The Marsh Berkeley Presents "Breed & Rescue"

BERKELEY, CA (25 August 2017) – The Marsh Berkeley announces a new musical solo performance musical in development, Breed & Rescue, written, composed, and performed by Hannah Taylor. With a piano and pianist smack in the middle of the stage, Taylor intertwines her story of breeding, rescuing, adopting and adapting, into a joyful, sometimes comic, sometimes poignant journey through song and performance. Assisted by an all-star Marsh team of Marc Monsterrat-Drukker (Director, Designer, Developer), musician Ben Flint (Pianist), Ellen Hoffman (Musical Direction and Arrangement), and David Ford (Script Development/Dramaturgy), Breed & Rescue will play August 31-September 23 with performances 8:00pm Thursdays & Fridays, 8:30pm Saturdays at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055, open 1-4pm, Monday through Friday.

“Plant, pet, person” is a common piece of advice, suggesting if one can take care of a plant, a pet comes next, followed by a child. In Taylor’s case: plant – check. Pet –Taylor and her rescue dog became a team: the puppy who could barely handle being in public was now her partner-in-crime as they tackled the world together. Person – Hannah puts a request out into the world: “if anyone knows of a child that needs a home, please let me know.” Within a month, she’s introduced to the child she will adopt. Breed & Rescue is Taylor’s tale of rescuing, adopting, breeding puppies, and finally adapting.

Hannah Taylor is delving back into her creative caverns. She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Master’s in English in Creative Writing. Her journalism, prose, and poetry have been published nationally, and she was awarded a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts for her poetry.

Ben Flint (Pianist) toured the world as a keyboardist with Isaac Hayes for 18 years. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and USC. He currently teaches music at Diablo Valley College and is the Artistic Director of the Oakland Jazz Choir. His first CD, “Onyx” was released on the One Truth Label and he is cofounder of the World Soul Project with Gerard Harris.

Marc Montserrat-Drukker (Director, Designer, Developer) is directing, designing and integrating the musical aspects into this performance. Montserrat-Drukker is an award-winning director, who developed a version of The Wave (La Ola) in Spain. Based on the real-life Palo Alto High School experiment in fascism by Ron Jones, La Ola was named one of Spain’s top 10 performances. Last summer, Montserrat-Drukker created and directed the music and opera concert I Want to be a Diva for the 30th anniversary of the prestigious Catalonian Summer Music Festival. He was also Resident Director of Sister Act The Musical, produced by Whoopi Goldberg, and directed Spamalot for its Mexico tour, where it ran for more than 500 performances.

Ellen Hoffman’s (Arrangement, Musical Director) newest composition premiered at the Oakland Symphony in December. She has received commissions, and local and national grants, including a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. She has worked with the musical legends including Rita Moreno, Linda Ronstadt, Bobby McFerrin, Joan Baez, and Terrance Kelly and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. Ellen was founding music director of Jazz Camp West, and the 85-voice Berkeley Broadway Singers.

David Ford has been collaborating on new and unusual theater for three decades and has been associated with The Marsh for most of that time. The San Francisco press has variously called him “the solo performer maven,” “the monologue maestro,” “the dean of solo performance,” and “the solo performer’s best friend.” Collaborators include Geoff Hoyle, Echo Brown, Brian Copeland, Charlie Varon, Marilyn Pittman, Rebecca Fisher, Wayne Harris, and Marga Gomez. As a director, Mr. Ford has directed both solo and ensemble work regionally at the Public Theatre, Second Stage, St. Clement’s, Dixon’s Place, One Dream Theatre, and Theatre for the New City (NY), Highways (LA) and Woolly Mammoth (Washington, DC) as well as at theaters around the Bay Area including Magic Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. He is also a published playwright.

The Marsh is known as “a breeding ground for new performance.” It was launched in 1989 by Founder and Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman, and now annually hosts more than 600 performances of 175 shows across the company’s two venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading outlet for solo performers, The Marsh’s specialty has been hailed by The San Francisco Chronicle as “solo performances that celebrate the power of storytelling at its simplest and purest.” The East Bay Times named The Marsh one of Bay Area’s best intimate theaters, calling it “one of the most thriving solo theaters in the nation. The live theatrical energy is simply irresistible.”