Homecoming — Altoona native brings off-Broadway piece to Mishler
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Altoona native Tom Sweitzer brings his one-man, biographical play "20 Seconds" to the Mishler Theatre on March 2 for two performances about the triumph of love and forgiveness.
Fresh from a six-week off-Broadway engagement this fall, Sweitzer's play tells the story of how his turbulent and often abusive childhood in Altoona transformed after being exposed to music and performing.
An award-winning show, it was previously entitled "Meatballs and Music." While the message of the play is about forgiveness, the play's mature subject matter is recommended for ages 18 and older.
Today, Sweitzer, 51, lives in Leesburg, Va., and is the co-founder and creative director of a nonprofit music therapy practice.
While happy with his life and career as a music therapist and his other creative pursuits, Sweitzer said his off-Broadway experiences at The Pershing Square Signature Theater in New York City "stretched" him like none other.
"Personally, this is the first time in my life where I feel my potential has reached my ambition -- I've never been stretched so far," he said. "I always knew theater was healing but having this experience in New York with an audience I didn't know was so healing for me. It really validated for me the healing potential that's in the arts and in theater."
Also rewarding were his interactions with audience members at the end of each performance when he would ask them to think of a person in their life that they have to forgive. Then afterward, while signing autographs he heard the audience member's intimate stories.
"It was the most invigorating experience because I got to do my dream. I got to do theater. And, I got to do my other dream which is to have what I created affect people on a visceral and Though the generosity of A Place to Be and benefactors K.C. and Ben Graham, Sweitzer is thrilled to return and perform in Altoona and is donating ticket sales to the Blair County Arts Foundation, steward of the Mishler.
"I want to give back to the place that saved me. I love my hometown. Music saved me and that theater saved me. At the Mishler and growing up in the '70s and '80s, the Mishler was the place I could see productions and be in productions. It became an escape for me," he said. "I'm coming back because I care about my hometown -- it's a place that I love. I come home often and I love the people there," he said.
A matinee and one evening performance is planned at the Mishler on March 2 and a minimalistic set is planned and allows the audience to "fill in the blanks," according to John Rita of Altoona, who is a long-time friend of Sweitzer and is doing the set design for the Mishler shows.
"The set is secondary. Tom is a very powerful performer," Rita said. "It's a one-person show and has him journeying through time. So the set gives certain clues ... and creates a space that the actor can go into and tell the story."
Carol McCracken of Altoona and Deb Pensyl Reasy of Bellwood attended the off-Broadway show and plan to attend the performances at the Mishler because of its impactful messages of hope and forgiveness.
McCracken, a retired junior high school chorus teacher, said Sweitzer's troubled homelife came as "complete shock." She also knew Sweitzer's father as he was the school's custodian. When she interacted with him he was proud of his son and "like a completely different person from what I see on stage."
Children, she said, usually become quiet and withdrawn when dealing with difficulties.
Yet, Sweitzer when he was her student "was never quiet. He was high energy and aware of everything," and had a sense of humor that "could turn an awkward situation into something hysterical," McCracken said.
"Thank God that he is so spiritually based that he could find the right path to get him out and to help him cope. His spirituality and the light in him that got him where he is. He has such a pure spirit," she said. "I think there is an important message (in the play) that there is hope and that there is a way out of the darkness."
Pensyl Reasy said the mood on the bus while returning to Altoona was "very quiet and subdued.
You could just feel that we were all reflecting on it and it continued with us. That's such an important part of the play is how it makes us think and makes us reflect for so long after we've seen the play."
As Sweitzer's longtime friend, Pensyl Reasy said she's seen the play many times through its development.
"Each time I see it, I learn more from it. I'm able to reflect more from seeing it. It reaches deep inside you," she said. "There are aspects of it that make you very sad and will even make you cry. However, when you look at his life and everything he has done and continues to do, it gives all of us reinforcement to find the good in life and to find the positive in life and continue on."