August 2018 – Trustus

Thanks for a great Season 33!

As we close the doors on our 33rd Season here at Trustus Theatre and begin to prepare for our Season 34, we wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us over the last year! It was an incredible season in our Trustus history—a season full of plays, musicals, and productions that opened all of our eyes and encouraged us to stay vigilant in regards to social justice, cultural exploration, and examining what it is to be human in the 21st century.

Our talented cast, crew, and directors put together some truly outstanding performances from our season opener, Barbecue, all the way through to our final play, Boy About Ten. It was a journey that we all enjoyed and we hope that you did, too! This past season alone, we featured three brand new pieces of work and two Tony Award-winning musicals.

Do you remember all of the great moments of Season 33?

We opened up Season 33 with Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue on our Main Stage.

Our first Side Door Theatre production was Building the Wall, a political thriller.

We brought back a fan-favorite, Evil Dead, The Musical just in time for Halloween with several of the original actors coming back and reprising their roles. There were even several encounters with Chainsaw Chad!

Our local comedy troupe, The Mothers, wrote their very own play to perform on our Main Stage. A Christmas Miracle at the Richland Fashion Mall was a heartwarming, hilarious tale perfect for the holiday season.

We kicked off the new year with a powerful play by Tony Kushner, A Bright Room Called Day.

In his Trustus directing debut, Bakari Lebby brought Sunset Baby to our Side Door Theatre stage. The play was even nominated for Best Local Theatre Production in the Free Times Best of Columbia awards!

The cast of Fun Home, the Tony Award-winning musical, brought the house down each and every evening with their emotional performances.

We brought a second piece of original work to our Main Stage with the production of The Restoration’s Constance—a play that featured a live band over two dozen actors.

Hir, our final Side Door Theatre play of the year, was a truly memorable play about a dysfunctional family that was brought to life by four talented actors.

The Tony Award-winning Memphis had audiences dancing and singing along in their seats during each performance.

We closed out Season 33 with Boy About Ten, written by local playwright Jon Tuttle. This play was developed over the course of a year and made it’s world premiere on our stage.

Are you ready for Season 34? We can’t wait to see you in our theatre again this fall! Tickets go on sale next week for our first production, Silence! The Musical.

Trustus Theatre Voted Best Local Theatre Company

Thank you, Columbia, for voting us at the Best Local Theatre Company again this year in the Free Times Best of Columbia Awards!

Here at Trustus, we are dedicated to high-quality productions that speak to today’s most important issues. We’re a safe place for exploration and expression of the political, the personal, and all things human. Our theatre is your theatre!

We’re honored that so many of you in Columbia also believe in our mission, and that you come out to support our actors, our crew, and our directors in each play and musical that we produce in our theatre. At Trustus, it’s always our goal to make an impact on our community by helping to create a more diverse and vibrant Columbia. To us, this award means that we’re making an impact on Columbia and we’re thrilled to be able to do so!

Congratulations to all of the other local theaters that were nominated for this award, especially to the runner up, Town Theatre!

Season 34

n its 34^th Season, Trustus Theatre is exploring the human condition through theatrical works that have been adapted from award-winning source material. They are bringing productions to Columbia that focus on the incredible strength and integrity that humans exhibit, shown through stories that focus on conquering walls, taking adventures, making discoveries, and taking courageous chances. This season features award-winning scripts, a production back by popular demand, and the Trustus Theatre 2018 Playwrights’ Festival Winner. Tickets and Season 34 Flex Passes may be purchased at www.trustus.org, or by calling the Trustus Box Office at 803-254-9732.

Trustus Theatre’s Artistic Director, Chad Henderson, says, “Our upcoming programming will be welcoming to many audiences due to familiarity, and these stories will come to life through the Trustus lens: an artistic approach that values a dedication to matters of the heart, that celebrates creative storytelling, and furthers our commitment to sharing these stories in an intimate and comfortable setting. It might shock some that the same theatre that would produce the political thriller Building the Wall or Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day would produce such well-known material as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or the musical-comedy Silence! The Musical (the unauthorized parody of “The Silence of the Lambs.”) However, let’s take a moment to consider the times we live in and what the theatre can offer us at this moment: heart, endorphins, therapy, and escape.”

Season 34 begins with Silence! The Musical, the unauthorized parody of The Silence of the Lambs by Jon Kaplan, Al Kaplan, and Hunter Bell that will run Friday, October 5 through Saturday, November 3, 2018. Remaining Season 34 productions include Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol from November 30 to December 22, 2018; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time from January 18 to February 9, 2019; Cost of Living from February 22 to March 2, 2019; 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche from March 8 to 16, 2019; The Great Gatsby from April 5 to 27, 2019; Sweat from May 17 – June 1, 2019; Heathers, The Musical from June 28 to July 27, 2019; Motherhood Out Loud from August 2 – 10, 2019; and Montgomery by Stephen Brown from August 23 to 31, 2019.

