An Experiment in Storytelling (The Other Side of The Weekend)

Well, that happened.

That’s one of my favorite things to say after a show because it’s non-committal. It doesn’t say “That went great, I am so proud of myself!” or “That went bad, please assuage my vanity.” It lands in the middle.

In my mind, it concedes a small amount of success because it implies that the show did, in fact, go on.

And last Friday. It Did.*

I was trying something new. An experiment in storytelling, as indicated in my previous blog post. And, as with any experiment, there were some hiccups. Tech issues that sent me running back home 45 minutes before we were to start. Audio for the “Plan D” that we ended up using wasn’t working even though EVERY indicator that I checked showed me levels and was responsive. I was flustered and thus did not properly introduce the event or myself. My friend Brian, who was one of the first to speak, said it best… “This whole thing is weird.”

Then, we took an intermission.

When 7 people returned after intermission, I was happy.

When each of those 7 people shared a story, I was elated.

When one of those 7 people (who had never been to our theatre before the event on Friday) came back to see our mainstage show on Sunday, enjoyed herself and promised to come back….I am not ashamed to say, I almost cried. Well, maybe I wasn't going to cry, but I was really really happy.

Well, that happened.

And I certainly hope it keeps happening.

*In all the craziness of the evening, I did not get a chance to properly thank all the people who participated. Special Thanks to:

David J. Loehr – Davidjloehr.com

Dave Charest-DaveCharest.com

Rebecca Coleman-Artofthebiz.com

Travis Bedard-Cambiareproductions.com

Chris Ashworth – Figure53.com

Scotty Iseri – Scottygotanofficejob.com

Monica Reida (fragments) who “skyped in” from Iowa.

And Paul, Brian, Andy, Pearl, John, Jesse, Chelsea, Hank, and Tim who all shared stories.

If I left anyone out please forgive me and come back to the next one which is TBA.

***UPDATE*** I've finally put up a couple of the videos from the 360. You can find them on my vimeo channel here. There are a couple on the 360 vimeo channel here. also-Dave Charest has moved domains...he's now at DaveCharest.com.

An Experiment in Storytelling

I'm putting together a Multi-media 360 Storytelling event on Friday the 14th at Strawdog Theatre. There will be live storytelling, pre-recorded storytelling via video, and other types of storytelling (see below)....oh, and the bar will be open.

"Oh, no!" you say, "I can't make it to Strawdog Theatre in Chicago on Friday night at 11pm. I'll be in Little Rock organizing my Chuck Dovish's Traveling Arkansas VHS collection."

You're in luck! If you can't make it out to Strawdog Theatre in Chicago on Friday night at 11pm you can watch via the INTERNETS!!! (caps lock borrowed without permission from @travisbedard and the above word "INTERNETS" is actually a "Link" that will take you "here"-http://www.ustream.tv/channel/somestorytelling)

"That's awesome, Kyle!" you say, "I'm super excited about this and I would like to participate!"

Well, you are also in luck! There are several ways to play!

Experiment 1-

Come and listen to stories and share a story of your own! We'll get started around 11pm at Strawdog Theatre in Chicago on Friday Night. There is a $5 cover that will go to pay the charge for the space. Any additional funds will go back to 2amtheatre.com to fund more theatre ideas like this one!

Experiment 2-

I'd like to read a fictional "And then" story written by the twittersphere. I will take all the posts that have posted with the tag "#360exp" from now until Friday May 14th at 6:00pm CST. I will read the "story" towards the end of the event on Friday. It will most likely be a beautiful mess but I'm interested to see what happens.

Experiment 3-

Skype a story- if you are not in Chicago (or in Chicago and trapped in your pajamas) and want to tell us a story, you can Skype in from where you are! Iceland? Turkey? Logan Square? Just Skype to khambone360 and we'll put you in the line up.

Experiment 4-

Got any ideas? I'm listening.

Also if you want to tweet-up or follow along on Friday-we'll be using the tag "360s"