SOLO @ OFF-MARKET
City Solo
September 5, 12 & 19
Sundays @ 7pm
$20 General Admission
$15 Student/Senior/Low-Income
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/122542 or 800-838-3006.
CITY SOLO is a fresh series featuring a rotating cast of Bay Area solo stars. Each show features a dynamic line-up of four short pieces, written and performed by the solo artists themselves. CITY SOLO is co-produced Nicole Maxali and Thao P. Nguyen (left and right, respectively in photo) and The Off-Market Theaters.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES / PERFORMERS:
JEANNE HAYNES
In "A Bed for All Seasons", Jeanne Haynes' story is a bit of life history - an epic really - relating to beds from her grandmother's iron crib, wishful thinking for a canopy bed, dorm life, single life, marriage, divorce and back to the single life, finally with a trip to Mancinni's Sleep World.
Since giving up her media relations consulting business 14 years ago, Haynes has submerged herself in the world of storytelling as a full-time teller, teacher and solo performer. Her ongoing classes for adults at Stagebridge Oakland begin again in September. As an artist in residence she has taught some 2000 children in Bay Area schools. This is her first solo piece since her one-woman show "The Stove Is White" had a 6-run performance at San Francisco's Brava! this past winter.
WAYNE HARRIS
"Parade" follows the excitement of Wayne Harris as he is transported back into time. As a young 8 year old hearing drums everywhere he goes, he can't help but march...can't wait to get there. He is sure he can hear the sound of drum beats bouncin' off tenement walls...Why is everybody moving so slow?!
One of the Bay Areas best solo performers, Wayne Harris has been bringing soulful, joyful and musical stories to the stage since 1996. Working with renowned director David Ford, Wayne has written and performed several full length productions as well as programs for schools. For additional info on Wayne Harris performances and services please visit www.waynthestoryteller.com
NICOLE MAXALI
In "I Heart Lola", Nicole realizes that life with grandma is suddenly not the same... for Nicole and for her grandma. Nicole captures the impact of losing a beloved "lola" (lola is the Filipino word for Grandma) to Alzheimer's. This piece pays tribute to all of those who suffer from Alzheimer's by reminding us that their dementia does not define who they are. Did I mention, it's funny too?
Nicole Maxali quit her job in the News Industry and began her journey as a working artist/non-profit humanitarian in 2005. During that time she has found her calling through her first stand-up comedy workshop under Kevin Camia & her first black box theater performance at Bindlestiff Studio. She has performed all over the Bay Area at both comedy venues and theaters. She also had the honor to open for comic genius, Dave Chappelle, at the San Francisco Punchline.
Under tutelage of acclaimed comic/solo performer W. Kamau Bell, Nicole Maxali wrote and performed her very first one woman show in 2008. And since then has written two more, "Walking in the Dark" and "I Heart Lola". She is currently writing her full length one woman show and is the co-producer of City Solo. For all things Maxali, check out her website at www.NicoleMaxali.com
SUSAN ITO (9/12 and 9/19 only)
In "The Ice Cream Gene" it is 1980, and Susan is going to meet a woman in a hotel room. A very important woman. Will they recognize each other? Will they like each other? Will they like the same ice cream?
Susan Ito is a graduate of San Francisco's incomparable Solo Performance Workshop, where she blossomed under the tutelage of W. Kamau Bell and Martha Rynberg. She is also a blogger, a fiction and nonfiction writer, a physical therapist coming out of long hibernation, and an adoption camp director.
KIM A. PAGE (9/5 only)
In "Oh, father", Every daughter wants to love her father and every father wants to be a good daddy. Love stories like this can have a different kind of happy ending.
This is the second solo-performance that Kim A. Page has created with the SPW. Before she arrived in the Bay Area, Kim has created physical theater shows, poetry performances and given concerts in Europe.
NOTE: No one under 16 years old will be admitted.
For tickets, please check https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/122542. Become a fan of City Solo on Facebook oand get exclusive access to discount codes to the shows! For more information on City Solo, email us at CitySoulo@gmail.com.
Eat, Pray, Laugh!
Alicia Dattner
Opens January 20 - May 26
Wednesdays @ 8pm - $20
Eat, Pray, Laugh!, directed by Katie Rubin, chronicles Alicia's three-month solo trip across India in search of spiritual salvation – as fate would have it, the trip looks nothing like she imagined. From seductive French yoga teachers to scary Indian toilets, Alicia dishes on everything including the Italian fashion exporter with a Krishna fetish and mosquitoes the size of small ponies, to Chabad Jews on the Ganges and ultimately, the true meaning of mustaches and masala chai.
