A bunch of us went to the "Stoop Storytelling" production in Baltimore last night, and it's very cool; I think we'd all recommend it as a night of good entertainment that doesn't cost a fortune, even if the YDR isn't buying the ticket.
As I drove home I kept trying to come up with a one-word description of what I'd seen. One word felt right: Authentic.
The night's storytellers were not performers. And they were not "sources" as we sometimes label the people we talk to. They were regular people -- a former crime-scene investigator, a boxer, a woman with ongoing health problems, a man wrongly convicted of murder -- to whom interesting things had happened. And for seven minutes (or a little more) each, they stood in front of a packed theater and told their stories to laughter and spirited applause.
When we pursue and publish those kinds of stories in our newspaper, we've really done something.
I invite those who went last night to comment here and try to capture their thought about the event in one word, and a brief explanation.
My word is genuine.
ReplyDeleteWhich I realize is a synonym of authentic. So, I kind of feel like I'm cheating, but I don't actually feel bad about it, because Scott was talking smack about me recently, and I'm genuinely upset about it.
What were we talking about?
The Stoop Storytellers. Right. Listening to the seven people share their stories was like listening to your best friend talk about a crappy day at work (or a bad, in the case of one woman, several bad trips to the dentist.) The storytellers were candid, easy to relate to, and unpolished. In a word, genuine.
It's definitely worth a trip to Baltimore to check them out, it kind of gets you back in touch with the raw materials for a good story.
I'd say personal. All of them gave us a pretty good glimpse at their personal lives, in the way they felt those stories should be told.
ReplyDeleteIt got me re-inspired about what makes a story and where you can find such material.
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