About the Play:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

Finalist for the 2000 Governor General's Award for Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulizer Prize)

It's All True is a high-action a dramatic comedy by Jason Sherman. New York, 1937. A young Orson Welles rises to the occasion when a pro-union musical by Marc Blitzstein is threatened with closure by the government. Locked out of their original theatre, Welles and his troupe head uptown for a one-night only staging that became a legend. It's All True is a fast-paced and brilliantly witty comedy brings to life a defining moment in the history of American theatre.

It's All True tells the remarkable behind-the-scenes story of the opening performance of The Cradle Will Rock, a pro-union musical directed by directed by 22-year-old Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman (he portrayed a crusty law school professor in the film The Paper Chase and its subsequent television series). The production was government-funded, one of many Depression-era make-work projects. During rehearsals, someone in Washington got wind of The Cradle Will Rock's decidedly anti-capitalist point of view. When funds were pulled and the theatre was padlocked, director Welles and producer Houseman took matters into their own hands and marched the actors and most of the audience down Seventh Avenue to another theatre, and in one brilliant stroke made theatre history. The author of many vital contemporary plays, Jason Sherman delves into the past to America's Depression years in a story that is packed with politics, romance, anger, sentiment, conflict, humour, and sexuality.

It's All True premiered in 1999 at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and was a finalist for the 2000 Governor General's Award for Drama. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across North America.

Cast: 2 women, 4 men but it can be (and has been) done with more

What people say:

"Delights and amazes ... brilliantly layering reality and illusion." — The Globe and Mail

About the Playwright:

Jason Sherman is one of Canada's leading playwrights. After attending York University's Creative Writing Program, he worked as an editor for various literary journals and as a journalist until he began pursuing his own writing full time. He has received the Governor General's Award for Drama (and been nominated four other times) and the Chalmers Canadian Play Award (twice, along with three other nominations). He has also written extensively for radio and television.