work after prostate surgery, this work weaves together the lessons of a 1990s skateboarder, tallboy beers, Clydesdale horses, a magic trick, the power of prayer, the most beautiful woman in the office, and above all else, Mother Nature. Following his performance, Nogahl joins Davis to discuss the importance of connectivity, especially for those living with serious diseases and conditions. Nogahl celebrated his ten-year anniversary with prostate cancer on Valentine's Day 2021, and has been finding humor in his experiences living with this condition as he writes his memoir War and Pee. Nogahl began to develop his stories for a live audience in 2020 and was set to perform The Rain Delay onstage when COVID-19 hit. He adapted the story for Story Lab Chicago's first Zoom performance.

Gabrielle Lennon's Touch Me

7:30pm, Wednesday, March 31

Hosted by Gail Schickele, Kristin Scheel, and Stephanie Weisman

For this episode of Solo Arts Heal, Gabrielle Lennon performs an excerpt of her book, Touch Me Real and Other Stories, encouraging audience members to never shy away from expressing their feelings towards their loved ones. In Touch Me Real, Carrie and Mike, college students and best friends, begin to fall in love with each other. Soon after, Carrie discovers that Mike has been diagnosed with sudden onset paranoid schizophrenia, and that they will never be able to have the relationship they had secretly wanted all those years but were too afraid to acknowledge. After the performance, Lennon joins the Solo Arts Heal hosts for a post-performance Q&A.

For more than 25 years, Gabrielle Lennon has worked as a professional actress on stage and in film, and as a published writer in multiple genres. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Performance Studies and an honors program in Creative Writing for the Media, where she studied with Edgar-Award-winner Stuart Kaminsky and Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning director Frank Galati.

Melinda Buckley's MOTHER (and me)

7:30pm, Wednesday, April 7

Hosted by Gail Schickele, Kristin Scheel, and Stephanie Weisman

For this episode of Solo Arts Heal, Melinda Buckley performs an excerpt of MOTHER (and me), her outrageous one-woman show that follows the story of a larger-than-life Hungarian Mama Rose who's slowly waltzing into dementia as her Broadway baby Melinda shimmies into middle age. After the performance, Buckley joins the Solo Arts Heal hosts to discuss love and loss.

Melinda Buckley has appeared on Broadway and in nationwide tours of several shows, including Crazy For You, A Chorus Line, and Bob Fosse's revival of Sweet Charity. She performed improv and sketch material with Gotham City Improv and Chicago City Limits, and appeared as a stand up at Carolines on Broadway, Stand-Up NY, and Gotham Comedy Club. For the big screen, Buckley choreographed the musical sequences for Columbia Pictures' Stuart Little I and Stuart Little II; the independent film 1999, starring Amanda Peet and Jennifer Garner; and assisted Pat Birch on Working Girl as well as several episodes of Saturday Night Live. She has written, directed, and choreographed numerous commercial and corporate productions for clients such as Fox, EPSN, Sesame Street, McDonald's, Microsoft, IBM, American Express, and Audi. Other career highlights include directing Town Hall's hit musical series, Broadway By The Year, which featured a Tony Award-winning cast, and choreographing Paramour, which starred Len Carious and premiered at The Old Globe Theatre.

Joanna Rush's Sex & Power

7:30pm, Wednesday, April 14

Hosted by Gail Schickele, Kristin Scheel, and Stephanie Weisman

Drawing on diverse fields of knowledge, Joanna Rush probes the complexities of Sex & Power in today's fraught sexual landscape in this Solo Arts Heal episode. Presented with theatricality and humor, her observational powers provide revelatory guidance for navigating the #MeToo movement into a healthier sexual territory for everyone, offering hope that society can evolve and heal together. After the performance, Rush joins the Solo Arts Heal hosts for a post-performance Q&A to discuss rape culture, toxic masculinity, the origins of sexual inequality, and ultimately inspires productive ways for both men and women to effect change.

Joanna Rush is an actor, playwright, dancer, author, and interfaith minister. After enduring multiple sexual assaults, Rush sought a deeper understanding of the root causes of sexual violence.

A vision born from artists' inspiring true stories that celebrate overcoming adversity; surviving emotional, mental, and physical challenges; and becoming health advocates, Solo Arts Heal provides educational outreach and the healing power of the Arts to its viewers. With topics ranging from quitting smoking to battling cancer, adoption/the search for one's identity, sexual violence, and much more, the vulnerability of the participating artists leads listeners through their personal journeys of trauma and healing - a truly empowering experience for everyone involved.

To learn more visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

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