Stephanie Weisman – Founder and Artistic/Executive Director
Stephanie A. Weisman founded and has been the Artistic/Executive Director of The Marsh since its inception in 1989. Under her leadership, The Marsh has grown from a one-night-a-week performance series to producing 600-700 shows annually on its four stages. In addition to its developing work performance series, The Marsh’s programs include: artist-in-residencies, after-school workshops for at-risk youth, and performance development classes and workshops. In 1996 Stephanie spearheaded the drive to successfully buy their 12,000 sq ft facility on Valencia Street in San Francisco. This increased The Marsh’s programs four-fold as well as provided for a stable Bay Area arts organization. In 2010, The Marsh added a second venue in Berkeley. Her most current development is MarshStream, The Marsh’s performance broadcast platform.
For her work at The Marsh, Stephanie has received the Meritorious Achievement Award from Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Circle and was named A Local Hero by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The plays she has produced have since been produced in theaters both nationally and internationally and have received numerous awards including: more than a dozen Critics Circle and Dramalog Awards; three of the prestigious Will Glickman Playwright Awards (Dan Hoyle’s “Tings Dey Happen,” Charlie Varon’s “Rush Limbaugh in Night School,” and Brian Freeman’s “Civil Sex”) as well as the National Theater Critics Emerging Playwright Award.
In addition to her work as Artistic Director of The Marsh, Stephanie has served as Associate Producer for the movie HAIKU TUNNEL by Josh and Jake Kornbluth, distributed by Sony Classic Pictures; she has curated the Cleveland Performance Festival and the Berkeley Arts Center’s Performance Series. She is a past board member of the Will Glickman Playwright Award and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce’s Business Arts Council.
Stephanie has a BA in Psychology and a MA in English in Creative Writing from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Under the mentorship of Robert Creeley, she edited the arts journal, The Black Mountain II Review for three years and developed and taught a class, Small Press Publishing. Her journalism, prose and poetry have been published nationally and she was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for her poetry performance piece, DANCEMASTERS. More recently she developed and composed an opera APHRODISIA with Ellen Hoffman for a 20-women chorus, 4-piece chamber ensemble, solo performer and dancer, which has since been made into a film by Wei Wang (SF Ballet) and herself. Stephanie also developed a solo performance musical, BREED & RESCUE, about breeding and rescuing dogs and children. She is currently working on a new performance, 180 DAYS, about the end-of-life assisted suicide option.
Weisman lives in Oakland and part-time in the Trinity Alps, in the house she built with her husband, Richard DiLeo, and their American Bulldogs, Junior, Marsha, and the beloved Trinity.
Kevin A. Madden – General Manager
Kevin A. Madden has lived in San Francisco for twenty-three years, and came to town to work in arts administration, shortly after completing his master’s degree in education, with his thesis on growing audiences for the arts. He comes from at least four generations of accomplished amateur and professional performers on both sides of his family, and is himself a working entertainer of many years. Over his career, he has earned a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship, and his work in education merited an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. He calls himself an “institutionalist,” and strongly feels that The Marsh needs to become a well-supported and highly-valued crown jewel of the SF Bay Area arts community.
Rebecca Cervantes – Instructor / MYT Director
Rebecca Cervantes has a B.A. in Politics and that is why she is working in the Arts. She has been working at The Marsh in different ways since 2001. She started as a Dance Teacher, became the Community Liaison and is now the Director of The Marsh Youth Theater (MYT). She is a longtime Mission district community member and has brought many students and families to The Marsh over the years. She loves helping students and families participate in Carnaval, Sunday Streets, and other community events throughout San Francisco. She has choreographed and coordinated many student showcases and special Dia de Los Muertos shows at The Marsh.
She is also the Director of Moving Beyond Productions (MBP), an arts organization dedicated to providing cross cultural arts education and empowering youth. Moving Beyond Productions’ Carnaval contingent has won multiple awards in the Children & Youth category.
Wayne Harris – Instructor / Outreach Coordinator
Wayne Harris is an award winning solo performer, writer, educator, curriculum innovator and musician. A gifted artist with wide ranging interests, he has accumulated an impressive body of work over the years that includes 5 full length plays, presentations for schools, directing and designing for pageantry groups as well as various musical projects.
Wayne was the Director of the Marsh Youth Theater in San Francisco, CA and a Resident Teaching Artist for StageBridge (An intergenerational theater) in Oakland, CA. Wayne has been involved with some of the country’s finest pageantry groups. He is the current Performance Coach for the World Champion Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps and the 2018 WGI Champions Paramount Winter Guard.
Wayne is a consultant to the Bluecoats and Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, as well as with many other world class pageantry groups throughout the nation. In addition, Wayne adjudicates various pageantry events on the Westcoast and currently offers performance workshops to all types of youth performing groups.
Bob Geleta – Finance Director
Bob Geleta, MBA, brings over thirty years of professional experience in financial systems and operations, for public accounting, government, private industry and nonprofit organizations.
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
STEPHANIE WEISMAN – Founder & Artistic/Executive Director
KEVIN A. MADDEN – General Manager
REBECCA CERVANTES – Instructor / MYT Director
WAYNE HARRIS – Instructor / Outreach Coordinator
BOB GELETA – Finance Director
LESLEY EVENSEN – Master Website Administrator
ALEXA ALMIRA – Volunteer Coordinator, Website Administrator
VICKI WONG – Social Media Manager
KAITLIN WEINSTEIN – Producing Manager
SHARON EBERHARDT – Newsletter Editor
CARLA BEFERA & CO – Publicist
BRIAUNNA CAVER – Administrative Assistant, MarshStream Producer
BLAKE RADIANT – Technical Director
LANCE McGEE – Facilities
PROGRAM DIRECTORS
ALEXA ALMIRA – Monday Night Marsh
REBECCA FISHER & BRIDGET FREDERICK – Tell it On Tuesday
REBECCA CERVANTES – Marsh Youth Theater
TECHNICAL STAFF
BLAKE RADIANT – Technical Director
ALEXA ALMIRA
BRADLEY MARKWICK-COE
KARL GOMEZ
ROBERT PEREZ
HOUSE MANAGERS
ARNIE WARSHAW
ELIZABETH DU VAL
KAITLIN WEINSTEIN
KAREN RIPLEY
LORI GLUMAC
SHARON EBERHARDT
ROBERT PEREZ
BARTENDERS
KAREN RIPLEY
ROBERT PEREZ
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
DAVID FORD – Director/Playwright
CHARLIE VARON – Performer/Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Fuchs
Carole Klyce
Sophie O’Shaughnessy
Stephanie Weisman
FOUNDATION/FUNDERS
Arts Recovery Grant Berkeley
Berkeley Civic Arts
California Arts Council
Fidelity Foundation
First Unitarian Universalist Church
Fleishhacker Foundation
Grants for the Arts
Meyer Sound
San Francisco Arts Commission
San Francisco Foundation
San Francisco Department of Children Youth & Their Families
Shuttered Venue Organization Grant
Zellerbach Family Foundation
Vanguard Foundation
Woodlawn Foundation
Zitrin Foundation
ADVISORS
Philip Armour
Kristen Bouvier
Mary Anne Cook
Eric Eislund
Ana Linder
Margie O’Driscoll