Post-Pandemic, there are all sorts of things happening as the world settles into ‘new normal’ and finds its footing once more. That of course is true in the world of theatre, with companies getting back on their feet, some companies— regrettably— closing their doors permanently, and other companies springing up and getting started. It’s always exciting when a new theatre company gets under way in the Baltimore area. TheatreBloom is excited to be supporting— to borrow a quote from La Cage Aux Folles— all the old friends, the new faces, and all the old friends with new faces! Truest Ethos Theatre Company (a new face with old friends?) is getting its start and currently operating out of Chesapeake Arts Center, and we’re going to talk with the founders (some of those old friends…who have been around the Baltimore area theatre scene for a while) about their new company.

Thank you both for giving us the opportunity to sit down and talk to you about your new company! If would start by telling us who you, how you two came together, and what was it that brought you together to start a theatre company, that would be great.

Maxwell Wolf: I’m Max and we go by Truest Ethos Theatre Company. To give you a little background, Marshall and I met back in 2019? I know that seems like forever ago at this point. But we were doing Guys & Dolls at Artistic Synergy of Baltimore and I was originally cast as Benny Southstreet. Marshall was in the ensemble. But I was also playing Jack with Phoenix Festival Theatre in their Into The Woods at the same time. Because there were some conflicts, I ended up having to drop the role in Guys & Dolls and slide over to the ensemble. Marshall filled my shoes as Benny with great strides. He was wonderful.

Marshall and I stayed friends ever since and since then we’ve collaborated on a few short films, they’re actually on YouTube. They’re a lot of fun. We also worked together on another musical called He Is Risen, which Marshall wrote the music for and we worked on the book together. We had a really great professor at CCBC, Marshall had a really great relationship with him. We workshopped the musical together and did two runs of it. Marshall, help me out with the timeline here, since that’s your baby.

Marshall Logan Gibbs: We workshopped in January of 2022 and that was going to be a public workshop but then Covid sort of slowed things down. We still did it for ourselves because we’d been working on it for a month, but then we came back and did a public reading in April of 2022.

Max: The first time we had some teachers from CCBC and they gave us really nice feedback, but it was closed, unfortunately, due to Covid.

Marshall: So in Spring of 2021 we did a little preview of the show, featuring two songs at a festival of student works at CCBC. Then we did the full thing this year, first closed in January and then in April.

Got it. So was this musical— He Is Risen— the impetus for coming together and forming a theatre company because you needed an auspice under which to produce this show?

Max: Yes but no. Yes, we wanted to produce He Is Risen but it also sparked the idea of ‘hey, there’s more to this than we think.’ We want to do more than just He Is Risen but we also want to do He Is Risen. That’s kind of how Truest Ethos was formed.

Marshall: That was my first time, as a writer, being able to see the process of a developmental workshop, getting feedback from an audience, which was so valuable. I’m a brand-new writer. I’m 22. But I realized there’s not a lot of brand-new theatre in the area, at least not theatres dedicated to doing new original works. And there doesn’t appear to be theatres that give you an opportunity to workshop and get that feedback, I wanted to do more of it. We needed to do more of it. There isn’t a good, established company out there that’s working on new works, providing you with that opportunity to get that feedback and letting you have that first step into presenting your writing to an audience.

That is a perfect segue for my next question of what exactly is it that you’re trying to do with Truest Ethos Theatre Company, other than give people a tongue twister when they try to say it? Why not just try to workshop some of your ideas to other pre-existing companies? Baltimore was fairly saturated, at least in ‘the before’ of the Pandemic, with a bunch of DIY-Theatre companies and Fringe-Cusp Theatre companies dedicated to exactly what you’re talking about. I know, unfortunately, quite a few of them did not come out as active or producing on this side of things. But I always find it fascinating when a new theatre company pops up because they must feel that they have something to offer, some need that isn’t being fulfilled in the current theatrical climate of the area, that other companies aren’t already providing. I’m curious as to what you guys think that might be for Truest Ethos.

