Beacon show will set you free
At True Confessions, a show staged in September at Denning’s Point Distillery in Beacon, three people admitted to not wearing underwear. Someone claimed they dated Jeffrey Epstein’s brother and another copped to urinating in a neighbor’s yard on multiple occasions.
Audience members made those admissions, their veracity unverified, on Post-it notes affixed to a whiteboard during the performance. On Saturday (Feb. 1), a similar event will pivot to a new theme: exposing and exploring family secrets.
“There was a blog in the 1990s where you could share a confession by sending a postcard, and the person would post it online,” says Susan Johnson, who owns Denning’s Point Distillery. “Some were cute, funny or touching, but I recall one where a guy claimed that he put a spider in his sister’s bed as a joke and it bit her and killed her.”
The show format is simple. People submitted stories of up to 600 words by email, snail mail or by dropping them into a box at the distillery. Johnson and literary agent Linda Pratt whittled the 20 entries to eight. Actors Twinkle Burke, Laura DeJesus, Alexander Florez and Marjorie Lewit will read them aloud.
To elevate the experience, a fifth actor with a comedic flair delivers witty responses to the predicaments of each story. For True Confessions, John Blesso played The Redeemer and “sounded like the voice of God,” says Pratt, “He even created a scroll and delivered wry, witty, funny commentary, but never mean — only soft landings.”
For Family Secrets, Lena Rizkallah will be Your Glamorous Judgy Auntie and plans to “do my best playing myself,” she says. “Everyone has family secrets, and almost everyone has a kooky, fun, judgmental, maybe rich, maybe drunk auntie in the family. Who better to dish than the person who has seen it all and is not surprised by anything, even those shocking 23andMe results?”
Pratt, who lives in Beacon, runs events called Twice Told in Wappingers Falls that pair writers and artists. “I use the term ‘producer’ loosely,” she says of her role orchestrating shows. “I’m just doing this dog-and-pony thing where we come to town, put up tent poles and establish parameters. What happens under the tent that night is a fun thing: People get excited, and then it’s gone.”
She met Johnson about a year ago, and they hatched the idea. “Susan wanted people to stand behind a screen or something and tell their stories, but we figured it would be hard to remain anonymous because there are no trapdoors or escape hatches,” says Pratt.
Adds Johnson: “The secrets and regrets we all carry with us can be burdensome and uncomfortable, but I figured that sharing with curious people in a live event would be interesting, so I recruited Linda to pull it off.”
The only improvisational component will be Judgy Auntie’s reaction to eight Post-it notes created by audience members at the show. “The stories speak for themselves,” says Pratt. “Some of the family secrets are just, wow. And we have a banger for an ending — it’s such a crazy situation.”
Denning’s Point Distillery is located at 10 N. Chestnut St. in Beacon. The show begins at 7 p.m.
