PREVIEW_ ‘Inform Me What You Realized Tuesday,’ a one-person present by Tom Truss, returns to The Foundry Oct. 27–29
The wildly gifted Tom Truss brings the most recent fruit of his more-than-30-year profession—spanning dance, theatre, choreography, stage path, and schooling—to West Stockbridge for a three-performance run of “Inform Me What You Realized Tuesday,” at The Foundry, August 19 and 20. Photograph courtesy of Amy Brentano.
“I let my psyche free and my creativeness run wild and what got here out is [this show],” says Tom Truss of an extremely darkish comedy that sheds mild on life—however largely not his. “I obtained bored with creating dances and theatre items about my [lived experience].”
Editor’s be aware: This story was initially printed on August 6, 2023 for the premier of Tom Truss’ newest work at The Foundry. The textual content has been edited to mirror new October showtimes.
West Stockbridge — If there’s an elephant in the lounge that’s Tom Truss’ newest work, it seems within the guise of an enormous stuffed panda that’s entrance and heart—each actually and figuratively—on the in any other case stark set of his forthcoming present, one which hinges on the concurrently irreverent and reverential journey right into a queer boy’s life and the fun and sorrows alongside the way in which for Flynn Johnson (a particularly dependable narrator) and his wacky household.
“I let my psyche free and my creativeness run wild and what got here out is [this show],” says Truss of an extremely darkish comedy that sheds mild on life—however largely not his. “I obtained bored with creating dances and theatre items about my [lived experience],” says Truss of his seismic artistic shift to fiction, the results of a four-year journey with director Amy Brentano that included one pandemic, a trio of showings, myriad detours, and a number of suitcases and tales Truss had been holding onto for many years.
In mid-July, I watched with bated breath as Truss employed bodily theater (for which he’s each well-known and extremely regarded), monologues, and enjoying a number of elements to grow to be the Johnsons, a unusual and troubled Washington, D.C.-based household, whose collective treasures and tragedies Truss unpacks round their eating room desk—most notably throughout a tell-me-what-you-learned-Tuesday themed dinner. Truss doesn’t miss a single beat: He embodies every character’s voice, motion, and mannerisms flawlessly and left me rapt with consideration lest I miss a single piece of the equally riveting and disturbing story that permits for infinite layers—together with the genesis of the Magic 8 Ball, one (incontinent) household canine, and a century-old tree to angsty teenagers, the Vietnam Battle, and dying—to be revealed and handled. Or not.
What ensues is an trustworthy—albeit darkish—comedy that revisits a second in a younger queer boy’s life by way of his grownup eyes. A storyteller at coronary heart, Truss dives deep into household, (typically unfulfilled) needs, intercourse, rising up queer, and ideas for getting by way of the shit of life. Because the twisted household’s matriarch says to her sad daughter, “Some folks say you carry all that stuff with you wherever you go … it’s your baggage till you unpack it. However I’m glad to say that I’m not a type of folks; I consider that you would be able to depart all of it behind and switch your self into no matter you need!” That mentioned, she’s additionally a PK (a preacher’s child) who seemingly spouts sermons every time she opens her mouth. As Truss turns himself into eight totally different members of the Johnson household (every with their very own audible tic, if you’ll, resembling every little thing from mosquitoes to motorboats), he unpacks every character’s distinct and symbolic baggage in an effort to free himself of the burdensome weight it has grow to be.
The award-winning actor, dancer, and choreographer’s artistic work has been carried out at The Kennedy Heart, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Pageant, New Zealand’s Wellington Fringe, American Dance Pageant, On the Boards, Dance Place, and The Foundry to call just a few—in addition to in parking heaps, rivers, furnishings shops, and automobiles. At current, Truss will be discovered educating artistic motion for kids, a web-based class for the Mind Damage Affiliation of Massachusetts, and a movement-based storytelling class for Berkshire immigrants.
“Tom Truss is a multi-talented artist whose mind is bursting with imagery, phrases, motion, pleasure, and sorrow,” says Brentano, a theater artist and educator whose long-term dream—to accumulate a bodily house the place difficult, new work will be supported; unheard tales will be given a platform; and artists beneficiant of spirit can convene and produce work that questions previous concepts—got here to fruition in March 2019 when she opened The Foundry, a multidisciplinary arts venue within the coronary heart of West Stockbridge. Within the ensuing years, her spirit has been fueled by collaborations like these she has cast with Truss, of whom she provides: “His artistic course of is fascinating to witness, and it’s been sheer pleasure to collaborate with him on this highly effective piece. It poses many questions, which makes for very thrilling theater.”
NOTE: “Inform Me What You Realized Tuesday” will play at The Foundry on October 27 and 28 at 8 p.m., and October 29 at 3p.m. Tickets are $15 upfront, $20 on the door, and nobody shall be turned away for lack of funds. As sexual assault figures closely into the narrative, this present is meant for an grownup viewers and isn’t appropriate for kids. View the 90-second trailer under.
The wildly gifted Tom Truss brings the most recent fruit of his more-than-30-year profession—spanning dance, theatre, choreography, stage path, and schooling—to West Stockbridge for a three-performance run of “Inform Me What You Realized Tuesday,” at The Foundry, August 19 and 20. Photograph courtesy of Amy Brentano. “I let my psyche free and my creativeness run…