Max: Like you said, the pandemic did wipe out quite a few of those types of theatres. In this new age renaissance of Baltimore theatre, we need more of that. As two young guys on the scene, we have lots of friends who are young and eager to get their works out into the main air. Since we’ve started this, in the few months that we’ve been accessible to the public, we’ve had so many people reach out to us. People who are our friends, our colleagues, our collaborators, who have said “we have something we want to put-on, we have new works, interesting ideas, and new concepts.” As a company, we want to do more than just shows. We have ideas for cabaret nights, devised theatre, etc. This is speaking years down the line, but we’d love to get an improv troupe going as well. Anything that is provoking the idea of “new ideas” or “new concepts”. Taking what you know and putting on top of its head. Like you said, there might be other companies doing it, but after Covid, it just seemed like there was a big lack thereof.

Marshall: This is kind of the first step. It’s really a catch-22 with a lot of preexisting theatres. It’s a risk to take when it comes to producing or workshopping a brand-new writer, who has never done this before. You’re young, you’re inexperienced, but you have to have someone to take that first chance on you in order for you to get that experience. I’m really geared toward other fresh, college-aged, new writers. We have the ideas. We just need the outlet. What made this a reality, to me, is that I work at Chesapeake Arts Center as an education assistant. I’ve been talking to them about this. And they said “we love supporting new artists. We love supporting those who are on the grind and putting out new stuff.” As someone who works at Chesapeake Arts Center, I was able to get a discount on the rental space, which is the biggest hurdle in starting a new company. I thought we would be crazy to pass up an opportunity to work with an organization that is so dedicated to young artists. So we have an ‘in’ with the arts center.

Max: We just took that and ran with it. We started filing for 501_c3 status, and that takes a while, but we’re trying to take all the right steps to really get this thing off the ground. I’m good friends with the people over at The Heritage Players. And they’ve been a great help, pointing out things I didn’t know, helping us through all the steps. It’s difficult being young. We’re doing this completely on our own. We’re self-funded. We have no outside help at this point. We’re doing this for the first time and it’s kind of poetic. Or chaotic, however you want to put it. Maybe both. But we’re young and this is the time to do crazy, new things that are fun. So let’s do it. Marshall and I have been talking about starting something like this, literally since we met. And now we’re just going for it.

You’ve talked all about the what and the why…but where did the name ‘Truest Ethos’ come from? How did you two settle on that?

Max: This is a great one. I’m going to let you tell it.

Marshall: Haha! Okay. So this started with me and Max. I wanted it to reflect that. But I also wanted it to reflect the kind of work that we want to put out.

Max: We love a good double entendre.

Marshall: Right. Since I took over as Benny Southstreet in Guys & Dolls, the name is an anagram of ‘Southstreet.’ Truest Ethos. You’ll also notice the little ‘tie’ in the logo. That’s another little nod to Benny Southstreet. The tie is also singing. Now, it also speaks to the work that we’re passionate about. We love very honest stories. We love stories that provoke thinking and that explore our shared sense of humanity. Max and I have had many long night talks of morals, life, and what it means to be human. “Truest Ethos” it sounds cool, it’s a tongue-twister, it gets you thinking, and it’s that anagram of ‘Southstreet’ which brings it all the way back to the beginning of our friendship, where we got our start. So it’s all those things in one.

You’re going to be playing out of the Chesapeake Arts Center black box theatre for the foreseeable future. What is your production model? Is it more of a “project-by-project” as you encounter things that fit your operational goals you’ll produce them? Or are you looking more at a ‘structured season’ like the traditional approach that most theatres around here take? What is your production model?

Max: Currently what we have in mind is more ‘project-based.’ By the end of the winter we would like to have a winter-time cabaret. And the working title right now is “An Evening With Ethos.” It’s going to be a nice night. Very chill, laid-back vibes. Stripped-back, no set, minimal light cues, and people with new ideas. We’ll have monologues, short scenes, songs, and very open. Probably a pay-what-you-can experience; we’ll just put a donation bucket out at the front door. We want that event to cultivate a space for new artists— both writers and performers, even if they’ve never been on stage before. We want them to be able to get up and do something that they’re proud of.

