When we first started True Theatre, we were very fortunate to catch the attention of our friend, Janet Zack, who is a professional artist and graphic designer.  Although she is always on the go, she agreed to work with us because she's a big fan of what True Theatre is about.  Janet has designed just about everything there has been to design for True Theatre, from our logos, to our business cards, to our season postcards, to every poster for every main-stage show we've had.  In fact, for trueMOM, Janet presented us with so many great ideas for a poster, that it was difficult to choose our favorite... so we chose hers!  Get a load of the trueMOM poster on our Season page (featuring some of Janet's original sculptures), then hop on over to her website and check out more of her art work.  You'll love it!

THANK YOU, JANET!

Four men and five women graciously shared the stories of their Christmases Past with us for 3 solid weekends of trueCHRISTMAS!  This was a first for True Theatre.

Our regular season shows are one-night only shows where five storytellers each shares his-or-her story only once.  trueCHRISTMAS featured NINE storytellers over NINE evenings, each sharing his-or-her story THREE times! 

Our regular shows feature Mark Lutwak on the accordion.  trueCHRISTMAS featured Mark on most nights and, when needed, Andy Antle on guitar or Claire Timmerman on cello. 

Our regular shows are the only thing on the bill the nights they run and are held at the Know Theatre downtown.  trueCHRISTMAS shared the stage with New Edgecliff Theatre's "The Santaland Diaries" at the Columbia Performance Center in Columbia-Tusculum. 

Our regular shows feature co-founders Jeff Groh and Dave Levy as the emcees.  trueCHRISTMAS included nights with Jeff and Dave and introduced Karen Borgmann as a third emcee, allowing for different pairings and, sometimes, solo emcee-duties.

And, despite all the differences, the show ran smoothly, the audiences were great, and the stories were as wonderful as always!  Above-and-beyond what our normal shows allow, we got to meet and work with so many more people and show what True Theatre is about to an overall-larger number of audience members.  Every storyteller we asked seemed to enjoy having a chance to visit their story three times and go new places and uncover new chestnuts over the course of the run.

And, now that it is over, we hope that everyone who joined us, both on stage and in the audience, continues to enjoy the holiday season.  We will be relaxing with loved ones and enjoying the momentary reprieve and then quickly leap back into things to assemble our next show, back the Know Theatre, for Monday, February 13th:  trueLOVE.  Treat yourself or someone you love to an early Valentine's Day gift and join us!

Happy Holidays, stay safe, and, as always...

Be true!

Just a couple of days until the next show opens.  We're very excited about pairing up with New Edgecliff Theatre to provide a full evening's entertainment (New Edgecliff is producing Act 1 of the adaptation of David Sedaris' "The Santaland Diaries" and we are providing three storytellers for Act 2, calling it trueCHRISTMAS), but it is also a bit of a frightening proposition.  Despite our best efforts, will audiences know what they will be getting when they come to the show?  Will they be prepared to see real people telling their real stories following an actor playing a character for over an hour? (Josh Steele is AWESOME in the role, by the way!) 

Tech is done, there are no more rehearsals with the storytellers scheduled.  Wednesday night, we kick things off with "Pay What You Can" night.  Andy Antle is joining us on the guitar, then Mark Lutwak will be there the rest of the weekend, with his accordion and melodica. 

This could become an annual tradition if things go well, so we hope you'll come down and then let us know what you think!