The Marsh is Proud to Present a Marsh Rising Workshop Performance of Samantha Chanse’s Acclaimed New Solo Play, "Lydia’s Funeral Video"

San Francisco, CA, August 12, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Asian American Theater and Bindlestiff alumna Samantha Chanse’s “Lydia’s Funeral Video” depicts a not so distant future when abortions are legal only within 28 days of conception. Apocalypse-obsessed Lydia Clark-Lin is doggedly pursuing a career in monetary units when a mysterious being claiming to be an hours-old embryo invades her dreams, announces that Lydia is both pregnant and dying, and commands her to create a video to be screened at her funeral before terminating the pregnancy. Her unnerving mission leads her to a celebrity abortion doctor, an estranged newscasting mother, a noncommittal fiancé (not hers), and, of course, standup comedy. A sold-out production of this darkly comedic play, directed by Wilma Bonet, premiered at the Dark Room last February, followed by a sold-out production at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival.

The show plays on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 7.30 pm on The Marsh Main Stage, 1062 Valencia Street. For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org.

Samantha Chanse is a writer and performer who moved to San Francisco in 2001. Her plays include “Sleeper (a chronicle of the return of the remarkable),” staged by Asian American Theater Company (AATC) and Bindlestiff, and “Back to the Graveyard,” a new solo show produced in 2009 by Bindlestiff at the Thick House, and by Footloose at Shotwell Studios. A standup comic who has performed at Purple Onion, Punchline and Cobb’s, and a member playwright of PlayGround, Chanse was awarded an individual artist commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission to produce “Lydia’s Funeral Video”. She co-founded artist salon series Laundry Party, served as Kearny Street Workshop’s artistic director, and recently embarked on a bicoastal lifestyle to pursue a playwriting MFA at her native New York City’s Columbia University. www.samanthachanse.com

For Calendar Editors

When: Wednesday, August 26 at 7:30 pm

Where: The Marsh, 1062 Valencia Street (between 21st and 22nd Streets)

Tickets: $10-15 Sliding Scale
For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

For more information, call 415-826-5750 or visit The Marsh website at www.themarsh.org

For a high-resolution downloadable press image, please visit: www.LydiasFuneralVideo.com or www.themarsh.org

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