Stephanie Weisman, the founder and artistic director of The Marsh theater, spent a few months living on a house on stilts in a marsh, watching the flora and fauna thrive in its landscape. That's why she called her theater "The Marsh." She thinks of it as a breeding ground for new performance, and a place to support writers. Since it began over 20 years ago, The Marsh has aided an impressive array of performers, including Josh Kornbluth, who did the first full-length show at The Marsh, Haiku Tunnel, about his temp job as a legal secretary; Marga Gomez, who did the first workshop at The Marsh, Memory Tricks, about her show business parents; and Brian Copeland, whose Not a Genuine Black Man was the longest-running solo show in the Bay Area. (He's currently back at The Marsh with a new show, The Waiting Period.) These days, Weisman still presides over a place where life reveals itself. This idea of giving people a venue and some support for their work has worked out pretty well.