“There’s laughter in the room as Jude Treder-Wolff opens her second storytelling slam ‘mostly true things’ one Saturday evening with her own penned song about small fibs and big omissions. ‘we all do it,’ she says to the crowd. ‘we all twist the truth.’
In fact, that is the basis of the night’s event. to hear four stories and figure out which three contain some lies and which one is the absolute truth. ‘its to get people to listen and engage,’ says Treder-Wolff, a psychotherapist and a creative arts therapist….
‘it was a really profound experience,’ says (Alicia R) Peterson (one of the storyellers). ‘it was a nice feeling to be so listened to.’ that dynamic was felt by the audience as well. ‘Its different from anything I’ve seen,” says Suzanne Coughlin, 48, of Smithtown. ‘I believed everything.” From the Thursday Nov. 20 feature article about (mostly) TRUE THINGS in New York Newsday. **
CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE SHOW ON NEWSDAY.COM
Writer, Performer and Real-Life Therapist Jude Treder-Wolff Talks ‘Crazytown’
LI News, July 26, 2013
“He was the nicest guy you never want to meet,” said Treder-Wolff, Licensed Certified Social Worker, Registered Music Therapist, and Certified Group Psychotherapist. The show, her comic take on a shocking encounter with a deceptive, dangerous person, opened at the Midtown International Theater Festival last week.
“It’s a full-length show in storytelling style, complete with original songs that were co-written by my musical director Wells Hanley,” she said.
“The show looks at the mistakes I made,” she said. “The show is relatable because everybody makes mistakes. You can either quit and not try again or you can learn from your mistakes and be better for them. This looks at what kind of person I was that he knew he could play me. It shows what changes I made as a result of going through this. This experience could have been tragic. Instead it turns into a big learning experience.”
This is Wolff’s first solo, full-length original show although she has done stand-up and cabaret.
“There’s an edgier, riskier element in telling a true story. I made a big mistake. It’s not easy to share,” she said. “But it’s that element of risk that makes the story that much more alive.” READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ON LI NEWS
Q & A With Jude Treder-Wolff on NYTheatre.com, April 19, 2013
What is your job on this show?
writer/performer.
What is your show about?
A comic take – and true story – about how an encounter with a psychopath helps an over-eager therapist get over herself…when nothing else seems to be working.
What type of theater do you like most to work on?
Maybe it’s my slavish, midwestern Catholic background – especially the fact that I was named for St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless situations -but I am most satisfied by working on projects that seem impossible to pull off: original material that is both hilarious and deals with serious struggles we all face in life. With original songs. And characters. Writing all my own material always seems impossible to do well – and by “well” I mean funny, interesting and meaningful to an audience – but I absolutely love the experience of performing my own material. Because when it works, when audiences connect in that way that cannot be faked, there is nothing quite as satisfying.
Complete this sentence: My show is the only one opening in NYC this spring that…?
1) Was inspired by a psychopath-(NOTE: No psychopaths were hurt or exploited in the creation of this show) 2) Is 55% funnier than any other show with “psychopath” in the title, according to research studies I just made up. 3) Is a low-carb, gluten-free, free-range comedy treat! 4) Features an important life lesson about psychopaths: that spotting one is the “Where’s Waldo” of real life. READ ARTICLE ON NYTHEATRE.COM
Q & A With Chicago Sun-Times, August 29, 2012
Want to know what your therapist is really thinking? Yeah, me neither. Writer/performer and yep, therapist Jude Treder-Wolff is here to tell you though. Her one woman show Crazytown: My First Psychopath hits the Chicago Fringe Fest this week. A comic take on an over-eager therapist’s wake up call, Crazytown evolved over years of solo performance work. Treder-Wolff spoke with Our Town about the relationship between art and therapy and how to nurture a heckler.
Our Town How do performance, therapy and writing relate?
Jude Treder-Wolff From my perspective, an effective performance, therapeutic process or piece of writing deals with some kind of transformation. A person who begins in one circumstance or state of mind, faces obstacles, tries various ways to overcome the obstacles and is changed by the process. It may not be the change one envisioned or even wanted at the start of the process, but that is often because in facing down the obstacles we discover things – inner strengths, hidden connections between events or people, secrets or truths that redefine the problem – that could not be discovered without those obstacles. The role of performer and therapist are linked in the sense that an effective performance takes an audience through some kind of emotional experience, but entirely different in every other way. As a psychotherapist, my opinions, feelings, and concerns have to be put to the side so I can give my full attention and connect as deeply as possible to the person or group in front of me. The role is about good listening, good timing and creative guidance to help a person discover their own strength, creative capacities and path out of the problems they face. The performer role is me with my big opinions and big mouth out in front of people sharing what I really think about things. Being a performer made me a more effective therapist because I had this outlet to express ideas and work through my own perfectionism, fear of being judged, negativity, desire for control and disappointments which continue to flare up all the time in the process of creating or writing anything. Working through those issues has the side effect of expanding awareness about other people and their stories, which translates into being a more effective therapist.
OT Molding real life events into a story with a compelling narrative arc can be tough. How did you go about deciding what was interesting to you vs what might interest an audience?
JTW This is a great question. Just because something interesting or dramatic happened in real life does not make it viable as an entertaining story onstage. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ON CHICAGO SUN-TIMES WEBSITE