In Front of Your Eyes Festival
Short Performances & Opening Pieces
BETSY MURPHY
Do You Need a Bag?
Opening for Marga Gomez
Saturday, August 10 at 5:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Tina D’Elia
Sunday, August 11 at 1pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: “Do You Need A Bag” is a poignant story of grief, grace, and glimmers of the afterlife when a mother sets out to collect her 27-year-old son’s ashes after his death from a fentanyl-laced drug. In 2022, over 200 people a day in the U.S. died from fentanyl. One was Betsy Murphy’s son, Charlie.
Artist Biography: Betsy Murphy is a writer and performer who brings healing, humor, hope, and humanity into her stories. She invites you into the challenging moments of being human so you can find the place of connection and compassion for yourself and others. You can find out more about her books, films, workshops, retreats, and solo shows at betsybmurphy.com
KAREN RIPLEY
Online Funeral
Opening for Marga Gomez
Sunday, August 4 at 4pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Ananda Bena-Weber
Sunday, August 11 at 7pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: Trudy is dying and heads towards the light. Oh great she misses the light!! Where will she end up?
Artist Biography: Karen Ripley has been performing for over 45 years as a comic and improviser. She came on to the gay comedy scene in 1977 in San Francisco. From the cover of the East Bay Express (Berkeley, Ca) with Whoopi Goldberg to Ms. Magazines top 100 Lesbian Comic 2009. 2005 SF Fringe Best Musical Comedy with Annie Larson in the original play “Show Me where it Hurts,” and 2006 Diva Fest. with “waiting for FEMA.” Ripley has traveled all over the USA and the Caribbean. Featured in Logo’s Wisecracks episode 2. And from coast to coast making the LGBT community laugh. Ripley’s original show “Oh no there’s men on the land,” received Theatre Eddys Top 5 Solo Shows in 2015, San Francisco Bay Area.
JOAN BERNIER
The Captain (Excerpt)
Opening for Pearl Ong
Thursday, August 1 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Laura Jane Bailey
Sunday, August 4 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Show Description: This excerpt from the play, The Captain explores lineage, what is passed down and how we navigate in a starless sky. A Captain is confronted with the dangerous effects of colonization on the deck of his ship, The Arctic. Inspired by the final voyages of Captain Joseph Elzéar Bernier (1852-1934). Written in collaboration with David Ford. Directed by Rebecca Fisher. Performance Coaching by Tina D’Elia.
Artist Biography: Joan is a theater maker who has performed with Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players and beyond. She is grateful to David Ford for his exquisite mind & rare story sculpting. For more info on Joan: Snake&RodTheatre.org.
THERESA DONAHOE
Born Again in Berkeley
Opening for Kathryn Seabron
Saturday, August 3 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Opening for Elizabeth Du Val
Sunday, August 11 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Show Description: Theresa has a secret. In the San Francisco Bay Area where people are flinging open their closet doors, she’s not sure she’ll be accepted. Help Theresa come out……as a Christian.
Artist Biography: Theresa Donahoe is an actor who mainly performed theater in her youth. Deciding to take a break from theater, she started working in movies (such as SCREAM and RENT) while working in television and movie casting for many years as well. After a 17-year hiatus, she returned to the stage and decided to merge her love for writing with her love for acting. Once she discovered the art form of solo performance, she created and debuted her first solo show, “Late Bloomer” at the 2017 Rogue Fringe Festival in Fresno, California. “Born Again in Berkeley”, her second solo show, made its world premiere at the 2022 Rogue Fringe Festival and is now playing at various Bay Area venues.
STACEY WINN
Terroir (Excerpt)
Opening for Elizabeth Du Val
Saturday, August 3 at 1pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Opening for Laura Jane Bailey
Saturday, August 10 at 1pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Show Description: It’s hard to make friends when you’re in the Lord’s Army! As part of a full-length autobiographical play currently under development, Terroir explores the fantastical inner world of a child born into fundamentalist Christianity.
Artist Biography: Stacey Winn (she/her) is a semi-professional muppet based in Northern California. A frequent starter and occasional finisher, she is attracted to themes of estrangement and longing, religion and magic, objectification of the body, disappearance, and (in)fertility. Her plays have appeared in the San Francisco Olympians Festival and the ShortLived competition, and her poetry has been published in Vinyl Poetry and Prose. Previous acting credits include sketch comedy with Killing My Lobster and musicals with Pittsburg Theatre Company. Follow her on Instagram @staceylynnwinn.
JULIE QUEEN
Ten Dollar Destiny – The Remake
Opening for Pearl Ong
Sunday, August 4 at 1pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Ananda Bena-Weber
Saturday, August 10 at 2:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: I am currently working on a remake of a solo multi-disciplinary show I performed several years ago called Ten Dollar Destiny. I was on a mission of soul searching, finding my purpose in life and looking for new artistic expressions with the help of psychics and a myriad of “fortune tellers”. Following the recent death of my father, I found myself traveling to Peru to go on a deep journey using plant medicines to try and find my voice once again.
Artist Biography: Julie Queen is a multi-disciplinary vocal artist who began her performing career in the early 80s in San Francisco. She has premiered several modern operas and chamber works throughout her career. She was happy to meet Stephanie Weisman and become an early Marsh performer in the 90s where she performed in their new music series.
ELENA KOBYLINA
From Siberia with Love, for Tomatoes
Opening for Ananda Bena-Weber
Wednesday, August 7 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Candace Johnson
Thursday, August 8 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: “From Siberia with Love, For Tomatoes” delves into the tangled feelings of shame stemming from domestic violence. It tells a heartfelt story of discovering love through the land and a family tradition of growing tomatoes, lovingly passed down from a grandmother amidst the chaos of a hostile environment shaped by the trauma and repercussions of World War II and its aftermath. The journey follows the path of breaking free from these tough dynamics through the creative outlets of theater.
