Upcoming MNM 2025 Performances

September 8 & 22

BETH MCLAUGHLIN
Silenced

Show Description: They say – well, I read it somewhere – that if you want to get the absolute truth, the moral, ethical truth about any situation, or perhaps just an honest opinion on your new hair cut, the person to ask for both these things is a 10 year-old girl. I remember being that girl. But I don’t remember when it was that I began to lie.

Artist Biography: Beth McLaughlin is a San Francisco-based writer and performer whose work has been seen at the Frigid, Rogue, Boulder, Vancouver, and San Francisco Fringe Festivals, as well as locally at StageWerx, Monday Night Marsh, and Tell It On Tuesdays. Her full-length solo pieces are Here to See the World, The Readiness is All and Cocky, and she has written several shorter pieces, including Thirty-Four Steps and Not Everything is Going to Be Fixed. She is currently working on Silenced, as a full-length piece.

ROBERT PINA
Ticket to Ride

Show Description: A tour guide takes audience members on an imaginary bus trip to an undisclosed location. Before they arrive, they discover something about their fellow travelers along the way. One character is a dispassionate retiree who faces a flight from reality at the end of his life with the law in hot pursuit. Another character is a defiant Mexican immigrant determined to forge a better life for himself in America. Although all believe they are in flight to a better place, nothing is more astonishing in Ticket to Ride than how each passenger ends his wayward journey into the unknown.

Artist Biography: After a brief hiatus from solo performance to study and teach in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University, Robert returns to solo performance to experiment with multi-character themes that illuminate the human condition. Robert has performed in The Marsh’s New Voices Series, Monday Night Marsh and Rebecca Fisher & Bridget Frederick’s Tell it On Tuesday series. Robert studied Solo Performance with Charlie Varon, Acting with Jean Shelton at the Jean Shelton Actors’ Lab, Standup Comedy with Chris Matthews and with Eddie Brill, Coordinator for Stand-Up Comedians, Late Night With David Letterman.

KARIN BABBITT
You Can’t Laugh at This

Show Description: Karin Babbitt tells jokes about being a Second Generation Auschwitz Survivor. A former finalist in the San Francisco Comedy Competition and a Legend from The Comedy Store’s Golden Age, Karin finally spills the beans about what was funny about surviving her heritage. Her mother would have made her eat those beans. Even if they were burned. Because she (her mother) would have murdered for those beans in Auschwitz. In fact, she may have (again, her mother).

Artist Biography: Karin Babbitt is a Comedy Store Legend. All through the 80’s, Karin performed nightly as a regular at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, one of the 10% of females in a roster of over 200 male comics. She was featured on TV shows of the time such as the MTV Comedy Half Hour, Vh-1 Stand Up Spotlight and many others. She toured America, headlining comedy shows and opening for rock stars.

 Karin relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988. In 1990, she became a finalist in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition out of a field of hundreds (mostly male) and became a staple of Bay Area radio show Live 105 with Alex Bennet.

Wanting to make a difference, she then taught high school and college, and managed a vocational film studio which trained adults with developmental disabilities.  Covid brought her to reclaim her passion for stand up. She works as an instructor with the San Francisco Comedy College, and headlines clubs all over.

Also, she is #notinacult online.

September 15 & 29

MARY ANN BIEWENER
The Hardest College in the World

Show Description: 49 years ago Mary Ann got accepted to the hardest college in the world for a Woman to get into…Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Clown College. Relive her journey through the 10-week Clown Bootcamp, alongside  Elephants, Tigers and Chimpanzees, her head-spinning Japan Tour, and her ultimate career-defining moment.

Artist Biography: Mary Ann began performing solo pieces 30 years ago at “Monday Night Marsh” as a student of Charlie Varon’s class. Moving to Los Angeles, she graduated from The Second City Sketch Writing program. She’s  a Two-time Award-Winning Horror Film Actress. She’s recently started writing and performing Stand-up with Cool Beans Comedy – “Real People-Real Stories-Real Funny” at The Ice House in Pasadena. HeyMaryAnn.com

SANJIT SENGUPTA
Dance with Me 

A Collaboration between playwright Sanjit Sengupta & director Ben Chau-Chiu

Show Description: Dance With Me is a story about helping others in need. When Clara and Vijay meet under difficult circumstances, we see that radical acts of kindness can transform lives despite differences in age, personality, and background.