After that, we’re hoping to do a full production of He Is Risen. It is our next idea for a big show. 2023 future, we’re hoping. The musical is still being written.

Marshall: Act II is still in progress.

Did you want to talk about He Is Risen, as it keeps coming up? Or did you want to save that for a future interview/review coverage article?

Marshall: I would love to focus more on the production we have coming up. Our first production is coming up— August 26 & 27, 2022. It’s called Scam Artist. It runs about an hour. It’s a one-act play that I wrote. I wrote the first draft back in 2019. It’s been in progress for a while and has been through quite a few drafts and revisions. It’s about a woman who makes her living scamming the elderly. She lives a life without many morals. She makes bank and she’s good at it. But then she learns that her own grandmother was scammed shortly before the grandmother died. And it starts the thought process of ‘maybe what I’m doing isn’t great.’

Max, are you involved with Scam Artist in some way?

Max: Oh yeah. I’m producing. I’ve known about this project since it was originally titled Confidence. And Marshall didn’t flex— so I’ll flex for him. The script won an award. It was part of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s writing contest that his family runs, that the estate runs. You can flex, Marshall, go ahead!

Marshall: This piece started as a screenplay. I submitted it— BlueCat Screenwriting Competition— like Max said, it’s run by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s family. It was a quarter finalist and that competition and it was the community collage humanities association— which is for all of the community colleges in the eastern part of the US— it won best script from them so that was pretty awesome.

You’ve got a company underway. You’ve got an upcoming production, with plans for a cabaret night in the not-too-distant future, and you’ve got long-term plans for a full mounting of a musical, as well as an improv troupe. What is it that you are hoping will draw people to want to work with Truest Ethos Theatre Company?

Marshall: What I am hoping is that when we do our cabaret in the winter, we bring in a whole bunch of writers. Then we will have an open call for submissions for fuller works. I wouldn’t say we’re against ‘staged readings’ by any means. But I would love to get new productions, by new writers, on their feet. Movement and spectacle and design are huge elements of theatre that are overlooked in your first development of a show. It sparked something in me when CCBC gave me that awesome opportunity to workshop my musical. To actually have a music director come in and work with us was invaluable. I should have mentioned earlier, it’s a zombie musical. So we had zombie makeup on the performers. We didn’t have a full band or full staging, but it was so much more than just script in hands and words being read. It really did spark something in me. As a writer, getting to really see it come to life on stage was just so inspiring. We want to be able to give that opportunity to other new writers. We want them to be able to see their work come to life outside of that standardized script-reading setting. Would you agree with that, Max?

Max: I agree with every word. I think that is a very good way of putting it.

Marshall: I love spectacle in theatre.

Max: It propels the show further than a stage reading does because you really get to dive into what makes theatre theatre. The total melting pot of what goes into creating a production is so much more than just the words of the script. Getting a show on its feet is magic. It’s way different than a stage reading.

Do you have a format for what you’re hoping will be season proposals or how you’re going to go about reaching out to new young artists and writers? Are you going to hold open calls, are you going to fish around or use friend-recommendations? How do you intend to entice new, young writers and performers to get involved with Truest Ethos?

Max: We have a Facebook page. We have a website as well. And we plan to be very active on both of them. I believe we’re going to be taking submissions on our website for new works.

Obviously you two seem to enjoy working together. But what would you say, at this point of Truest Ethos’ infancy, would you say has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

Max: As the producer, my experience has been very different from Marshall. So far, the works have all been Marshall’s babies, he’s directed them, he wrote them. But for me— this boy’s gotta fund it. Managing finances and figuring out how to pay for things has been a challenge. I’m not trying to go broke but also this is what I want to do and this is what makes me happy. I work full time, as a waiter, so I’m self-funding and that can be challenging. And that’s part of the challenge too— I don’t want to be self-funding forever; I want this to be a 501_c3 so that it can be fully funded and survive.