Artist Biography: Elena, a Nordic force with a passionate artistic soul and a creative mind, immigrated from Siberia, infusing her diverse life experiences into her journey in the Americas. She earned an MFA in Acting from the Actor’s Studio Drama School. Her favorite theater credit is playing Yelena in Uncle Vanya, and she cherished portraying a lead role in the Japanese TV show The World’s Astonishing News, where Elena played a woman who called 911 just to see a nurse she fell for—a situation that quickly spiraled out of control. Elena deeply values meeting David Ford on her journey and treasures his insightful guidance, soulful presence, compassionate approach to truth-telling, and profound understanding of the complexities of human existence and its ambiguities. Follow her journey on Instagram at @elenasquest
IRMA HERRERA
Class Migrant: De Aquí y De Allá
Opening for Shubhra Prakash
Friday, August 9 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Tina D’Elia
Saturday, August 10 at 8:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: During my South Texas childhood, picking cotton was a “Mexican job” (and a “Black job,” too!). Cotton was King and the high school mascot of the neighboring town: The Cottonpickers. To this date, locals refuse to change it — “no shame in honest work,” they say. I’m assigned to a random table at a lawyer’s luncheon and guests are reminiscing about the summer camps of their childhoods. The summer I was 12 years old, my parents made us pick cotton; they wanted us to know how hard they had worked as kids. Do I tell these professional colleagues about this memorable summer?
Artist Biography: Irma Herrera is a writer, solo performer, and former civil rights lawyer. Her new play, Class Migrant: De Aquí y De Allá, explores class mobility and the joy, sadness, and rage she’s encountered along the way to the good life as a professional class denizen of the San Francisco Bay Area. She is still performing her first play, Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name? at theaters, colleges, and universities nationwide.
JANET THORNBURG
The Bequest
Opening for Marga Gomez
Friday, August 2 at 7:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Shubhra Prakash
Saturday, August 3 at 2:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: If a dear old friend passes away and leaves you $2,000, do you have to use it in the way she suggested in the note that comes with the check? Or can you use it to pay for the dental veneers you’ve been longing for? After all, you’re still here, and she’s gone. Or is she?
Artist Biography: Janet Thornburg has written and performed eight solo shows in San Francisco. She holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State University and an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. For further information about her performances and publications, visit www.janetthornburg.com.
ABBEY GLOVER
A Work in Progress
Opening for Laura Jane Bailey
Friday, August 2 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Opening for Elizabeth Du Val
Thursday, August 8 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Show Description: In a society that glorifies striving and achievement, Abbey, an insecure perfectionist, doesn’t know when to stop. Even after obtaining her dream job, her relentless drive continues. As she sacrifices everything to quell her insecurities and prove that she belongs, Abbey wrestles with a crucial question: amidst the pursuit of success, what’s it all for?
Artist Biography: Abbey Glover, based in San Francisco, is a writer, storyteller, and solo performer who made a sharp pivot from her planned career in business. Her debut solo show, “Abbey’s Box”, premiered at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, receiving critical acclaim with four stars from The Scotsman and Broadway World. Abbey’s creative endeavors are driven by a desire to express thoughts and emotions she once feared voicing due to shame, embarrassment, or rejection.
NATACHA RUCK
Surprise Movie Night
Opening for Kathryn Seabron
Friday, August 9 at 7pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Opening for Kathryn Seabron
Sunday, August 11 at 1pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Show Description: It’s Surprise Movie Night at the Toronto Film Festival, and the audience has no idea what they’re about to see. The director and lead actor have flown in from Paris to present their film d’auteur… and Natacha is ready to be their interpreter. What could possibly go wrong?
Artist Biography: Natacha’s solo show “Your good for nothing… I’ll milk, the cow myself,” was developed at the Marsh and is touring the Fringe circuit. She’s developing a new hour long show based on her experiences as an interpreter at international film festivals with David Ford and Kenny Yun
IPELENG KGOSITSILE
Pizzazz: A Serious AF Love Story for Daughters, Black, Beloved & Coo-Coo
Opening for Pearl Ong
Saturday, August 3 at 8:30pm
San Francisco Studio Theater
Opening for Candace Johnson
Sunday, August 11 at 4pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: Pizzazz: A SeriousAF Love Story for Daughters, Black, Beloved & Coo-Coo is a coming-of-rage story about exile, identity (or is it cultural dissonance?), and family, rooted in the global anti-apartheid movement of the late 20th century. Set in New York City, six months after the Soweto Youth Uprisings of June 1976, the play’s opening scene introduces Ipeleng, a second grader at P.S. 154 in Harlem, USA. It’s the protagonist’s 7th birthday, an occasion which sets the tone for her life from Soweto through Truth and Reconciliation, disrupting and fortifying her soul during South Africa’s first 30 years of freedom and democracy.
Artist Biography: Ipeleng Kgositsile is a Black femme storyteller, solo-performer, and comedian of Black South African and Black American descent. Pizzazz: A SeriousAF Love Story for Daughters, Black, Beloved & Coo-Coo is the playwright’s first full-length play. A proud native New Yorker, Ipeleng resides in Oakland, CA, home to her family since the 1940s.
ELIZABETH ZITRIN
Second Wave
Opening for Candace Johnson
Saturday, August 3 at 5:30pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Opening for Shubhra Prakash
Sunday, August 4 at 7pm
San Francisco Mainstage
Show Description: Fifty years ago, women couldn’t spend money without a husband or father – a warning.
Artist Biography: Elizabeth Zitrin has been a lawyer, an international human rights advocate, a community supporter, but before all that she was a performer. Coming full circle now, bringing her politics and personal history into her performance.