Artist Biographies:
Sanjit Sengupta’s plays involve contemporary and historical social themes. Global Alligator received third place in the Roxanne and Gretchen Rix One-Act Play Contest of the Gaslight Baker Theatre, 2025. Sanjit’s full-length script, Turbulence, received a Theatre Bay Area grant for a staged reading in December 2024. Academic Advice, a 10-minute play, was presented at Playwright’s Center of San Francisco’s Short Play Festival in July 2024. This Grass is Greener, a 10-minute comedy, was in the Serial Bowl Competition of the Midnight Sun Theatre in October 2024 in Anchorage, Alaska. The Promise, a one-act play, will have a staged reading at the Valdez Theatre Conference in June 2025. Sanjit is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, New Play Exchange, Pear Theatre Playwrights Guild, Theatre Bay Area, and The Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. He serves as a Board Member at Play Café, Berkeley. For fun, he tags newspaper clippings for future story ideas.

Ben Chau-Chiu is a director and actor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are an ambassador and company member with PlayGround-SF. Past credits include Two Sisters and a Piano (Teatro de las Tías); Lucky Chances (PlayGround-SF Solo Fest); A Whynot Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol, Poor Yella Rednecks, The Headlands (A.C.T.); As You Like It, A Winter’s Tale, and Good Person of Szechwan (Cal Shakes); My Home on the Moon (S.F. Playhouse); Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing (S.F. Shakes); Yellow Face (Shotgun Players); and numerous shows at Playground-SF/NY.

SEA EASY
Golden Prospects

Show Description: Sea Easy’s piece is about life’s experience.

Artist Biography: Sea easy is the name and sailing smoothly is life’s aim.I think nature is remarkable it’s the closest thing to actually seeing God on a daily basis. I find it to be healing from some many views points.Sraring out your window into a field of trees.Are sailing the seas rocking with the waves .Smelling the water enjoying the advantage of the  relaxation this experience can bring.Im sea easy come join me tonight and let’s sail the seas together..

SURAYA KEATING
The Language of Blood

Show Description: Join Suraya for a raw, heartfelt and hilarious journey through perimenopause and menopause, and what it means to pass through this sacred and often overlooked portal. The “Language of Blood” touches on many taboo topics as Suraya explores her experience growing up in a family and culture that demanded that she hide her moon blood as well as her true self, the gift of health crises, and the powerful rite of passage that menopause can be when one fully embraces it.

Artist Biography: Suraya Keating, actress, Registered Drama Therapist and Founder of Soul Story Theater, delights in coaching others to be wildly self-expressed by crafting life stories into performance art. Suraya has worked with Marin Shakespeare since 2005 directing Shakespeare and original life-story inspired theater performances with people who are incarcerated. Suraya co-founded Marin Shakespeare’s Returned Citizens’ Theater Troupe, which invites artists who have been formerly incarcerated to express their voices through theater. A playback artist, actress, theater director, nature junkie, and mystic for many years, she recently directed the show, “So This is Menopause,” which is now on tour. www.soulstorytheater.com

October 6 & 20

AIMEE PAVY
Midnight Tales

Show Description: A Grand Guignol-inspired horror anthology, this collection of modern fairy tales is narrated by a mysterious storyteller who can only speak during the witching hour—midnight to one a.m. Horror is a thrilling playground for both story and stagecraft: rooted in reality, but laced with the supernatural and a touch of dark fantasy.

Artist Biography: Aimee Pavy dabbled with prose writing before finding inspiration in old-time radio, which led to the creation of the audio drama Twelve Chimes It’s Midnight. The stories in Midnight Tales grew from ideas that were too visually rich for audio alone—stories that begged to be seen as well as heard. Shifting from an unseen, audio-only audience to the immediacy of live theater opens up exciting new possibilities for storytelling and stagecraft.

ANDREA MOCK
Santa Cruising

Show Description: SANTA CRUISING is a comedic look at my life and hard times in the Artistic Industrial Complex, Art School version.  At twenty I felt fifty, the oldest I would ever feel. Worn out from adulting, I quit my position as a so-called “counselor” at Juvenile Hall in Tulare County, where my job was to keep the kids from killing me, killing each other, or killing themselves. As a teen, I made a metric ton of high-larious modern dances in my PE classes to avoid sports and exercise. With no dance training whatsoever, I escape the Central Valley for the bright lights and big city of Santa Cruz to study with the renowned modern dance goddess Tandy Beal.

