The Marsh Festival of New Musical Voices 2021
The Hummingbird
Sept 30 at 7:30pm | Oct 3 at 2pm
Oct 9 at 2pm
The Marsh Berkeley
Written and Performed
by Kathryn Keats
David Ford – Director & Development
Tina D’Elia – Acting Coach
Kathryn Keats – Music, Lyrics and Book
Kevin Gerzevitz – Music and Music Producer
Aram Avagyan’s “Just Once” – written with Kathryn Keats
About the Show
Performance Artist, singer and songwriter Kathryn Keats put her professional life on the back-burner for 20 years, changing her name and going into hiding from a former partner who threatened her life.
Now, Keats has turned a harrowing experience into a positive message of hope with her solo beat musical, “The Hummingbird”. “This show is a high-wire musical ride; a true story of love, loss, music, madness, forgiveness and redemption,” Keats said. “It’s for any adult person who has struggled with the seemingly insurmountable climb back to life after losing everything they thought they were and ever wanted.”
About the Performer
Kathryn Keats began developing The Hummingbird as a multicast show at Berkeley Repertory’s The Ground Floor and discovered David Ford while listening to him being interviewed on KPFA in her car driving home one day. She immediately called The Marsh. The Hummingbird became a solo beat Musical under David Fords tutelage and direction. Grammy Emmy Award winning producer, Narada Michael Walden, producer/co-writer, Count On Me, “Kat is bringing the message of hope, light, love and faith to people’s lives,” Walden says. She earned a Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance in the original stage version of Curse of the Werewolf, directed by the great Albert Takazauckas. As a child her favorite role was Josie Cohan in George M! As a young adult she did one thousand performances of an off-broadway show.
About the Team
David Ford has been collaborating on new and unusual theatre for three decades and has been associated with The Marsh for most of that time. The San Francisco press has variously called him the solo performer maven, the monologue maestro, and the dean of solo performance. Recent work includes Echo Brown’s long-running “Black Girls Are Not For Hipsters,” “Charlie Varon’s extraordinary collaboration with cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, “Second Time Around,” Geoff Hoyle’s “Lear’s Shadow and Geezer,” and all of Brian Copeland’s solo shows, including the longest-running solo show in the Bay Area, “Not A Genuine Black Man.”
Kevin Gerzevitz is a professional musician, composer and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He frequently performs as jazz organist with B3B4 Organ Jazz Quartet and as a pianist and bandleader with The KG Trio. In his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gerzevitz attended the University of Michigan School of Music, focusing on piano performance, jazz studies, improvisation, and composition, while majoring in Music Theory and German. Upon earning his BMA in 1990, he relocated to the SF Bay Area where he works as a freelance pianist, composer and teacher. He attended Mills College from 2003 to 2005 to innovate his approach to teaching music, earning certifications in Levels I, II, and III as an Orff Schulwerk instructor. Since 2008, he has worked as the Music & Movement Specialist at Pacific Primary Orange Sun School in San Francisco. Gerzevitz has scored several independent films and has produced music for advertising, web, multimedia and theater.
Michael Manring is a true visionary and an inimitable stylist who is considered by many to be the world’s leading solo bassist. He has also played with Michael Hedges, Suzanne Ciani, Henry Kaiser and John Gorka. Hailed by many as the world’s leading solo bassist, Michael Manring has been pushing back the boundaries of what’s possible on the bass guitar for over two decades. While his technical skill and innovations always make an impression, it’s his ability to communicate on a profound emotional level that most touches listeners.
Aram Avagyan a composer, arranger and pianist with a style that ranges from contemporary pop to soul and R&B to music for film, has been composing original works since the age of 11 in his homeland of Armenia. He attended the renowned Armenian Jazz College and four years later was invited to attend the Armenia State Musical Theatre. Additional accolades for Aram include being awarded the coveted Anoush Award in Los Angeles, California for the Best Song of the Year, having numerous international artists perform his songs and having famed singer Lianna attended the International Music Contest in Bulgaria performing Aram’s song “Ari Ari” which won the Grand Prix Title.
Show Info
Tickets: $20 – $35 General Seating sliding scale
$50 & $100 Reserved Seating
Festival Pass $50
September 30, October 3 & 9, 2021 | The Marsh Berkeley
Thursday at 7:30pm – Saturday at 2:00pm – Sunday at 2:00pm
60 minutes | Ages 18+
For more information on the sliding scale ticketing policy, late seating and reserved seating please click here.
Health, Safety and COVID-19 Information
Our commitment to our patrons
Proof of vaccination along with valid ID
Face Coverings are required