Rich Black
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All Agita, All The Time 4/16/2012A family-style reading of David Chase's pilot script for The Sopranos - an episode that by itself caught the malaise of millennial America like nothing else. We gathered a mob of Bay Area talent to redefine the show that redefined family. Just when you thought you were out, we pulled you back in.
Performed by Anthony Nemirovsky, Kim Addonizio, Stacy Ross, Trevor Allen, Gwen Loeb, Ken Sonkin, Lisa Edsall-Giglio, Henry DiGiovanni, Joan Bernier, Cassidy Jamahl Brown, Alexandra Creighton, and Colin Johnson Music by Josh Pollock Presented by Shotgun Cabaret 
And a good baked ziti was had by all.
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Rich Black
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None Too Keene 3/21/12She knew. About the coded phrases served up at social teas. About the untidy passions externalized in a broken locket. About what goes down on a hidden staircase. By age eighteen, real-life amateur detective Nan Driscoll had seen more than Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Mike Hammer combined (they were fictions after all). And she had seen enough. On graduating high school, she quit sleuthing, and took to writing her memoirs. "For profit," she once told an inquiring librarian. "And no other fool reason." When The Secret of the Old Clock hit Grosset & Dunlap's desks in 1930, they knew they had gold, but they balked. "On prose like that," said friend James M. Cain, "You could've cracked a shotglass". Enter "Carolyn Keene," a collective pseudonym for a group of editors who cake decorated Driscoll's language with enough twee adverbs to choke a Girl Scout. It worked. The books sold 80 million copies, a new role model emerged, and "Nancy Drew" laughed all the way to the bank.
In the process, American literature got swindled. To help restore this lost voice of hard-boiled crime writing, we called on the best: noir preservationist Eddie Muller, author of Dark City; The Distance; and Grindhouse, and founder of The Film Noir Foundation, and San Francisco's Noir City Film Festival. In celebration of this literary justice, we presented selections from Driscoll's first original manuscript, read by streetwise gamine of local theater, Lydia Odette Warren. Muller provided context and commentary, and piano-bar veteran Richard Leiter surrendered the blue notes in a live, original score. Thought you knew Nancy? You didn't have a clue. 
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Jeff Boozer
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I'm With Cupid 2 2/26/12I'm With Cupid returned with an all-new, Valentine-themed recital and benefit for WriterCoach Connection. This time, we dove into the rock-and-roll repertoire circa 1979 - when tricks were cheap, the knack was got, and everyone's last name was Ramone. I'm With Cupid 2: New Wave Pleasures and Post-Punk Paens served up skinny-tie supplications, geometrically-coiffed confidences, and amorous anthems (with attitude!). All-Stars were tapping. The connection was made.
Thanks to St. Alban's Episcopal Church and Pegasus Books. To volunteer or donate to WriterCoach Connection, visit them online. And tell 'em First Person Singular sent you. With love.     Photos by Bob Menzimer
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R. Black
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What's Strunk & White and Read All Over?
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Jeff Boozer
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Grief Is Good 12/9/11Unrequited love. Writer's block. Crises of faith. Sabotage. Anxiety. Depression. Psychiatric help. Security blankets. What does it add up to? The life of your average eight-year-old. At least according to Charles Schulz and the millions of readers who, for fifty years, identified with a pint-sized everyman named Charlie Brown. In Peanuts, heartache was as regular as the morning paper, but for all the tree-eating kites, remote little-red-haired girls, and rained-out baseball games life could dish out, there were also sympathetic beagles and philosophical siblings around to put things in perspective. Running to kick a football you know will be snatched away is both insane and heroic - in a word, human - and for this holiday special, we'll celebrate the deep humanity of Peanuts - the nation's most beloved comic strip. Seven of our favorite local actors brought the dialogues, monologues, and doghouse meditations of Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Sally Brown, and Snoopy to life, accompanied by Richard Leiter, pianist for the CBS Charlie Brown specials. Did you miss it? Sigh.
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R. Black
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Dancing Barefoot 10/26/11The rocker. The writer. The singular sensibility responsible for over thirty year's worth of wild rhapsody and unflinching reflection. Who else but Patti Smith can reconcile the phrases "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine," and "Art sings of God and ultimately belongs to him."? She knows the divine is best met in a pair of sneakers, and achieves sublimity without ever leaving the streets. For this celebration of Patti Smith, we offered a double portrait: accompanied by pianist Joshua Raoul Brody, stage and screen actor Julia McNeal (Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth, NBC's Law and Order) performed selections from Smith's National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids, and Theresa Kelly - with full band - called down the heavens with performances of Smith's signature songs. Dancing Barefoot: The Art of Patti Smith was a portrait of the artist in every sense.
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R. Black
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Stealing the Leads 9/21/11A reading of one of the most male-identified works in modern theater repertoire - this time with an all-female cast. Stealing the Leads: Women read Glengarry Glen Ross presented seven of the Bay Area's finest women actors in roles made famous by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Joe Mantegna, Alan Arkin, Stacy Keach, Alfred Molina, and Jonathan Pryce and others. Is the ruthless competition that drives the play relatable only to men, or has traditional casting denied this play its universality? In this (mostly) straight sell, First Person Singular aimed to find out.
