Marin performing arts organization launches new festival

Unusual opportunities await local theater fans next month. Marin Shakespeare Company is venturing into new territory with a solo performance festival that will run three weeks in March.

Dubbed “One for All,” the festival will include 20 solo performances from March 6 to 22 at Marin Shakespeare Company’s theater in downtown San Rafael. Curated and hosted by Bay Area legend Josh Kornbluth, the festival will be headlined by Kathryn Grody, with her autobiographical piece “The Unexpected 3rd.”

The festival will include multiple events on some days, according to Marin Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Jon Tracy. All tickets are offered on a choose-your-price basis, reflecting Marin Shakespeare Company’s “ongoing commitment to adventurous artistic excellence and true community access,” Tracy said. The festival is all about “creating space for stories that are personal, searching and alive in a room for all,” he said.

Over the past three decades, Kornbluth has delighted audiences with autobiographical monologues such as “Red Diaper Baby,” “Citizen Brain,” “Love & Taxes” and others. Tracy said Kornbluth’s work combines “humor, intellect and emotional clarity, earning national acclaim on stage, film and television.”

The festival will give attendees several opportunities to participate, in addition to watching master performers at work. Scheduled for 11 a.m. some mornings, Kornbluth’s “Coffee and Solo Workshop” will provide visitors the chance to learn directly from a master storyteller. Workshops are “open to writers, performers and curious newcomers alike,” helping them “explore how lived experience becomes a compelling narrative and offering practical tools for shaping, refining and sharing one’s own stories in an intimate, supportive setting,” Tracy said.

Grody’s theater career includes her Obie Award-winning “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” “Top Girls” and Drama Desk Award-nominated “A Mom’s Life,” all at the Public Theater in New York; “The Model Apartment” at 59E59 Theaters in New York; and Signature Theatre’s “20th Century Blues.” Film and TV credits include “Reds,” “The Lemon Sisters,” “The Sunset Gang” with Uta Hagen and “The Execution of Private Slovik” with Martin Sheen. Grody is extremely active in the New York theater scene and is an ambassador for the International Rescue Committee, which helps people during humanitarian crises.

Among festival highlights are Christopher Rivas’ “The Punchline” — a funny and moving solo work urging us to honor our lives and the present moment; Lauren English’s “In the Fold,” a personal meditation on grief and addiction; Brian Copeland’s “The Great American Sh*t Show”; and Marga Gomez’s “Swimming with Lesbians.” Members of Marin Shakespeare Company’s Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe will also perform.

“Together, these works reflect the urgency, diversity and imaginative reach of contemporary solo storytelling,” Tracy said.

• Details: The One for All Solo Festival is from March 6 through 22 at the Marin Shakespeare Company at 514 Fourth St. in San Rafael. For more information and to get tickets, go to marinshakespeare.org.

Festival schedule

Week one

• Josh Kornbluth performs “What is to be Done?” at 7:30 p.m. March 6. The show reflects on his mental health journey as well as the current political climate.

• Marin resident Suraya Keating and other local performers share their stories of womanhood in “Unapologetically Becoming: Courage After 50” at 11 a.m. March 7.

• Dan Hoyle performs “Takes All Kinds,” featuring stories of people caught in the social and political currents shaping our nation, at 5 p.m. March 7.

• Tony Cyprien, a member of the Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe, will perform “Jacky” at 7:30 p.m. March 7.

• Kornbluth’s “Coffee and Solo Workshop” is at 11 a.m. March 8.

• Brian Copeland’s “The Great American Sh*t Show,” reflections of life in the age of Trump, is at 5 p.m. March 8.

Second week

• Kornbluth blends American history and madcap memoir in “Ben Franklin: Unplugged” with special guest Helen Shumaker at 7:30 p.m. March 12.

• Christopher Rivas performs “The Punchline” at 7:30 p.m. March 13 and 2 p.m. March 14.

• The Returned Citizens Theatre Troupe will share stories at 11 a.m. March 14.

• Lauren English performs “In the Fold” at 7:30 p.m. March 14. The story moves through five characters — a nurse, a child, a teenager, a woman on the street and a grieving partner — people who would never meet and yet are stitched together by the same quiet disaster.

• Kornbluth’s “Coffee and Solo Workshop” is at 11 a.m. March 15.

• Marga Gomez performs “Swimming with Lesbians,” a story set aboard a fictional lesbian luxury ocean liner, at 5 p.m. March 15.

Week three

• Magician and actor Christian Cagigal shares tales, dark fables and strange happenings in “Obscura” at 7:30 p.m. March 19.

• Kevin Rolston’s magical comedy “Deal with the Dragon” is at 7:30 p.m. March 20.

• Domenique Lozano and Leyla Modirzadeh perform “ICU” at 11 a.m. March 21.

• Sara Felder performs “A Class Act,” her exploration of money, at 2 p.m. March 21.

• Kathryn Grody explores the joys and challenges of aging at “The Unexpected 3rd” at 7:30 p.m. March 21 and 5 p.m. March 22.

• Kornbluth’s “Coffee and Solo Workshop” is at 11 a.m. March 22.