December 7, 2008 – January 4, 2009

Lunatique Fantastique’s
WRAPPING PAPER CAPER
A Family Show For All Ages!

Marsh Main Stage

All Shows are at 3:30pm

December 13 ,14 (Sat, Sun)
December 20, 21 (Sat, Sun)
December 22, 27 28 (Mon, Sat, Sun)
December 29 (Mon)
January 3, 4 (Sat, Sun)

"Quick, imaginative, and delightfully funny."
- SF Chronicle

"A stunning tribute to creativity." - Contra Costa Times

“An alternative for the entire family. And this one just happens to be my favorite of the annual holiday shows in the Bay Area…“Imaginative and captivating, this is a show you really should see if you haven’t.”
- Chad Jones, SFTheaterDogs Blog

“Wrapping Paper Caper is every bit as good as it's ever been, and maybe even better….This is the rare show where the children in the audience scream with delight, but don't enjoy the show any more than their parents do…Our Christmas-addled hearts hunger to get in on the fun. And so we do….expect to be transported into another realm.”
- Doug Konecky, SF Theater Blog

"A remarkably clever and moving form of visual poetry."
- San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Her work strikes an instant chord with audience members." - SF Weekly

Live 3D Animatiion!

Liebe Wetzel has the packing materials taking matters into their own, er... “hands” in her show, The Wrapping Paper Caper, this year’s holiday offering for kids of all ages from Lunatique Fantastique. In true private eye guise, our Bogart-esque “detective” follows a trail of styrofoam packing-peanuts, encountering a witty and wonder-filled cast of characters along the way, including an elegant wrapping-paper damsel in “dis-dress”, a cardboard-tube horse, a packing-box Zamboni and a cast of bread rolls, cutlery, linens and dishware that display extremely unusual table manners.

David Hirata will be at every performance; magician Kim Silverman will be at every performance except December 27 & 28; juggler Stefan Fisher will be there on Dec 27, 28 and 29.

This hit holiday show is back with marvels old and new for its third season!

Along with magician Kim Silverman  and juggler Stefan Fisher, Hirata has crafted a show that brings wonder directly to the audience on the intimate space Marsh stage. The magicians mingle with the crowd before the show, bringing the magic up close. Then, when they take to the stage, classical magic illusions are given new life — a rope takes on four dimensions, a bottle of water defies gravity, a sketch becomes animated. Water balloons, hats and rings become the media for Fisher’s feats of dexterity and balance.

Magician David Hirata has been called “a master of deceit” by Kron 4’s Henry Tenenbaum. Dr. Kim Silverman, with his flowing beard, his warmth and his magic, has been mystifying and delighting audiences for thirty years. He is President of the Society of American Magicians in Palo Alto and a "Magician Member" of the Academy of Magical Arts based in the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Stefan Fisher has been juggling for nearly thirty years and has performed with the Royal Lichtenstein Circus, Roberts Brothers Circus and Big John Strong Stage Productions.

David will be at every performance; Dr. Kim will be at every performance except December 27 & 28; Stefan will be there on Dec 27, 28 and 29.

December 13 &14 (Sat, Sun) Kim Silverman
December 20, 21 (Sat, Sun) Kim Silverman
December 22 (Mon) Kim Silverman,
December 27, 28 (Sat, Sun) Stefan Fisher
December 29 (Mon) Stefan Fisher, Kim Silverman

Wayne Harris'
THE MAY DAY PARADE


Studio Theater
Saturday at 8pm

“He is such a musical force on stage that it is hard to stay seated in your little red chair. This viewer wanted to stand up and form a Second Line right behind him.”
Doug Konecky, SF Theater Blog

”Effortless Humor…Evocative and moving testimonies to the African American experience, as the boyhood Harris' innocent embrace of the annual May Day parade marks a realm of public life left open to African American participation and expression in days of intense segregation!” – SF Bay Guardian

“Wayne Harris skillfully interweaves deft character sketches…..gripping!”
- San Francisco Chronicle

“A brilliant performance by a uniquely talented artist.”  George Heymont, MyCultural Landscape Blog.

