Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.
Wednesday
April 7, 2021 at 7:30pm
’She ain’t crazy, she’s my mother. A daughter’s story of love, loss and goulash.’
Melinda Buckley
Mother (and me)
MOTHER (and me) is the story of a larger than life Hungarian Mama Rose who’s slowly waltzing into dementia, as her Broadway baby, Melinda shimmies into middle age. An outrageous one woman show about stepping up and into your own light.
Watch Below
“Buckley is buoyant and hilarious…and does more with a stool and a smile than a lesser Theater company could do with a big budget.”
-Windy City Media
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
MELINDA BUCKLEY (Writer / Performer) has appeared on Broadway and in the National tours of several shows, including Crazy For You, A Chorus Line and Bob Fosse’s revival of Sweet Charity. She performed improv and sketch material with Gotham City Improv and Chicago City Limits, and appeared as a stand up at Caroline’s, Stand-Up NY, and Gotham Comedy Club. She has written and performed several solo shows, her latest being, MOTHER (and me). On the other side of the table, highlights include directing Town Hall’s hit musical series, Broadway By The Year, which featured a Tony award winning cast, and choreographing Paramour, which starred Len Cariou and premiered at the Old Globe Theatre. For the big screen, she choreographed the musical sequences for Columbia Pictures’, Stuart Little I and II with Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathon Lipnicki, the independent film 1999, starring Amanda Peet and Jennifer Garner, and assisted Pat Birch on Working Girl as well as several episodes of Saturday Night Live. Other TV credits include, choreographing the daytime drama One Life to Live and an award-winning promo for the CBS Fall Lineup. Most recently, she choreographed a CBS promo for Girl Power (see below video) which aired during Super Bowl 2019 and was named one of the top ten ads by Paste magazine. She assisted Lonny Price (as SDC Fellow) in the filming of Company at the NY Philharmonic, which starred Neil Patrick Harris, Patti Lupone, Stephen Colbert, Martha Plimpton, and Jon Cryer.
Melinda has written, directed, and choreographed numerous commercial and corporate productions for such clients as Fox, ESPN, WE tv, Sesame Street, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Pepsi, IBM, American Express and Audi. She is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and SDC.
“Melinda Buckley’s performance in MOTHER (and me) is at once touching, poignant and funny! I would recommend this play to anyone…Bravo, Melinda!” – Teresa A. Galbier, MPA, President/CEO Alzheimer’s Association
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
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 as a writer, speaker, consultant, and producer. In January 2020 she convened an artist collective to assist solo artists whose unique stories of physical and mental challenges manifest the healing power of The Arts. COVID inspired Stephanie Weisman to create SOLO ARTS HEAL on The MarshStream to share these outstanding stories of resilience, dramatic and comedic, for the entertainment and benefit of communities everywhere. Gail’s work in marketing, management, and production has served various theaters, festivals and events nationwide. Trained as a journalist in New York and Colorado, she has covered Colorado state politics and the environmental landscape of the Rockies. Environmental educational and advocacy work in California includes the League of Women Voters and The Climate Reality Project. Gail is honored to curate and 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.