Truman Capote Comes to Life on Sandwich Town Hall Stage

The Sandwich Arts Alliance continues its theatrical exploration of the inner thoughts and experiences of noted artists who led interesting lives with TRU, a one-man play by Jay Presson Allen based on the words and works of Truman Capote.

TRU will be performed on the Glass Town Stage at Sandwich Town Hall on Friday and Saturday, June 10th and 11th at 7 pm and Sunday, June 12th at 2 pm. Doors open a half hour before each show and there will be a talkback with the actor and director after Sunday’s matinee. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door, online at www.sandwichartsalliance.org, or at the SAA Center, 124 Rt. 6A, Sandwich.

TRU is the second of the three-part Village Drama Triptych series created by the Sandwich Arts Alliance. “We started in March with William Luce’s THE BELLE OF AMHERST about Emily Dickinson. Now we’ll find out more about Truman Capote in TRU”, noted SAA performing arts coordinator Todd Herrmann.

Actor John Weltman, who has performed to sold-out audiences across the Cape and New England, becomes Truman Capote, reflecting on the highlights and low points of his life as an author and socialite in Manhattan in the 1970s.

Many recall Truman Capote as the author of “In Cold Blood” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” He was certainly one of the most high-profile writers of his day, having taken up with the lives of the rich and famous.

TRU is set in 1975, just after Esquire Magazine published a few advance chapters of “Answered Prayers”, a tell-all shocker he was working on about the intimate details of his friends. As columnist Liz Smith said at the time, “He wrote what he knew, which is what people always tell writers to do, but he just didn’t wait till they were dead to do it.” Capote was ostracized by the reaction to what he had imagined would be his masterwork and this sent send him into a downward spiral.

“That’s where we meet Truman in this gripping play – in his Manhattan apartment overlooking the United Nations building, with his stocked bar and chocolates,” added Herrmann. “Similar to THE BELLE OF AMHERST, TRU combines both comic and tragic elements that only an experienced actor like John Weltman can pull off.”

Local Sandwich resident Carol McManus is the director while Erin Trainor will be serving as technical director and together with Weltman, all three are well known to Cape Cod audiences, particularly from their work at the Black Box at Cotuit Center for the Arts and other theater organizations.

The final play in the three-part Village Drama Triptych will take place this fall with William Luce’s THE LAST FLAPPER about Zelda Fitzgerald. Each of the famous people featured in the series struggled with inner conflicts while pursuing their arts and their place in society. For more information visit www.sandwichartsalliance.org.