As the Bay Area's shelter-in-place continues, The Marsh San Francisco continues to offer a variety of programming at 7:30pm nightly on MarshStream, its popular broadcast platform. Offerings this month include an adoptee's riveting work on discovering her birth parents; a look at the power of poetry during a pandemic; a musical piece that explores trauma, resilience, and joy; the examination of an overlooked corner of the Suffrage movement; and more (see latest schedule below).
The program launched in April and has received overwhelmingly enthusiastic response, with hundreds flocking to view and participate each night. MarshStream programming varies daily, with Monday Night MarshStream (short performances by a variety of artists), Wild Card Tuesdays (everything from book/writer discussions, sing-a-longs, Tell It On Tuesday, to Sound Healing and Restorative Yoga), Wednesday Solo Arts Heal (offering stories of health, advocacy, and inspiration), Stephanie's MarshStream on Thursday nights (interview, bantering, Q&A, and performance excerpts with Marsh favorites, moderated by Marsh founder Stephanie Weisman), plus Bingo! hosted by Josh Kornbluth, live full-length performance concert readings, archived performance streams, performance development classes, and more. A noon series includes CJ's FitnesSing weekly singing lesson and fitness class, plus a Super Slow Weight Training and Zoomba Room. Content is offered at 7:30pm nightly, and mid-day throughout the week via Zoom, YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and iTunes. MarshStream viewers are asked to contribute whatever they can afford. Donations can be made by joining The Marsh's membership program and via a virtual "tip jar" both on the website, with funds going to support and sustain The Marsh and its performances. For more information, the public may visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream. NOTE: Most past shows from earlier MarshStream dates are also available on the website for viewing.
7:30pm, Monday, July 13
Featuring a beautiful, thirty-minute series of musical pieces presented by Amy Oestreicher
Amy Oestreicher is an Audie award-nominated playwright, singer, librettist, and visual artist who dedicates her work to celebrating untold stories and the detours in life that can spark connection and transform communities. For Monday MarshStream, she combines new excerpts from two of her awarding-winning one-woman musicals, Passageways: Songs of Connections, Abnormal & Sublime and Gutless & Grateful. Oestreicher overcame trauma to become a sought-after PTSD specialist, artist, author, writer for Huffington Post, international keynote speaker, RAINN representative, and health advocate. She has given three TEDx Talks on transforming trauma through creativity and has contributed to NBC's Today, CBS, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen Magazine, The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, and MSNBC, among others.
7:30pm, Tuesday, July 14
Hosted by Barbara Lane. Featuring special guests Gillian Conoley, Thea Matthews, Jason Bayani, and Christine No
Barbara Lane is the San Francisco Chronicle book columnist, Copperfield's Books Director of Events, and the former JCCSF Director of Arts and Ideas. She will be joined by four contemporary poets who will read and discuss their work, and share why poetry is essential to these troubled times.
GILLIAN CONOLEY: A decorated poet, Gillian Conoley received the Shelley Memorial Award for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America in 2017 and was awarded the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Fund for Poetry Award.
THEA MATTHEWS: Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Thea Matthews is a queer, Black Indigenous Mexican poet, Black feminist, educator, and activist. She is currently an MFA candidate for Poetry at New York University.
JASON BAYANI: Jason Bayani is an MFA graduate from Saint Mary's College, a Kundiman fellow, and works as the artistic director for Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country. He is the author of Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019), and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing 2013). Bayani performs regularly around the country and debuted his solo theater show Locus of Control in 2016 with theatrical runs in San Francisco, New York, and Austin.
CHRISTINE NO: Christine No is a child of Korean immigrants. As a writer and filmmaker, she is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, two-time Pushcart Prize Nominee, and Best of the Net Nominee. No's first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming by Barrelhouse.
7:30pm, Wednesday, July 15
Hosted by Gail Schickele. Performed by Hayley Palmer
THE GOOD ADOPTEE: Performed by acclaimed Off-Broadway actor Haley Palmer, The Good Adoptee is the riveting and outrageous true story of award-winning playwright Suzanne Bachner's search for her first/birth parents in the face of New York State's sealed records. Once she opens Pandora's Box, can she still find a way to integrate her dual identities and still remain "the good adoptee"?
7:30pm, Thursday, July 16
Hosted by Stephanie Weisman. Featuring special guest Jessica Litwak
Stephanie's MarshStream will feature an interview with Jessica Litwak, performance excerpts, and Q&A. She is a playwright, actor, educator, puppet builder, and recognized leader in the field of socially engaged theatre. Litwak's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and on stages across the US, Europe, and the UK, including The Goodman Theatre, Rattlestick Theatre, The Women's Project, La MaMa, DR2, The Renberg Theatre, and The Edinburgh Festival.
BINGO! with Josh Kornbluth
7:30pm, Fridays
Hosted by Josh Kornbluth
Audience members are invited to play five FREE games of BINGO! with prizes for the winner of each round.
Saturday, July 18 - LIVE
Sunday, July 19 - Rebroadcast
Performed by Jessica Litwak
50,000 MICE: Written for the 2020 Centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment, Jessica Litwak's 50,000 Mice is a fast-moving, funny, educational, and moving work about an overlooked corner of the Suffrage movement. 50,000 Mice examines the many factions of suffrage from the perspective of a Jewish Suffragette trying to reach working-class women who have been mostly ignored by the US movement. Through its many characters, the play offers views from diverse women across the movement.
To simulate the feeling of waiting in the lobby until a theater opens, The Marsh has created the MarshStream Studio Waiting Room. Available 30 minutes prior to each performance/event for Marsh members, and 15 minutes prior to the general public, the Waiting Room can be joined via Zoom Room where guests can mix and mingle, or viewed on YouTube live, with additional entertainment such as unique content, live music, and even prizes.
In addition to nightly program offerings on MarshStream, The Marsh has also launched Marsh Youth Theater (MYT) MarshStream, classes offered at 4:00pm daily taught by MYT instructors. From Creative Dramatics to Storytelling, Dancing, and more, class types, instructors, and age levels vary for each class. For weekly class schedules and additional information, please visit themarsh.org/mytmarshstream.
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