True Stories

These three original pieces were written, directed, and performed by recent graduates of the Art of Acting Studio Professional Conservatory. Developed in 2017 as a classroom project, each is an artistic and creative exploration of the life of a notable person throughout history.

Craving new stories about SWAT teams, crayons, and pole dancing? I get it. Unfold a beach chair, pop open a cold one, and drink them all in… with even more absurd, true stories told by me, Keith Blaney. Live music: Nikki Kelly. Winner: Best Storytelling Show, NoHo Fringe 2017. http://fckfiction.com

Judy Garland is angry. Tasked with dictating her memoirs alone to a tape recorder, the legend's life story quickly gives way to the searing inner-rage & personal revenge fantasies of a woman left robbed & broken by decades of abuse in Hollywood, now living the profound heartbreak of not being heard.

Hilarious and moving, this story follows a girl with OCD through the struggles & triumphs of treatment and the quirky shenanigans of growing up anxious. It explores the stigma of mental illness and comedic growing pains of change. Written/performed by Daytime Emmy winner Jessica Carleton.

A solo comedic retrospective of a young man growing up in a New York eastern religious group, enhanced by original music and compelling visuals.

A gonzo retelling of true events exploring the mechanics of belief, the power of the ego, and the birth of mass marketing as satisfied patients, skeptical experts, and sacrificial livestock respond to the unusual medical techniques of the worst doctor and best scoundrel America has ever seen.

A riff on Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, UNREEL recreates a foolish young man's uncertain journey to his dark side the night before his college entrance exams. A comedic journey about the confusing truth of Kiergegaard's maxim: Life must be lived forwards, but it can only be understood backwards

Devised from true life experiences of the company members, Escalation D explores the spectrum of consent, from the seemingly innocuous platinums to the life altering deep dark grays. You will laugh, you will cry, you might need a drink --- but our hope is to inspire respectful discourse.

An one man show from Matthew Gudernatch, who touches on what it was like to lose his mother at a tender age. There are stories, songs, jokes, and other attempts to turn all of the unending pain he's endured into a fun performance with maybe just a pinch of male nudity. (It's a comedy)