August 25, 2023
The play “20 Seconds,” by Altoona native Thomas “Tom” Sweitzer will be performed off-broadway for six weeks on the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd St., New York, Sept. 10 to Oct. 21.
Formerly known as “Meatballs and Music,” Sweitzer stars in this biographical, one-man show about his childhood growing up in Altoona. Sweitzer last performed the show in Altoona two summers ago, as part of the renaming of the theater stage in his honor at The Church in the Middle of the Block.
The upcoming off-broadway production culminates five years of work and gaining financing from producers, Sweitzer said, a journey interrupted by the pandemic and his own recovery from COVID-19. It gained momentum after he landed an agent after a one-night show last year in NYC, he said.