Artist Biography: Born and bred in the farming community of Porterville, CA, Mock received four creative grants from the Flora and William Hewlett and Zellerbach Foundations. As playwright-in-residence from 1996 to 2002 at the Speakeasy Theater, Mock had five plays produced: SURVIVAL OF THE WEIRDEST, FIRST TIME, BRAIN_IN_A_BOX, JANE AUSTEN IN BERKELEY, and AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT. In 2015, funded by a grant from ODC SF, she crafted two dances using script-writing techniques. The resulting pieces won ODC San Francisco’s “Take 5” choreography competition. “Call Me Ishwhale,” became the finale of her fifth play, THE MOBY DICK DIARIES shown at the Marsh, Exit Theater, and The Garage SF.  Another solo show, RIVER RAT CLUB, was performed  at Berkeley’s Waterfront Playhouse. Mock’s sixth solo show, THE AGED OF AQUARIUS, was performed at the 2023 SF Fringe Festival and the Monkey House in Berkeley as a fundraiser for Flip the Vote during the run-up to the election.

TIMOTHY FLANAGAN
Waiting Lists

Show Description: A piece about waiting and impatience. A piece about words and lists and lists of words about waiting and impatience. It’s about waiting lists. And memory. And being alive.

Artist Biography: This is Timothy’s second appearance at Monday Night Marsh; he presented his piece,”Werner Herzog Said That” in January, 2025. Timothy was an active player in local theater here in the Bay Area throughout the 1980s and 90s, appearing in productions at Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and Marin Shakespeare Company where he played Macduff in their production of ‘Macbeth.” He starred as Max in Theatre Rhinoceroses acclaimed production of “Bent” in the mid 90s and has had major roles in shows at The Magic Theater, The Aurora Theater and The Z Collective. He toured to Washington DC in “More Than Names,” a story of the making of the AIDs Memorial Quilt. After an extended hiatus from theater he returned to the stage in 2023, acting in a production of “Reciprocating Pumps”  by Dirk Alphin, here at the Marsh. In 2024 he returned to The Marsh to play Gramps in Dirk Alphin’s play, “Axis.”

October 27
MNM Special One-Off!

EMIL GUILLERMO
Emil Amok: Headlines

Show Description: Emil, an award-winning journalist tells stories about how journalism impacted his life, from the time as a young boy he delivered newspapers, to his career in radio, TV, and newspaper, and how as he has aged journalism seems to be dying faster than he is. It’s Emil’s funny take on the state of journalism, the news, and our country.

Artist Biography: Emil Amok Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and storyteller who first developed his Amok Monologues at the Marsh with Dave Ford, Charlie Varon, and Mark Kenward, before performing at more than a dozen fringe festivals around the country.  He has studied with Mike Daisey and  Seth Barrish.

November 3 & 17

JOHN GALLOWAY
Divergent

Show Description: “Divergent” reveals John’s personal experiences of “neurodivergence,” -and specifically with ADHD, his mixed-bag attempts to seek formal diagnosis, frustrations with self-advocacy, and the fortunate discovery of transformative strategies to manage life day-to-day. The story unfolds with humorous vignettes along the way, including an emotionally-charged interaction with Jane Fonda.

Artist Biography: John Galloway is a proudly neurodivergent creative and comic living in Oakland. He previously performed at Monday Night Marsh a short eon ago (2017) with a piece titled “Alternative Acts,” a surreal exploration and questioning of how he and the broader society were dealing with the insane (but moderately sane compared with today’s standard) American political situation. By day, John consults and advises with companies on their climate, energy, and sustainability programs. He loves to support and mentor students and career professionals shifting into work on climate change. He resonates strongly with a quote from musician Merl Saunders, who said, “Save the Earth so we have some place to boogie!” So, by night, John enjoys live music and dancing, especially to shake off the nonsense and lighten the gravity of the growing strife and conflict in the world.

MARY GOING
My life as a Serial Killer

Show Description: “My Life as a Serial Killer” is a bold and unflinching solo performance by Mary Going that explores the complexities of anger – particularly the kind we’re taught to suppress. With dark humor, raw vulnerability, and sharp storytelling, Mary unpacks the ways rage has shaped her life, relationships, and identity. Part confession, part reckoning, part liberation, this piece invites audiences to reconsider what it means to feel – and to fear – anger. It’s also a little bit funny.

Artist Biography: Mary Going is a queer activist, nonprofit finance nerd, and Bay Area transplant from South Carolina. She’s also a mom of two daughters, one dog, and one aloof cat. Most of her time is spent running Bicycle Accounting, the company she founded to help social justice nonprofits use their financial information more effectively.

Performance isn’t Mary’s main gig – it’s something she turns to when a piece of truth gets too loud to ignore. She’s performed just a couple of solo pieces, each one rooted in personal experience and shaped by a need to express what couldn’t be said any other way. Mary doesn’t come from a theater background; she comes from staff meetings, protests, and the chaos of real life. Her pieces are raw, direct, and sometimes funny.