“Harris takes his audience on a joyful ride”
– SF Bay Guardian

“Moving….a play full of memorable characters and delightful stories”
– San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Wayne is a wonderful storyteller, insightful, funny and soulful….his work both startles me and touches me.”
– Charlie Varon (actor/producer)

“Just the sight of them big butt girls in short skirts doing the “dirty dog” down Newstead Blvd. put the crowd into a frenzy…I mean, folks were following the band down the street. Ain’t seen nothing like it before or since”

There’s a parade coming! ….so, get a seat on the curb with a snow cone and watch as Wayne Harris portrays 1 Baptist  preacher, 3 generations on a porch, a 4 man  bass drum ensemble, 12 rather large “letter” girls bumping and grinding down a mid-town boulevard and the 100 member Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church Drum & Bugle Corps.

Award winning performer and San Francisco Bay Area favorite, Wayne Harris, takes us on a road less traveled…(or maybe less marched) as he prepares at 8 years old, for his first parade maneuvering between a jealous big brother, a drunken deacon, a foul mouthed banner partner, new shoes and a grandmother of biblical proportions…. all while learning the value of family, history and the importance of staying in step!

November 13 - December 13, 2008

Carlo D'Amore's
NO PAROLE

Directed by Margarett Perry

Marsh Main Stage
Thurs/Fri/Sat at 8pm
(no show Thurs. & Fri. Dec 4 & 5)


Funny but graceful, poignant… ferocious fun
- Leah Garchik, Chronicle (full review below)

"No Parole," which opened at the Marsh on Friday (for a month) is Carlo D'Amore's portrait of his con artist/grifter/convicted crook/loving mother. D'Amore, a New Yorker who used to live here - he played at Theatre Rhinoceros, the Magic and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival - is funny but graceful, poignant without resorting to theatrical violins. The story is about his desperate efforts to make peace with someone he loved who lives outside every moral code. He started writing it while enraged at her last scam. "I was an actor for a long time, but I never played myself," he said at the party after his show's opening. Onstage, he'd already set the mood: ferocious fun.” - Leah Garchik, Chronicle

“…deftly conjured by the skillful and charismatic D'Amore …. comes over in great cinematic images like a black-box blend of Martin Scorsese and Pedro Almodóvar.”
- San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Enchanting…Wry…Quirky sense of humor… conjures up Eddie Izzard with a lille bit of Pee Wee Herman… Expert storytelling both on the page and on the stage!”
- Richard Dodds, Bay Area Reporter

“D’Amore takes us on a dark engrossing roller-coaster ride with his tour-de-force acting.” - Kedar Adour,TheatreWorld

“A Latino Eddie Izzard with a little bit of Pee Wee Herman. Expert storytelling… enchanting; a funny and poignant ride.” - Bay Area Reporter

In this wry, energetic adventure play, No Parole takes you on a kaleidoscopic journey through the life a flamboyant, live-for-the-moment con artist mother, who has no trouble posing as an attorney, professor, daycare worker, or nun. From Peru to the Hollywood Hills to an illegal New York City walk-up, No Parole provides a hilarious and gut-wrenching look into the life of an extraordinary woman who saw the world as her playground.

Carlo directed the New York premiere of Voices From Guantanamo. A dramatization of poems written by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay for Actors and Poets Group. The poems were all published by the Iowa Press in conjunction with the Center For Constitutional Rights and Amnesty International and were greatly anticipated in their New York debut.

Broadway credits include the Round About Theater Company’s production of Tennessee William's "Summer and Smoke" directed by David Warren, and most recently  “Latinologues” directed by Cheech Marin where he played seven different characters to sold out crowds at the Helen Hayes Theater.

Regional acting credits include three productions at the legendary Magic Theater and four productions at Theater Rhino, including solo work on the highly awarded "Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown."

Film and Television credits include being directed by Spike Lee for a project at “Forty Acres and a Mule.” His television debut was in the critically acclaimed series “OZ,” opposite Rita Moreno, directed by Tom Fontana.