20 SECONDS, Award-Winning Play with Music, to Make New York City Premiere in September

Winner of 2022 The Capital Fringe Festival for Best Solo Performance, Thomas Sweitzer will premiere his award-winning tale of love, forgiveness, resilience and the extraordinary power of music, 20 Seconds, in New York City for a limited six-week engagement, September 10 - October 21, 2023. Written and performed by Sweitzer, with direction and development by Jeremy Scott Blaustein (Producing Artistic Director of Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre), 20 Seconds will play The Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street). Opening night is set for September 21.

Tickets are on sale at www.20secondsplay.com 

To a young Tom Sweitzer in 1970s blue-collar Pennsylvania, homemade meatballs were an Italian mom’s cure-all. Husky pants from Sears were a necessary evil. And dad’s schizophrenia and alcoholism were the fuel to a nightmarish fire. That is the life Tom knew and endured until one day, he ran out of the house and into the church across the street. There, he met a woman who gave him a gift that would alter the course of his life: music. Through song, Tom found a haven, a passion, a career, and a purpose. But above all, it gave him the language to accept loss, let in love, and forgive the demons of his past.

20 Seconds is an inspiring testimony to the uplifting power of music at all stages of life. Music provided companionship when Tom couldn’t find it in a destructive home. Years later, music shaped Tom’s career as a therapist, allowing him to augment his penchant for song with clinical, research-based practices.

In his inviting solo performance, Tom weaves storytelling with original song and nearly a dozen colorful characters. Over the 90 minutes, audiences meet the Sunday school savior, the compassionate but ailing mother, the tortured father, one foul-mouthed parrot, and many more. As you follow him through his journey, you’ll hear the music that shaped his healing, and, as the church bells chime across the street, experience the powerful 20 seconds that mended a scarred relationship between a father and son.

"Tom Sweitzer is a composer and artist with vision, and he delivers an emotional and compelling autobiographical performance. He survived extraordinary challenges in his childhood and discovered a talent for music that, as a Music Therapist, enables him generously to give others what he never received. This is a portrait of resilience and forgiveness." - Renée Fleming 

20 Seconds features scenic design by Lindsay Fuori, costume design by Emilee McVey-Lee, lighting design by Jamie Roderick, and sound design by Bill Toles, who also serves as production manager. Melissa Erikson is the production supervisor and Aaron Grant Theatrical is the general manager.

20 Seconds is produced by A Place to Be, Mrs. Jacqueline B. Mars, Teresa Wheeler, Milton Sender, Ben & K.C. Graham, with Barbara Schaufeld,  and Shannon & Jim Davis. Aaron Grant serves as executive producer. Associate producers include Lysa & Carl Hutton, Mark Ohrstrom, Alice Rogoff Rubenstein, Dr. Gary & Tina Mather, Greenway Manor, Drs. Rae Stone and Kent Allen, Sheila C. Johnson, The Killinger Family, and Judith Washburn.

A Place to Be is a nationally recognized, award-winning therapeutic arts organization creating inclusive communities for clients and their families that promote optimal health, a sense of belonging, and hope through the power of community, performance, and the creative arts therapies.
 

BIOGRAPHIES

Tom Sweitzer

(Writer and Performer) is Co-Founder, Creative Director and Head of Music Therapy at A Place to Be, a non-profit organization serving over 300 families weekly, offering Music Therapy in Northern Virginia. Tom holds a B.F.A. in Music Theater, a Graduate Certificate in Music Therapy from Shenandoah University and a Master’s in Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music. Tom has created several therapeutic musical productions that focus on acceptance, diversity and empathy that toured schools and beyond. His rock opera about suicide prevention, A Will to Survive, was performed at the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center. He has collaborated with Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center, writing and directing their first fully-inclusive and disability focused production for the children’s theater and education department. He was an adjunct professor at Shenandoah University and consults as a Music Therapist across the country. Tom's favorite roles in regional theater have been Leo Bloom in The Producers, Horton the Elephant in Seussical which he had the honor of playing several times but nothing has been as challenging and rewarding as playing himself, his family and others that have made an impress on his life. 

Tom received the title Loudoun County Humanitarian of the Year in 2014 and in that same year was invited as a guest to The White House for his work with disabilities. A Place to Be and Tom were awarded “Best Music Therapy Provider of the Year” by the American Music Therapy Association in June 2017. That same year he was honored to be a guest at the “Sound Health” conference hosted by The National Institute of Health along with renowned opera star, Renee Fleming and NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins. His choir, “Different Strokes for Different Folks,” a group comprised of stroke survivors through Inova Hospital sang alongside Renee Fleming. He continues to educate people about Music Therapy with Mrs. Fleming on Music and the Mind, most recently at Tanglewood, and on her own podcast. Throughout Covid he has facilitated a nation-wide on-line support group featured both on NPR and ABC News. Tom is a subject of a new documentary, Music Got Me Here, along with one of his heroes, Forrest Allen, a young man with Traumatic Brain Injury who found his voice and courage again through Music Therapy. “Music Got Me Here” is on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. The Hollywood “narrative” film of “Music Got Me Here” is in development with MGM Producer Irwin Winkler, and starring “The Outer Banks” star, Chase Stokes as Forrest.

Tom is dedicated to growing A Place to Be and its mission to help people face, navigate, and overcome life’s challenges through Music Therapy. He enjoys inspiring, entertaining, and educating while presenting in front of audiences as an Actor, Thought leader and Music Therapist.

Jeremy Scott Blaustein

(Director and Development) is the Producing Artistic Director of Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre (in Winchester, VA - ssmtva.org) where he has directed productions of Jersey Boys, Grease (Best Director and Best Production, BroadwayWorld Awards), Ragtime, Mamma Mia!, Hairspray, and The Pirates of Penzance (Best Director and Best Production, onstageblog.com). In London’s West End, he directed the headline grabbing Truth, Lies, Diana. He is also a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominated producer. Broadway: Bonnie & Clyde, Chinglish, The Merchant of Venice (with Al Pacino), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, A (with Dame Edna), Race (with James Spader and Kerry Washington), Superior Donuts, Desire Under the Elms (with Brian Dennehy), Reasons to be Pretty, HAIR (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, Grammy Award), Blithe Spirit (with Angela Lansbury), You’re Welcome America (with Will Ferrell, as seen on HBO), Speed-the-Plow (with Jeremy Piven, Elisabeth Moss, and William H. Macy), and August: Osage County (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Pulitzer Prize). National Tour: August: Osage County. West End: HAIR. As an actor, he has earned several Helen Hayes Award nominations (Washington, DC). He is also a published author. BFA: Shenandoah University; recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

The Pershing Square Signature Center, the permanent home of Signature Theatre, is a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature’s three distinct playwrights’ residencies and foster a cultural community. The Center is a major contribution to New York City’s cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a studio theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Café + Bar, open to the public Tuesdays–Sundays. For more information on renting the Center, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org/rentals.