Top prize at Solo Theatre Festival comes from ‘The Wind Is Us’ performance

(press release)
NEW YORK – Colorado actor Eddie Schumacher took home the Best Actor Award at the Off-Broadway United Solo Theatre Festival for his portrayal of Truman Capote in The Wind Is Us: The  Death that Killed Capote, a play by Mike Broemmel, another Coloradan. Extending over three months in the Theatre Row complex on 42nd Street, United Solo is the world’s largest solo theatre festival. Winners are selected by an independent panel of over eighty theatre professionals.
Schumacher’s performance is described as “capturing Truman Capote brilliantly – his iconic style, fondness for vodka and scotch whiskey, penchant for name-dropping and bestowing nicknames, and of course Capote’s signature gestures and way of speaking. Schumacher takes the stage as Capote after death to tell us his story. He charmingly captures Capote’s body language and storytelling style — moving from one story into a variety of winding side trips before coming back to the main point — and every bit of it enthralls. When Schumacher reads an excerpt from In Cold Blood at the Algonquin, we see that the intricate detail and poetic description that playwright Mike Broemmel uses in his script are true to Capote’s writing form. It would be easy for an actor to stumble over some of the wordier lines, particularly while speaking in Capote’s sibilant, high-pitched voice, but Schumacher clearly and convincingly brings Broemmel/Capote’s words to life.”
The Wind Is Us is the second production by playwright Mike Broemmel to be invited to and run at the prestigious festival. In addition, another of his plays, When Strawberries Bloom: The Creation of Golda Meir, is slated to premiere in 2025 both at the United Solo Festival Off-Broadway and simultaneously in Denver, Colorado. “I get a sincere sense of joy when a play I’ve written permits Colorado creatives the opportunity to showcase their efforts in truly meaningful arenas, like a major Off-Broadway theatre festival,” Broemmel said.
Schumacher has started his third year in the production. The next major stop for The Wind Is Us  is the Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics this spring in Northern Ireland in March 2025. Plans are in the works for an encore performance of the play in Denver, Colorado, in February.