Performed by Mary Baird, Theresa Kelly, Gwen Loeb, Julia McNeal, Cathleen Riddley, Stacy Ross, & Patricia Silver |
 R. Black
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See You Later, Allen Ginsberg 8/17/11A central cry of the 20th Century. A poem so grand it gathers within it all of Allen Ginsberg's fellow Beats, and every disaffected American who ever tried to call this nation home. Who better to deliver such a text than a red-diaper baby who's been through the Haiku Tunnel? In an impassioned performance, theater and film actor Josh Kornbluth stood in for the Great Jewish Buddha, with a holy honking assist from renowned Bay Area horn man Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, The Black Keys, and... Allen Ginsberg). Everyone who missed the legendary 1955 Six Galley reading was present. At least it felt that way.
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 R. Black
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Debts No Honest Man Can Pay 7/20/11"Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?"
Bruce Springsteen asked this question in his song "The River," and answered it a few years later on the 1982 album Nebraska - a picture of social isolation bred from economic despair. The characters in "Atlantic City," "Johnny 99," "Highway Patrolman," and the title track - based on the 1958 killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate - are people with "debts no honest man can pay," people for whom the American dream, ever-unattainable, has become a taunt. Separated from community, family, even themselves, their acts mirror "the meanness in this world," bring on fatal consequences, yet may stand as their only known moments of freedom. Never more relevant, Nebraska was performed in its entirety by San Francisco folk-rock duo McCabe & Mrs. Miller - a.k.a. Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven; The Monks of Doom) and Alison Faith Levy (The Loud Family; The Sippy Cups). Encore performance Friday, October 21st 2011, at San Francisco's Make-Out Room. An evening of essential listening for anyone born in the U.S.A. |
 R. Black
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Somewhat Autobiographical 6/8/11Cancelled per the author's request that the story not be performed. This program was to feature novelist Elizabeth Rosner and cellist Rachel Turner Houk in a collaborative presentation of Lorrie Moore's "People Like That are the Only People Here." Another event with Ms. Rosner and Ms. Turner Houk will be offered in the near future.
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 R. Black
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Bringing It All Back Home 5/11/11 Two quintessential American voices in one night. For more than forty years, Greil Marcus (Lipstick Traces, Mystery Train, The Old Weird America) has examined the mysteries, untanged the roots, and measured the influence of Bob Dylan's music. Marcus read from his collected writings on Dylan, discussed rare material like the recently released masterpiece, "I'm Not There," and recalled the experience of seeing Dylan shake up The Last Waltz. Joining Marcus in the musical dialogue was singer-songwriter Tom Heyman (Boarding House Rules, Deliver Me) performing the material discussed.
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 R. Black
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Two Men Down and No One On 4/20/11  Three stories about our storied national pastime.
Novelist, screenwriter, and Chicago Cubs fan Barry Gifford read a piece about an elder Berkeley hardware store employee stuck at work with no access to TV or radio as his son, Yankee Don Larsen, pitches the only perfect game in World Series history. Wayne Wong then performed Jim Shepard's "Batting Against Castro," the comic tale of an under-performing Phillies player who travels to pre-revolutionary Cuba for off-season practice, and takes the plate against the future communist leader. Batting third, actor Stanley Spenger gave a beautiful rendition of J.D. Salinger's "The Laughing Man," the story of an after-school sports camp's loss of innocence when the coach's girlfriend enters the game. And, yes, we sang The National Anthem.  |
  Lucas Buckman
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Find Your Song 3/30/11 & 6/4/11A celebration of one of the greatest undertakings in American theater. Find Your Song: The Blues Arias of August Wilson showcased the epic, sweeping monologues of Wilson's mighty Century Cycle - a decade-by-decade chronicle of black American life in the 20th Century. Selections were taken from each of the ten plays, bringing the scope of Wilson's achievement to a single night. Performed by April Sinclair, Ed Ntiri, Keenzia Budd, and Raymond Holbert.
Encore performance at The Museum of the African Diaspora.  |
 Lucas Buckman
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Bloody Operatic 2/28/11Wesley Stace and the West Coast chapter of The Jessold Consort performed a stunning rendition of Every Composer is a Murderer - a work incorporating readings from Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, a novel by Wesley Stace, and On Murder, Considered as a Fine Art, a suite of five songs by Daniel Felsenfeld.
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 Jeff Boozer
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I'm With Cupid 2/16/11I'm With Cupid: Girl Group Songs and Other Teen Agonies raised $700 for WriterCoach Connection. Thanks to all who attended and contributed. Thanks also to our sponsors:
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
http://www.loveatfirstbitebakery.com/ and COLE COFFEE http://www.colecoffee.com/ If you'd like to volunteer, donate, or just spread the word, visit WriterCoach Connection http://www.writercoachconnection.org/     |
 Lee Relvas
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Close to Home 1/19/11Two classic American stories about loved ones in crisis: Sherwood Anderson's "The Egg," performed by Brian Quakenbush, and Amy Bloom's "Silver Water" performed by Julia McNeal (Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth).
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 Lucas Buckman
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Articles of Faith 12/8/10In her brilliant correspondence, Flannery O'Connor proved as formidable a character as any she created. Performed with exquisite grace by Marjorie Darraugh.  |
 Lucas Buckman
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Draw Blood 11/17/10The songs of Warren Zevon, spoken, sung, and howled. Performed by Joe Christiano, Colin Johnson, Theresa Kelly, Smith Mitchell, and Jess Thomas.
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