True Story Theater was launched in 2001 by Christopher Ellinger. Amber Espar is the current director. Our ensemble of 17 multi-talented performers include actors, dancers, singers and musicians. In our “day jobs” we are counselors, administrators, nonprofit directors, radio producers, scientists, researchers and more. Since six of us perform at any given time, one of the delights of seeing repeated True Story shows is the ever-changing casts and the different talents we bring. Currently we’re holding rolling auditions.
Meet Our Troupe
Ajay Jain
Ajay grew up in Calcutta, India where he started acting in college to overcome shyness and stage fright. He has acted in dozens of plays in India and US and in English and Hindi. When not acting, he manages operations for an IT Staffing company and enjoys his time with his family. He also volunteers for Art of Living foundation.
Alysa Escobar
A performing artist since 2004, Alysa holds a Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling. Her healing journey from cancer deeply influenced her work. She often travels in Mexico or outside of the US and appreciates connecting across cultural differences and helping clients build a compassionate relationship with their bodies.
Amber Espar
works on business and partnership building for True Story Theater, teaches creative movement and ecology classes, and coordinates creative exchanges with Playback North America. She is a certified Dynamic Embodiment somatic movement educator.
Anne Ellinger
has been part of True Story Theater from the start. She and husband Christopher (True Story’s Director) cofounded Bolder Giving, a national initiative that promotes the stories of extraordinary givers. She is part of the team helping to launch Playback North America.
Charles Metellus
is a trained actor and drama therapist. He graduated from the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in 2007 and from Concordia University graduate school in Montreal in 2015.
Christopher Ellinger
founded True Story Theater in 2001. He brings to his leadership over 35 years as a social entrepreneur and trainer. Before focusing on his passion for the arts, he was a national presenter and award-winning author on philanthropy promotion and co-founder of BolderGiving.org.
Fatima Zahra Mahhou
Passionate JourneyDance Facilitator and engineer that inspires others in finding their inner voice and power through movement and play.
Franci Dumar
is a current Lesley University student studying Expressive Arts Therapy with interest in farm therapy. She has been a Playback artist for ten years.
Jacek Kukluk
discovered joy in performing while reciting Polish literature during his childhood in Poland in turbulent political and economic times. After moving to the USA, he trained in public speaking, contact improv dancing, and improvisational comedy. He develops software to improve the safety of cancer patients treated with radiation.
Jason Jedrusiak
is an aspiring play and drama therapist, and facilitator of yoga, theater, and social circus for all ages. Jason enjoys sharing perspective through storytelling, improvisation, and playfulness. He is a therapeutic hospital clown with Hearts and Noses and is starting a Theatre of the Oppressed group in Boston.
Johnny Lapham
is an artist, actor, singer, and teacher working with issues of male behavior, positive sexuality, and white people working against racism.
Kathleen Sills
is a professor at Merrimack College where she teaches theatre and directs. She has a masters degree in Expressive Therapies, loves to dance and is an avid Nia practitioner.
Mary Elizabeth Wheeler
is an improvisational vocal performance artist, songwriter, song leader and coach. Co-creator of the SpiritSong process and the Mystic Soul CD, she has 30 years’ experience teaching Authentic VoiceWork. She directs Indigo River Consulting, Bringing the Authentic Voice to Life.
Teresa Dias
began her career onstage at age 15, with the circus. In 1998, she co-created a trapeze act which toured North and South America and Europe, and performed for six years in Germany’s thriving Cabaret scene. Teresa holds a degree in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University.
Tonia Pinheiro
is founder of Wake Up! Works and ISEEU Theater. She uses her love of improv, and her musical, professional, communications and spiritual knowledge and skills in service to individual, social, and planetary healing and conscious living. See wakeupworks.org
Meet Guest Artists
Annie Hoffman
Annie Hoffman is an Iyengar yoga teacher and manager of Art and Soul – a space in Cambridge MA for creative/expressive arts. Her son Adrian is a professional dancer.
Amy Tai
is an educator, musician, peer counseling teacher, community organizer, climate change activist and mother of a home schooled 12 year old. She currently teaches violin at the Suzuki School of Newton.
Benjamin Warren
completed his masters in Mental Health Counseling, with a concentration in Expressive Art Therapy at Lesley University this May. He likes to bring imaginal thinking to the masses through mime performances and by drawing with strangers.
Emily Burkes-Nossiter
is a mother, teacher, artist, dancer, drama therapist, and gardener. She holds a BA in sociology from Columbia U. and an M.A. in drama therapy from CA Institute for Integral Studies.
Ari Daniel
Ari tells stories for a living, reporting on science for NOVA and public radio. His grandmother turned him onto the world of theater in middle school, and it has been a passion of his ever since.
Brandon Sloan
is a dancer, writer and bodyworker originally from Philadelphia PA. He is currently in school completing his clinical doctorate degree in physical therapy. In his free time he is probably wondering what all the craziness is about.
Caitlin Green
is a graduate of Emerson College in Theatre Education/Acting. she produced and performed “Seed of Spirit GenY,” a one woman interactive piece. Caitlin is also a yoga teacher.
Megan Lynes
Megan Lynes grew up in Boston, and is a Unitarian Universalist parish minister in Bedford, MA. She is an artist, activist, theatre fan and animal lover, and especially enjoys leading a middle school youth group.
Melissa Nussbaum
is passionate about the possibility of theater to be a tool for social justice. All the better to do it by telling stories
Paul Merrill
has returned to Boston where he is a trainer of Nonviolent Communication at NVC Boston. He is also a painter, and was lead vocalist in The Joan Group for ten years.
Priscilla H. Sanville
Prilly is an advocate for culturally responsive teaching and social justice work through the arts with more than 35 years experience in schools and community organizations. She is the co-founder and former director of the Arts, Community and Education Masters degree at Lesley University.
Shoshana Narva
is a licensed clinical social worker. She practices contact improvisation dance, authentic movement and clowning when she is not playing with True Story theatre. She loves stories!!!