Marshall: In the future, I will just say this here and now. I do not want to direct my own writing. It has been so much heart-wrenching cutting of the script in order to make it work. I would love to have someone else cut it for me and to tell me what works and what doesn’t. Because many babies I have cut out of this upcoming show. Many long monologues that worked well in my head but then did not translate well on stage. We’ve cut all the fat and hopefully that will reflect in the production.

Max: It is a tight watch. It is a tight, tight watch. 60 minutes. One hour. It’s great. It’s like a firework.

 

Is this upcoming production— this tight watch— a one-person show?

Marshall: It’s actually four. They’re a great bunch. We have Randi Seepersad and she is our lead in Scam Artist. And she is awesome. She has a lot of local theatre credits lately.

Max: Broadus Nesbitt has done a lot of stuff at CCBC but our other two— Jake Devries and Darian Grade— they’re both relatively new to the theatre scene in this area.

How did you go about finding these four actors for this project?

Marshall: I did a virtual casting call over Facebook. I blasted it on my personal account and through the group Baltimore Theatre Exchange. Broadus, Jake, and Darian I knew because I’d worked with them at CCBC, we’re all alum. But Randi was brand new to me and did a great submission video. She was just in two different shows at Cockpit in Court this past summer, both Dot and Once On This Island.

What is it that you’re hoping, as Truest Ethos grows, that people will take away from either working with this company or being a part of this company?

Max: I want them to have fun. At least from who we’ve worked with so far, not many people have done devised theatre or works that are not previously established. So it’s a chance to have a fun experience that is different. Scripts get cut, like Marshall said, there are constantly new pages being printed, and you never know what’s going to get added or be changed. It’s fun and new and I think people are going to find a lot of joy in that.

Is your goal to perpetually be new, never-before-produced or performed works?

Marshall: The way I would like to frame our ever-changing mission statement, that will be solidified very soon, is ‘a focus on brand new work.’ But I am no opposed to taking an existing work if we can flip it on its head and do something completely new with it. I’m a big fan of the Oklahoma revival. What I loved about it was the fact that you didn’t have to change a word of the script to create something completely new with it. I do have some ideas floating around that run in that vein. But there has to be a reason to take a pre-existing thing and flip it into something new. And that comes back to “Truest Ethos”. We want to tell stories that are honest. We want to tell stories that make us think and that have a purpose.

Max: This is very fresh, we were literally talking about this yesterday. I sit in the camp of, ‘if there is a reason to take something pre-established and do something totally different with it by flipping it on its head then I am all for it.’ But it has to be a good reason. There has to be a definitive, solid, good reason for it. That’s all I’m saying.

I wholeheartedly agree with that. I don’t want to hear about anyone mounting a production of Les Mis on the moon because they thought it would look neat to have Jean Valjean in a space suit.

Max: Exactly. No Les Mis on the moon. We like to play to the human spirit and things that play with our heads and our minds. It needs to be cerebral; it needs to be different. It can’t just be Les Mis on the moon.

Fantastic. Is there anything else that you’d like to say about the about the company and its development that we haven’t touched on yet?

Max: I think we’d both like to say thank you for reaching out and giving us a platform to express what’s happening with Truest Ethos, so thank you for that! But I do think we actually covered everything we wanted to talk about!

Marshall: Yes thank you. But the one thing I do want to say is that I don’t want this company to be exclusive to works written by us. And I know it looks a little like that right now. First play? Written by me. Musical in the wings— also written by me. But that’s why we want to do that cabaret. Neither of us will be putting any of our own writing into that cabaret. We want to bring everyone else who has ideas they want to share into that show rather than just stuff we’ve written. Our next full production, we’ve talked about for the future, we want it to be of someone else’s work. Someone who is not us. This company is not a vanity project and I don’t ever want it to become one. We’re making a home and a space for new works, not just our new works and we want people to know that.

Truest Ethos Theatre Company’s next production is Scam Artist, which plays August 26 & 27. 2022.

For more information on future productions and about the theatre company in general, click here.