Theater Against Depression
The Marsh is
crowdfunding for a year of free performances of The Waiting Period, Brian Copeland’s monologue about suicidal depression, in hopes that the people who need it most will get a chance to see it. Read all about it in my article on KQED Arts. Read more
This Time It’s Not Personal
Solo-show favorites Brian Copeland and Marga Gomez are back at the Marsh, and this time they’re both stepping back from the autobiographical. My review is on KQED Arts.
Embarrassment of Riches
Boy, this was a hard year to reduce to a Top Ten. When I look over the list of the 117 shows I attended in 2012, eight strike me as shoo-ins for the list, and then there are fifteen other shows vying for the remaining two slots. Mind you, that’s a good problem to have; there really was a lot of good theater in the Bay Area this year—and, of course, some so-so and not very good theater as well. And of course there’s not any inherent virtue in the vast theaterscape of 2012 being reducible to a list in the first place, so maybe I should quit my kvetching, suck it up, and get to it. Although I’m restricting myself to ten, these shows aren’t ranked or numbered and are listed in chronological order.
Worth the Wait
Brian Copeland has a lot going on. His last one-man show at the Marsh, Not a Genuine Black Man, ran off and on for seven years, setting a record for the longest-running solo show in San Francisco history. The longtime standup comic also hosts KGO radio’s Brian Copeland Show and ABC’s 7Live TV talk show. But he’s also struggled with crushing depression, as detailed in his long-anticipated new solo show The Waiting Period, which opened its world premiere run last Saturday at the Marsh after a few weeks of previews. The play captures a particularly dark period after his grandmother died, he totaled his car, and his wife left without explanation. The title refers to the ten-day waiting period required by buy a gun, which Copeland is only shopping for in case he wants to do himself in.
