From Coodinator of Living Wisely, Dying Well programs in Newton, MA 2018
You hit all the essentials with your play back and deep listening. I am in awe of what you do: in understanding the story teller and gently revealing what they may not even have known. With gratitude, Claire Willis, licensed clinical social worker and co-founder of Facing Cancer Together.
From Project Hope staff retreat
TST was absolutely fantastic! They created a safe and open atmosphere for staff to share their feelings.
True Story Theater enabled us to take on issues in a new way, which is much more powerful than just talking about them at meetings and much safer. Phenomenally helpful!
From a teacher of oral history at Codman Academy School
These kids lives are full of violence, at home and on the street, and those were the stories they told. I was amazed that they shared such intense things from their lives–it was like a flood once they started.
It was very healing, and it helped me get to a deeper level with them in my teaching. At the end of the classes, in their evaluations, they listed the work with you among their favorite things of the year.
From Associate Dean, Simmons School of Social Work, Carol Bonner
True Story Theater helped our faculty to resolve conflicts related to leadership transition and tensions of our multicultural organization.
In three sessions we were able to move into more constructive dialogue and new alliances. The result is the work of our School is now more productive, effective, and fun.
From audience members of a public event
Your performance was an incredible experience for me. I was particularly impressed with the instant community created in the theatre space. I’ve never felt so comfortable to talk to those around me. I’m not quite sure how you created such an atmosphere, but I cherish having been a part of it.
Your troupe gave the audience such permission to be real, honest and present. Often audiences are asked to be the opposite. This theatre that you created worked magic in that room!
-Aliza Yarrow, Community Theatre Artist
The world can be a place of disconnection. Your performance reminds us of our connections to each other, instead of the fear, hatred, and disconnection that we experience and hear about.
-Marjorie Attignol Salvodon
From Director of the Theological Opportunities Program, Muna Killingback
You never fail to amaze us in your ability to capture the emotional essence of the stories that people tell you from their lives. It is done with such compassion and depth that even when we hear others’ stories all of us glean insights into our our hearts and motivations. You truly help us feel our common humanity.
From Technical communications manager, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Tori Orr
Everyone on my team appreciated the chance to do something unexpected and unique that challenged us to take a more creative approach to problem solving.
From a conference coordinator
True Story was most powerful in our conference on extreme poverty. The troupe demonstrated an extraordinary ability to listen deeply to the testimonies of the presenters, and then they courageously and skillfully brought life to their experiences.
Having spoken with many of those who attended, audience participants were moved to a new and deeper place in their understandings of extreme poverty. The troupe gave the audience of over 100 people a great gift.
Donna Haig Friedman
Director, Center for Social Policy, McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
University of Massachusetts Boston
From the coordinator of the Health Care Dimensions Hospice:
You got to the heart of our stories. The healing and validation that comes from your work is remarkable.
Mostly we work in the homes of our patients, in isolation from the rest of the team. Volunteers often tell me about feeling isolated. By experiencing our stories through your troupe, that isolation is broken. I had a deep sense of how shared our whole human experience is!
From the Minister at the Central U.C.C. in Jamaica Plain, MA:
I brought in True Story hoping the congregation might open up their bottled feelings and begin to deal with the grief our community was then experiencing.
You surpassed my expectations! You made it safe for people to open up; I was impressed by how much got on the table in such a short time. I appreciated how refreshing and real the event was you had our rapt attention!
From a member of a support group of former prison inmates and friends/ family:
THANK YOU for the beautiful work you did with our circle last night! Your depiction of my story was funny and touching…really hit home.
Truly amazing sensitivity and incredible listening on the part of your entire company. To boil our words down to such an articulate, accurate essence is art of the first order! Many people in the circle which followed remarked on how struck they were by your work.
The way that the True Story troupe told our group’s history, based on the brief synopsis you so deftly elicited from one of our members, was remarkable! It had some real healing effect which I’m not sure you can be aware of given your limited knowledge of the group’s history. Suffice it to say, our story needed to be told and hasn’t been told before really.