HEIDI LECHNER
Bipolar-ish: A Journey of Awakening
(with a Prescription on the Side)

Show Description: A one-woman comedy about waking up—spiritually, emotionally, and sometimes at 3 a.m. in a full-blown epiphany. Heidi Lynn Lechner brings bold humor, honest storytelling, and a hint of song to her story of navigating life with bipolar disorder. It’s a celebration of the human spirit, the awkwardness of enlightenment, and the mystical mayhem of healing—without losing your sense of humor or your soul.

Artist Biography: Heidi Lynn Lechner is a Bay Area performer, writer, and spiritual comedian whose work blends mental health truth-telling with humor, heart, and song. A veteran of musical theater and a lifelong seeker, her stories celebrate the messy, magical, and mildly medicated journey of being human.

November 10 & 24

DeWAYNE SPALDING
She Hath Done What She Could

Show Description: She Hath Done What She Could recounts the story of sixteen-year-old Steven Foster as he searches for connection, identity, and belonging on one cold Kentucky evening in the fall of 1977. Set against funky country rhythm and blues, church devotionals, and the warm glow of a legendary local bar, this play is a dance of memory and resilience for one boy caught in the middle of the middle of nowhere.

Artist Biography: DeWayne Spalding, a Kentucky native, has lived in San Francisco since 1999. He spends his days with seven- and eight-year-olds as a second-grade teacher at Claire Lilienthal Elementary in San Francisco. Prior to becoming a teacher, DeWayne worked for over a decade in marketing and communications for professional services firms. Before moving to San Francisco, DeWayne was an actor and director at Actors’ Guild of Lexington and Lexington Children’s Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky. He also was a features writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader, where he received the Best Column award from the Kentucky Press Association.

BRUCE GROSSE
How to Build a Nuclear Poser Plant

Show Description: With reports of nuclear power resurgence in the news to supply power to support IA I will share my some experiences in nuclear power plant engineering.  You won’t learn anything about how to build your own nuclear power plant but I will hear something about the experience in nuclear engineering management.

Artist Biography: I have been doing storytelling for about 9 years and have had about 20 public performances both as part of storytelling workshops and independently/self produced.   My stories are generally about my experiences in life and what. I have  learned from them.  I had 15 years experience in engineering for the commercial nuclear power industry. My stories  combine humor and pathos that I believe will resonate with the audience.

BENNET CAFFEE
It Must Have Been the Shampoo

Show Description: Bennet wants the ultimate acid trip, the one where you see god, but he spilled shampoo all over his acid so he takes three hits just to be sure. Nothing happens so he takes two more and – oh wow!

Artist Biography: Bennet Caffee’s performances are about his experiences with bipolar disorder. He’s done other material, but “this stuff is gold.” He performed his first show ‘My First Miracle adventures in biploar disorder” at Fringe Festivals around the US and Canada. Currently he has toured his latest show “Orange you glad to be in Miami?” at the Oregon, San Diego, Fresno, Orlando and Tampa Fringe Festivals.

December 1 & 8

ROB MARKS
How to Find Your Voice

Show Description: Can wonder and horror travel together? Can the pair transform a person, namely Rob Marks? Hook a ride on BART from Powell Street to 24th Street, from a singing class to a revelation, with stops along the way at adult assault, childhood trauma, family history, embodiment, and the wonder of survival. Warning: contains singing, dancing, tumbling, and jest.

Artist Biography: Rob Marks is a writer, and now performer. For many years, he wrote about HIV- and LGBTQ-related mental health, and more recently, about art, aesthetic philosophy, and culture. Over the past three years, after a series of personal crises and revelations, he has written creative non-fiction and is completing a memoir/philosophical treatise whose working title is Survival Skills: The Autobiography of !. He has adapted Survival Skills chapters as published essays, and now, with “How to find your voice,” as a performance. In addition to writing degrees, Rob has trained in contact improvisation dance, voice, and recently, solo performance.

GERRY COURTNEY
No More Teachers’ Dirty Looks
AND
How Bogue Can You Go?

No More Teachers’ Dirty Looks (December 1)

Show Description: I hated teachers. From 1st grade until 7th grade teachers physically abused me, in my case they were nuns. The rest of the years I was physically bored by my teachers. In short, I hated school. At the beginning of my last semester of college, I was hit by a tsunami of debts and bills. There was a way out; all I had to do was interview for a teaching job in the most violent high school in Detroit and join the profession I despised.

How Bogue Can You Go? (December 8)

Show Description: Here’s the situation. I’m 21 years old. I just got hired to teach English in a school with 5000 students and a staff of 200. I had a hybrid class that included special Ed 9th graders, seniors short on credits and others who were alienated from schools. The Principal’s dictum was for the teachers to address each student’s individual interests as well as have the students meet the state’s standards. The Principal’s plan seemed crazy on its face, but I didn’t know for sure since this was my first day as a teacher.