Trustus Theatre is bringing some of the most provocative contemporary theatre that you can get in the Midlands. The 34^th season includes a Tony Winner for Best Play (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and not one, but two Pulitzer Prize Winners for Drama (Sweat and Cost of Living) for theatre patrons to enjoy right here in Columbia. In addition, the season includes several special events. Misery is Optional: Recollections of Recovery is written by Trustus Company Member Dewey Scott-Wiley and Christine Hellman, and will be on the Trustus Main Stage September 5 to 8, 2018. The Love is Love Cabaret was so successful in its first year during Season 33 that it’ll be coming back during Valentine’s Day Weekend 2019. On Friday, June 7, Trustus Theatre’s wildly popular fundraiser, Vista Queen, will be back for its 21^st edition.

Flex Passes are availbale for purchase at www.trustus.org, or by calling the Trustus Box Office at 803-254-9732. Trustus Theatre wants to put the power of ticketing right in the audience’s hands. With a Season 34 Flex Pass, you will receive 8 tickets that may be used flexibly over 10 productions (7 on the Main Stage, 3 in the Side Door Theatre.) This is the best opportunity to ensure prime seats and tickets for the season—Flex Pass holders also receive priority purchasing with a special ticketing window that opens up to them one week prior than ticket sales open to the general public. One Flex Pass is $220 for an adult and $160 for a student.

Tickets for Season 34 will be available for purchase at www.trustus.org, or by calling the Trustus Box Office at 803-254-9732 one month prior to the opening day. For more information and updates on each upcoming production, visit the Trustus Theatre website or social media, or call 803-254-9732.

Boy About Ten

Trustus Theatre is bringing the latest work of South Carolina playwright, Jon Tuttle, to their Main Stage this summer. Boy About Ten, commissioned by the Trustus Playwrights’ Festival, is a savage farce about what happens to the kids when the parents don’t grow up. It’s about the effect parents’ choices have on their children—everyone wants to love and be loved, but sometimes those attempts at achieving two seemingly simple goals can go terribly wrong. Boy About Ten will open on Friday, August 17, and will run through Saturday, August 25, 2018. Tickets may be purchased at www.trustus.org, or by calling the Trustus Box Office at 803-254-9732.

Terry Spooner truly believes that if he can just stuff this angry copperhead into a canteen, his ex-wife will forget that he ever knocked her eye out during sex, and will return to the home she once set fire to. If he can just get her alone long enough to belt out a medley of adulterated KISS songs and ply her with enough Cheerwine, surely she will recall that magical night at the taco bar and reunite their two sons—one a highly-decorated Cub Scout, and the other… well, the other a boy now so damaged that he lives outside his body at the bottom of the sea.

Boy About Ten is presented by the Trustus Playwrights’ Festival and is written by Jon Tuttle, a member of Trustus Theatre’s Company Emeritus. It is the sixth and wildest world premiere of Tuttle’s to debut on Trustus Theatre’s stage. Boy About Ten is the third piece of brand new theatre that Trustus is bringing to Columbia this season, joining previous Season 33 new works A Christmas Miracle at the Richland Fashion Mall and The Restoration’s Constance. It will be directed by Trustus Company Member Patrick Michael Kelly.

“Two words: Jon Tuttle,” said Kelly. “Jon is a cornerstone of Trustus. He was a playwright in residence and literary manager for the better part of two decades, and counting this one, we’ve produced six of his plays, all of which are world premiere productions. Jon’s writing is so balanced—serious and absurd, smart and silly, poignant and whimsical—and this piece is no exception. It’s a dark farce about a family and the ties that bind as well as break us. It’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, and I just think it’s a knockout.

“There’s nothing more exciting or challenging in this business than developing and producing new work,” said Kelly. “Working directly with the playwright, throwing ideas back and forth, watching the actors uncover the characters’ deeper levels, and then seeing those ideas and discovers manifest in a new draft or a scene or a line is a real thrill. You’re a part of something that is living, breathing, and changing all the time, right up until it goes in front of its first audience. That same element of change is also the most challenging part—we could rehearse a scene several times and then the writer comes in, isn’t feeling it, and turns around and hands us a new scene—all while the countdown clock to opening is ticking. There’s a lot of pressure, but the experience is rich and the reward is great.

“If you’re a parent or you’re someone’s child, this show is for you,” said Kelly. “If you’ve ever been crazy in love with someone you never imagined yourself in love with, this show is for you. If you ever said or did something to someone you love that you regret, this show is for you. If there’s something you’ve been meaning to say to your parent or your child, this show is for you. If you like to laugh or you like to cry, this show is for you.”

Boy About Ten will run from Friday, August 17 through to Saturday, August 25, 2018 and tickets are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Trustus Theatre Box Office at 803-254-9732 or online at trustus.org. Tickets are $25 each for the general public and are $20 each for students. Opening night is Friday, August 17, at 8pm. The performances following are on Saturday, August 18, at 8pm; Sunday, August 19, at 3pm; Wednesday, August 22, at 7:30pm; Thursday, August 23, at 7:30pm; Friday, August 24, at 8pm; and Saturday, August 25, at 8pm. A Talk-Back with cast and panelists will follow the performance on Sunday, August 19th.

Boy About Ten is sponsored by Aloft Downtown Columbia.