photo credit: Karina Fassett

Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.

Wednesday
January 13 at 7:30pm PT

Waste Management: The Show!

by Debra Castellano
aka Citizen Deb

In this show for people who care about the environment, but are just too darn BUSY to do anything about it, a woman tries to juggle pedicures, laundry, and gynecologist appointments with saving the world. Plastic bags! Toilet paper! Mob connections! Can she find a way through it all?

“Debra Castellano is a wonderful storyteller, possessing more than enough heartwarming depth and humorous charm to keep you guessing.”  – NYTheater Now

“Solo show writer/performers tend to fall into one of two camps: those with a witty, ironic edge – and those with great depth of feeling. Deb’s particular strength is that she can do both.”– Matt Hoverman, Emmy-winning TV writer and playwright

Follow Deb’s attempts to save the world on the show’s companion site: CitizenDeb.com

Watch Archived Episode Below

ABOUT THE PERFORMER

Debra Castellano (aka Citizen Deb) grew up in the ’burbs of SoCal, where smog-alerts ruled school recess, and the orange groves were gradually replaced with strip malls. After college, she escaped to “Hollywood” and became a comedy writer. When traffic jams, small talk, and athleisurewear finally killed LA, she high-tailed it to New York City. There the theater beckoned, and Deb took her words to the stage, writing published plays and sold-out one-person performances. After realizing she could use her powers for good, she created Waste Management: The Show! (for people who care about the environment, but are just too darn BUSY to do anything about it) as an ode to one of her true loves: recycling. And because it’s always something with her, this in turn led her to an Environmental Conservation & Sustainability program at Columbia University…and an upcoming book. Deb recently moved to a village in the Hudson Valley of New York, and tracks her attempts at saving the world (or at least getting people to use less plastic) on her highly personal and quirky—but educational—blog.

https://wastemanagementtheblog.wordpress.com/

ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL

Solo performers present real-life, empowering stories. Transformative experiences for audiences. A theater of resilience that celebrates overcoming mental and physical life challenges and offers hope and inspiration. SOLO ARTS HEAL includes excerpts, talkbacks, and Q&A that provide education and advocacy. Readings or clips of performances will be shared by artists in conversation with Gail Schickele, whose work as a manager and producer of solo artists inspired collaboration of performing arts presenters with artists on a medical track based on their personal experience. The collective creative vision? To help communities through educational outreach and the healing power of the Arts. 

About the Hosts

Photo by: Craig Lee

Stephanie 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 and summer workshops for youth both onsite and in 5 SFUSD, and performance development classes, workshops and Performance Initiatives. 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. In 2020, Stephanie initiated MarshStream. She is currently at work developing her opera, Aphrodisia, with dancer, Wei Wang

Gail Schickele champions arts & sciences taking her left and right brain wherever she travels. As an arts manager, consultant, and producer dba SAGE Artists, she convened an ‘Arts Heals’ group of solo artists at APAP 2020 whose unique stories of physical and mental challenges evince the healing power of The Arts.  The COVID lockdown inspired Stephanie Weisman to create SOLO ARTS HEAL to share these outstanding stories of resilience, dramatic and comedic, for the entertainment and benefit of communities everywhere. Gail’s expertise in marketing, management, booking and production has served various theaters, festivals and events nationwide. Trained as a journalist in New York and Colorado, Gail has covered Colorado state politics and the environmental landscape of the Rockies. Environmental science inspires her educational and advocacy work in California with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and for the League of Women Voters for which she’s worked as an administrator and reporter on environmental issues Including legislation, climate science outreach, and co-chair of an environmental speakers series. Gail is honored to host SOLO ARTS HEAL where artists powerful stories offer audiences great performance and ‘informance’ on issues related to health and the environment, inexorably linked.


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