After a knockout world premiere run at this year’s SF Fringe, Alicia took Eat, Pray, Laugh! on the road and across the pond. Stops included London, England, as well as Mumbai and Tiruvanamalai, India, where she incorporated a spirited round of Kirtan chanting with the audience into the performance. The revamped show, which now includes an opening act by Katie Rubin performing excerpts from her own upcoming solo show, will also be complete with chai (delicious tea), kirtan (Indian call and response singing), and prasad (an offering of sweets) at each performance. Eat, Pray, Laugh! is part of the kick-off to Solo @ Off-Market in 2010.
PAST SHOWS
Bohemian Cowboy
Raymond King Shurtz
9/11, 9/12, 9/18 @ 8pm & 9/19 @ 9:30pm - $15
In November of 2005, Raymond Dean Shurtz walked into the desert in Clark County, Nevada, The Valley of Fire, and simply disappeared.
For two years, Nevada detectives, Nevada Search and Rescue, psychics, private detectives, and family and friends, searched for his body. Mr. Shurtz has never been found.
A honky-tonk singer, a cowboy, a carpenter, and a traveler of mythic proportions, the senior Mr. Shurtz left an array of mysteries as a "disappearing specialist".
In an attempt to unravel these mysteries, his son writes and performs the legacy his father left him, using the same characteristics as his father, the original "disappearing specialist" and "bohemian cowboy".
LA Weekly – Pick of the Week
“Under the sensitive direction of Kurt Brungardt, Shurtz’s drama functions as both intensely personal family legacy and surreal picaresque." - LA Times
Bohemian Cowboy:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79535 or 800-838-3006.
Not a Genuine Black Man
Brian Copeland
Opens 9/18 – Fridays @ 8pm &
Saturdays @ 5pm - $30
In 1972, the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing Called San Leandro, California ‘a racist bastion of white supremacy’. It was named one of the most racist suburbs in America. CBS News and Newsweek covered the story. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted hearings.
And then, we moved to town.”
So writes Brian Copeland in his first solo show, Not a Genuine Black Man, revealing a little-known chapter of Bay Area history. In a monologue that's both funny and poignant, Brian explores how surroundings make us who we are.
Brian's memoir based on the show is now available nationwide. It received high critical acclaim from, among others, Publisher's Weekly, People, Ebony and The Boston Globe while reader reviewers on Amazon.com are calling it "The best book I've ever read." It has recently been chosen as the 2009 selection for Silicon Valley Reads, a library sponsored program which encourages all Silicon Valley residents to read one book at the same time and engage in community wide discussions on its relevance.
“A beautiful mix of wry humor and heartbreak, indignation and inspiration, a singular story of extreme isolation that speaks to anyone who's ever felt out of place.” --San Francisco Chronicle
Not A Genuine Black Man:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/66063 or 800-838-3006
I Heart Hamas
Jennifer Jajeh
Opening 9/17 Thursdays & Saturdays @ 8pm – $20-30
With the current ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of global terrorism, and the never‐ending negotiations and hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the bad international news. That’s exactly how Jennifer Jajeh feels. And to make matters worse, Jennifer is Palestinian. Well, Palestinian American. Or more precisely: a single, Catholic, first generation, Palestinian American woman who chooses to return to her parents’ hometown of Ramallah at the start of the Second Intifada.
In her tragicomic solo theatre show, I Heart Hamas: And Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You, Jennifer Jajeh is just trying to get back home, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. The guy sitting next to her in the taxi is smoking cigarettes, but won’t roll the window down because he doesn’t want to let the tear gas in. The 70 year old grandmother on her other side wants to know why her Arabic is so bad, why she doesn’t wax her arms, and why at the age of 28 she is not yet married. It’s 100 degrees outside, and she’s been in this taxi for 2 hours. Yet all she can focus on are the soldiers on the one side of the road shooting rubber bullets ‐‐ through traffic ‐‐ at the kids hurling stones and curses. Wait, why did she want to come to Palestine?
Sick and tired of the unsolicited discussions, debates and disagreements about her identity and her opinions about the Palestinian‐Israeli conflict, Jennifer tries to figure it out for herself. Join her on American and Palestinian soil on auditions, bad dates, and across military checkpoints as she navigates the thorny terrain around Palestinian identity. Weaving together humor, pop culture references and live theatre, Jajeh explores how she becomes Palestinian‐ized, then politicized and eventually radicalized in a fresh, often funny, searingly honest way.
