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

Wednesday
February 24, 2021 at 7:30pm

My Stroke of Luck

by Diane Barnes

DIANE BARNES performs excerpts from her solo show My Stroke of Luck,  a captivating and inspiring story about forging a new identity after a debilitating stroke. 

Watch by Clicking Below

Additional Guests

Richard L. Delmonic, PhD, Director of Neuropsychology and NCAL Regional Lead for Neuropsychology services at the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Vallejo.

Patricia Gill, MS, MFT, is the Executive Director of the Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery. Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery offers an array of affordable rehabilitative and supportive services designed to help survivors and their families rebuild their lives after a brain injury.

ABOUT THE PERFORMER

After surviving the catastrophe that inspired this show, Diane discovered improvisation (Patricia Marsden Ryan and BATS)! “Yes, and…” the mantra of improv, opened an alternate universe for this “Humm…show me the evidence,” skeptic scientist. Diane’s first solo performance (W. Allen Taylor) shared her experience negotiating the hurdles to single parent adoption. Audience response galvanized her with the power of storytelling and launched her new career.

Diane left the practice of medicine in 2010. Now a Meisner trained actor, Diane completed The American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress (modern and classic), studied with Anna Deveare Smith, Ann Randolph, Keith Johnstone, and The D’ell Arte School of Physical Drama. Diane has appeared at The Marsh, Ross Valley Players, College of Marin, Studio One, BATS, and Pan Theater.

My Stroke of Luck has a sold out run at the United Theater Festival in NYC, and played at the Atlanta Black Theater Festival, the LA Women’s Theater Festival, and various Canadian and U.S. Fringe Festivals.

Diane, a NYC transplant, 3rd generation physician is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale University School of Medicine, board certified in Diagnostic Radiology.

https://www.dianebarnes415.com/

ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL

SOLO ARTS HEAL, a weekly MarshStream Public Broadcast Platform program, presents empowering performances about healing and resilience. Through hosted interviews, talkbacks and audience Q&A, the Solo Arts Heal program provides transformative experiences, education, community outreach and advocacy through stories that celebrate 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.

Kristin Scheel, has worked in production and development at The Marsh since 2018. She is a freelance writer and member of Open Windows art cooperative in the Bayview. She has a background in social work with the State of Oregon and program management experience as a small business owner and preschool director in San Francisco. She has an MFA from Mills College, and serves on the boards of Guerrilla Cartography and PATHSTAR.


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