ABOUT THE SHOW

Shame Monster is a powerful solo performance about family silence, inherited secrets, and the emotional cost of truths left unspoken.

Drawing on more than seventy years of family letters, journals, photographs, and personal memories, Jack McCullough traces the hidden forces that shaped three generations of his family. What begins as a child’s uneasy sense that something in his family doesn’t add up gradually unfolds into a story of buried trauma, concealed relationships, and the complicated ways love and secrecy can become intertwined. With minimal staging—two chairs and a single beam of light—McCullough embodies multiple voices from his past: a mother protecting painful truths, a confused child searching for answers, and an adult finally confronting the silence that defined his upbringing. At the center of the stage sits the “Ghost Chair,” an unmoving presence that represents the unseen force governing the family: shame.

Through moments of humor, tenderness, and stark honesty, Shame Monster explores how silence can be mistaken for protection and how shame can quietly shape a life across generations.

Ultimately, this is a story about reclaiming truth—and what happens when the person meant to carry the silence decides instead to speak.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jack McCullough (writer, actor, director, producer) Recently wrote and developed his Solo Show SHAME MONSTER. Jack’s interests span Theatre, the Motion Picture & Television industry. His career has been molded by his experiences in these mediums. Jack graduated from the original Trinity Repertory Conservatory and was the recipient of the Peter Kaplan Memorial Acting Fellowship after graduating. He has worked in Boston, Providence and New York City where he helped developed, direct and co-produce several award winning original plays, My Life in the Trenches, Army Brat, Collateral Damage in the First, Third, & Fifth International Midtown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, East Lynn Theatre Company, The Kitchen Theatre, The One Theatre Play Festival, and Lizzie Borden Live at 78th Street Theatre Lab, Polaris North Theatre, Canyon Moon Theatre, Columbus Theatre.. Jack was a founding member of The Perishable Theatre, and also performed at Alias Stage and Looking Glass Theatre in Providence RI. Jack also worked in the TV and motion picture industry for 20 years as a Set Medic/EMT caring for the cast and crew of feature films and TV series.