In Memoriam: Jennifer True, Co-Founder DBP NYC
Jennifer Lee True
1969-2022
We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of our dear friend, actor, producer and Disgruntled Bit-Players (DBP) New York founding member, Jennifer Lee True, on August 3, 2022. Jen once described herself as “emotional, sensitive, quirky, loyal, slightly guarded and a realist.” She was also hilarious, intelligent, kind, and an incredible talent.
Jen was in the original cast of The Immorality Plays written by one of DBP Seattle’s co-founders and performed at the 1997 Seattle Fringe Fest and at Theater Schmeater in Seattle. Jen was a founding member of DBP NY in 2001. She was in DBP’s Night of Shitty Theater at the 2002 NY International Fringe Fest and DBP’s Cows of Love at Caroline’s on Broadway in NYC. She had several roles in The Prick, co-produced by DBP in 2002.
Jennifer was born in San Diego, California in 1969 and moved in the late 1970s with her family to the Pacific Northwest. She started acting professionally at the age of 12. Jen participated in Northwest YouthChoir from 1984 until 1987. She graduated from Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington in 1987 where she was on the drill and badminton teams and was active in drama. She received her BFA in acting from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts in 1990 and performed regularly in theater and film for the rest of her life.
She played Meg Brockie in the national tour of Brigadoon directed by John Sharpe in 1993 and starred as Nicki in Seattle’s Civic Light Opera’s production of Sweet Charity. She was Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Mary in Run for Your Wife and Lead/Ensemble cast in The Big Broadcast at the Northwest Summer Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene in the summer of 1994. In 1995, she played Elvira in Blithe Spirit for Interplayers in Spokane and Cherie in Bus Stop for the Village Theater in Issaquah. She was Karen in Speed-the-Plow and Audrey in As You Like It for WindowLight Theater Company/Productions in Seattle in 1996.
In 1997 Jen married and moved to NYC in 1998. She lived for years on West 190th Street in Manhattan, in close proximity to Fort Tryon Park where she’d often take her beloved pitbull mix, Miss Pogo. In addition to her work with DBP-NY, she was an original cast member of MACABARET!, a comic cabaret show that ran for over a year at Don’t Tell Mama in Manhattan.
After her divorce, she moved from NYC to Port Orchard, Washington, where she worked with Diablo Productions and Key City Public Theater. She received an honorable mention in the Kitsap Sun’s “Best of” for 2017. She was also in several commercials, TV series and films, including Shifters, Music of the Spheres, and Ruckers. Jen was a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.
Besides acting, Jen also wrote poetry. At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, she was living in a remote cabin in Pacific Beach, WA where she started writing a poem every day as a writing project. In 2022 she moved to Los Angeles, where she started culinary school.
Jen is survived by her sister in Olympia, Washington, her niece, and various aunts and cousins. Her mother Penny and father Richard predeceased her in 2006 and 2009.
We thank Jen for sharing her talents with us, the laughs and friendship. Jen will be remembered for her hearty laugh, her hilarious tales, her intelligence, her kindness, and her compassion. She will be forever missed.
–DBP