Artist Biography: I love telling stories and I love the Marsh for giving me a space to do that.

JEREMY GRECO
Rebel Without a Clue — Part 2

Show Description: “Rebel Without a Clue – Part 2” follows Jeremy’s journey from his hometown of Santa Cruz to the unpredictable world of acting. Inspired by James Dean and fueled by his grandmother’s belief that he’s Dean reincarnated, Jeremy’s story begins in the quirky coastal town where he forms a friendship with a young Adam Scott. Together, they chase their dreams at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena. Along the way, Jeremy encounters the highs and lows of ambition, friendship, eccentric mentors, and Hollywood’s challenges — all leading to one question: what could possibly go wrong when you think you’re James Dean reincarnated?

Artist Biography: Jeremy Julian Greco has written the solo shows, “With Held,” “Keeping Up With the Jorgensons” and “The Big Snap,”  all directed by Mark Kenward.  Jeremy’s solo shows have played at various venues and festivals throughout the Bay Area and the United States,  Jeremy also produces the Monthly Solo Salon, Sunset Solos at Sea Level Gallery located in the Outer Sunset.  “Whoa” is his most recent solo show.  www.jeremygreco.com, www.sunsetsolos.com

December 15
MNM Special One-Off!

EMIL GUILLERMO
Emil Amok: Christmas!

Show Description: coming soon.

Artist Biography: Emil Amok Guillermo is an award-winning journalist and storyteller who first developed his Amok Monologues at the Marsh with Dave Ford, Charlie Varon, and Mark Kenward, before performing at more than a dozen fringe festivals around the country.  He has studied with Mike Daisey and  Seth Barrish.

December 22 & 29

HERBERT MINTZ II
My Phone Call with my Uncle Sam

Show Description: This show consists of a short phone call with a recognizable national emblem of military power and authority, My Uncle Sam. Herbert’s phone call is the result of the accidental discovery of a still functioning piece of classified military hardware developed during the Cold War in his Dad’s garage after his death.

Artist Biography: I studied avant-garde film, video, photography and performance in the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. I performed original works in New York City, Madison, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minnesota while trying to secure a sustainable income. Slowly, I moved away from those artistic efforts and worked in community media, corporate media and for the Public Broadcasting Service. At this time, I have the motivation and resources to write and to perform original personal artistic pieces as well as a desire to share those artistic pieces with a larger community.

EILEEN TULL
Untitled Fat Joy Project

Show Description: This is a work in progress piece inspired by the work of Anna Deavere Smith and documentary theatre, as well as monologue plays like The Vagina Monologues. For the past six months, I have been collecting data and interviewing individuals about the concept of Fat Joy. I am a fat performer, and I create a lot of work that speaks to fatness and moving through the world in a fat body. But those stories are usually more about the oppression or the prejudice. And I want to explore the stories of joy and softness in relation to fatness. I have a lot of material and data, and I am in the midst of sifting through it to create the performance piece.

Artist Biography: Eileen Tull is a theatremaker, poet, educator, and one-woman-show person. Her work has been seen in bookstores, art galleries, bars, non-traditional spaces, and sometimes in theaters. She has performed throughout the country, and her solo shows include Too Fat To Run (Elgin Fringe, Fillet of Solo, Inverse Performance Art Festival); Bad Dates, Or… (Abbie Fest, Dallas Solo Festival); Mommy, Give Me Pills (Yippie Fest, Women’s Theatre Festival); I’m Not Making Good Art Anymore (Rhino Fest); and Jesus, Do You Like Me? Please Mark Yes or No (San Francisco Fringe, Cincy Fringe, United Solo). She is a drama instructor with the Chicago Park District, where she has taught solo performance classes since 2017. Through the parks, Eileen has developed and supported solo projects including Mrs. Lincoln, The Curator Presents, and The Importance of Being Cosy. Eileen founded Fat Theatre Project in 2024 where she teaches, produces, writes, and directs.. She is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago and is currently working towards an MFA in Directing/Playwriting at Randolph College. www.eileentull.com

RonDon
White Bird Must Fly

Show Description: Come watch a flower child turned to seed whirl like a dervish singing catches of songs to rewind the clock and let the age of Aquarius begin again…

Artist Biography: I’m a self taught artist. My major work is in ink pen&brush with full page paintings and poetry. It’s an illuminated manuscript/faerie tale about how peace comes to a troubled planet. While working on it I found myself dancing.

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