I Heart Hamas:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/78327 or 800-838-3006
Walking on the Moon
Kosho
Sundays 9/20 through 10/11 @ 7:30pm - $10
Inspired by the economic events of the last year, "Walking on the Moon" explores the themes of Life, Death, the Economy and Shopping. It was recently performed at The Marsh as part of their Monday Night+ Series. In addition to the narrator, the piece features an Air Force officer, nursing home residents, an escort, a hedge fund manager, Karl Marx, Paris Hilton and Maria Bartiromo. Directed by Joya Cory.
Kosho is a filmmaker and performer living in SF (www.koshoart.com). Recent projects include the mocumentary "Andy Warhol goes to Burning Man", "Japanese Pop meets the Playa" and the NASA documentary "Inner-View - Yuri's Night" (available on youtube.) Kosho has taken improvisational theater with Joya Cory and scene study at ACT.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79656 or 800-838-3006
Insides OUT!
Katie Rubin
9/20 & 9/27 @ 6pm - $10
Insides OUT! is the emotionally charged and hilarious story of one young person’s journey from her high school and college years through her introduction to the working world. Abuse of alcohol, drugs, food, and sex, mark a journey into and ultimately out of self-loathing. The performance seeks to depict the lifelong struggle for integration of the many aspects of the self, and the continued voyage towards peace of mind.
The psychoanalyst Carl Jung suggests that the human psyche comprises many different archetypal characters. In this powerful performance, Ms. Rubin uses stand up comedy, poetry, song, improvisation, and monologue to tell the story of the conflict among seven particular archetypes in her psyche: The Inner Child (Baby Katie), The Hostage (Big Katie), The Romantic (Sylvia), The Judge (The Perfect Monster), The Trickster (Hank), The Artist (Poet), and The Wise Woman.
Katie Rubin is a graduate of Amherst College with a BA in Theater and Dance. She has studied acting at The Wynn Handman Studios at Carnegie Hall, and The Viewpoints and Suzuki Actor Training Techniques with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company in LA. She has studied classical, jazz, and musical theater vocal techniques for 15 years. Currently, Ms. Rubin received her MFA in Acting at UC Davis where she not only studies, but teaches basic Acting classes. Katie began her career as a comedic writer/performer at Amherst College with her first original piece, PartyBoobyTrap. She went on to create Avoiding Less Blue which was produced through Fringe Festival 2000 in New York City . Insides Out is her third original piece, and Ms. Rubin’s first One Woman Show.
Insides OUT!:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79540 or 800-838-3006
Ty Cobb – “The Greatest Player That Ever Played The Game”
Norm Coleman
9/27 & 10/4 at 4:30pm - $10
Spend an hour with TY COBB – “The Greatest Player That Ever Played The Game.” That is the name of the one-man show created, written and performed by long time resident of Half Moon Bay, Norm Coleman.
Who is Norm Coleman? Coleman has thrilled audiences in Lakeland, Florida, winter home of the Detroit Tigers who brought him there in March to entertain Tiger fans. He has also performed for the Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, Georgia and the President Gerald R. Ford
Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a show sponsored by the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY called “Born to Play Ball.”
In addition, he has performed his show that one critic said, “What Hal Holbrook was to Mark Twain, Coleman is to Ty Cobb.” Frank Winston, Pacifica Tribune. He has performed over 175 times in the Bay area.
One does not have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the show that has been called, “entertaining, humorous, historical and informative.”
“The story is well told, fascinating and enlightening. I can’t recommend Norm enough. He brings a refreshing take on stage work. A good story and storyteller is all you need.” George Mauro, Artistic Director, Pacifica Spindrift Players, Pacifica, CA.
Ty Cobb:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79547 or 800-838-3006
Several Solos
Al Gonzales, Mike Spiegelman, and Ira Brightman
9/27 @ 2pm -$7
Professional comedian Ira Brightman is launching a solo showcase, comprised of several advanced performers. It will build to become a continuing series of such solo theater shows.
The first show is Sunday, September 27, 2-3:30 pm at Off-Market Theaters, 965 Mission St, San Francisco. Tickets are $7.
In the initial showcase on September 27, three professional comedians will do theatrical solo performances. Al Gonzales (Cobb’s, Big City Improv) will present “Man Made Disaster” – a third generation latino tries to keep his roots grounded as he grows up in a black and white world. Mike Spiegelman (Punchline, SF Fringefest), will perform “Salad Jokes Live.” Cucumbers, lettuce, no salad is spared. Also offered are guaranteed losing lottery strategies. Ira Brightman (Hotel Pleasanton, The Marsh Theater) will do the life-extension portion of his show, “God, Hitler, and Life-Extension.” Included are a talking fetus and a way to end death.
"Kudos to Big Al Gonzales..." - Goldstar
About Mike Spiegelman -- “Impeccable timing and goofy self-deprecation.” – SF Weekly
Several Solos:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79545 or 800-838-3006
