A night at the theater tends to mean seeing a play. But something far more low-key and informal — a person standing at a microphone at a bar or restaurant and telling a personal story — is a form of theater, as well, and it has a strong foothold locally.
Several storytelling events take place across the Chicago area each month, where the barrier to entry is significantly lower than that of traditional theater, for both audience (you can get up to use the restroom without risking dirty looks) and storytellers (who run the gamut in terms of performing experience). Some events include a cover charge; others are free. Some assemble the lineup of performers ahead of time, others are open mics.
One quality uniting them all: A focus on personal storytelling.
“We use the term ‘real’ rather than ‘true’ stories, because we’re not journalists, so we’re not fact-checking somebody’s story,” says Amanda Delheimer, the artistic director of 2nd Story. “The litmus test we use is that an audience member can walk up to the storyteller afterwards and say, ‘Oh, that happened to me, too,’ with the understanding that the storyteller isn’t going to then say, ‘I made it up. That was fiction.’
“We believe that people sharing their experiences with each other is the thing that ties us to each other and connects us to each other as human beings. So we’re trying to create a space where that can happen.”
At 2nd Story’s upcoming show on Jan. 25, Delheimer says one story is about “a young woman coming to terms with her complete misunderstanding of how the IRS works and the consequences thereof. Another is a beautiful ode set during the early days of the pandemic; the first line of her story is, ‘I didn’t touch another human being between March of 2020 and April of 2021.’ And the third one is about this guy who is in his first year of teaching and just completely gets his ass handed to him. He’s 21, teaching 17-year-olds, so it’s about how he learns to be himself in the midst of this absolute mayhem.”
Storytellers come from a variety of professions, including doctors and computer scientists, but it seems to draw an unusually high number of school teachers, including Scott Woldman, who will be performing in Highland Park as part of Short Story Theatre’s next performance on Jan. 22. He has been telling stories on stage for two decades. “I’m a middle school teacher and I was an improviser a long time ago,” he says. His upcoming story concerns a subculture that feels alien to him:
“My daughter is a travel softball player — an elite athlete who is going through the whole college recruitment thing — whereas I am not really an athlete, or ever expected to be related to an athlete. So I’m going to be talking about how I don’t fit in with the other parents. I’m not a jock, but they don’t really want to talk about anything other than softball. Both my wife and daughter are constantly worried that I’m going to do something to embarrass them. So I’ll be sharing that slice-of-life.”
Short Story Theatre was created by Donna Lubow, who was inspired by the work of 2nd Story. “I said, oh my gosh, this is so much fun, why don’t we do it in the suburbs? Because nothing at that time had been done in the suburbs.”
It’s a relatively simple start-up process. No set or costume designer is needed. You don’t need to license the rights to a play. “All you need is a microphone and some lights,” says Lubow. “And a music stand for people who don’t have their stories memorized.” She initially drew from her own circle — “even my dentist wound up telling a story and he became a standup comedian because of it.”
Some storytelling events are curated. Others are more of a free-for-all, including The Moth StorySLAM, which is competitive. Friendly. But it’s set up as a competition. Here’s how it works:
Before each show, “I scan the room to find three judging teams,” says regional producer Esteban Alarcon. “This involves me approaching a group of attendees, asking if they’ve been to a Moth event before, and if they’re signed up or planning to sign up to tell a story. These are our prerequisite questions, since a ‘yes’ to any of them means they cannot be judges. The judging teams give each storyteller a score and the storyteller with the best average score wins and gets a certificate (signed by yours truly and that night’s host) and they get an invitation to perform at the Moth GrandSLAM.”
Are any topics off-limits?
“Pretty much nothing is out of bounds,” says Woldman, “but I don’t really talk about my job or my students. And as I’ve gotten older, I try to not share things that might embarrass or upset someone in the story. That hasn’t always been the case; sometimes my approach has been, if you don’t want to be in my story, then act better!”
Scott Whitehair produces a number of storytelling events in town including StoryLab, This Much is True, Story Vroom Vroom and Do Not Submit, the latter of which takes place in multiple locations through the city each month: “It’s an open mic that is free from judgment, pressure, critique or scoring. We call ourselves obnoxiously enthusiastic,” he says.
“We decided to spread it around geographically because sometimes when there’s an event on the other side of town, it can be tough to get there. And we found that when we started to create these different nights, we also got people coming from right in the neighborhood. People who might go to a pizza place for an open mic aren’t necessarily the same people who would go to the Hopleaf to have some beers, so it’s a variety of atmospheres and a variety of locations that create a lot of different opportunities for people to come out.”
What makes a story performable?
“I don’t believe in bad stories or bad storytellers,” Whitehair says. “We all have things we’re working through. I tell people, if you get up and share something that you want people to know about your experience, that can only come from you, you’ve done it correctly. We want you to be a part of it. If you’re a human being, you can do this.
“Of course, there are people who have been around storytelling in Chicago who have really polished their stories and get a lot of opportunities, and that’s exciting and it’s fun to see them. But you also have people who come to these nights and they’ve never done anything like this before, they don’t have a performance or even a writing background, and they want to share their stories with people — maybe they came for a sandwich and a beer, their friend brought them along, and they think, yeah, I got something I want to say — and they’re as celebrated and accepted every bit as much as someone who is a longtime storyteller.”
2nd Story takes a different approach. “We have a multi-month process that shepherds people through crafting their experience into a narrative to share with others,” says Delheimer. “Some of it is realizing that your audience can’t pause or rewind. They can’t turn the page back and reread the sentence. So how are you going to craft the story so that somebody that’s listening to it for the first time can follow along? How are you going to bring the audience along?
“One way to animate a story is to ensure it includes characters, in a setting, engaging in action or dialogue. And how much you slow that action down or speed it up can help create a film or television show inside somebody’s mind — that they can imagine this story as I tell it to them.”
Also, the willingness to share something that has remained hidden up to this point, or makes you feel uncomfortable. “You don’t always have to be the hero of your story,” is how Delheimer explains it. “The best stories are vulnerable to tell but also to hear — that as an audience member, you really feel like we are doing this tender thing together.”
According to Lubow, a story needs a moral or a universal theme. “Something that people can relate to. And it should be something fresh and new, with a little twist maybe. Constructing any type of story, you want to construct a solid beginning, middle and end — people need to know when your story is over. But we’re looking for a variety of things. We’re looking for stories that can make people laugh. Sometimes we get stories that are very sad and you cry when the storytellers themselves start crying, which can be so touching. And usually we ask that there’s a bit of dialogue in the story, because it just makes it come alive more.”
What about artificial intelligence?
In a moment when some have no qualms using generative AI to compose everything from eulogies to wedding speeches, it seems inevitable that this would affect the storytelling world, but that doesn’t seem to be the case yet, according to event producers.
“I guess we’ll see how it plays out,” Whitehair says, “but I don’t know that it would be very fulfilling for that person or how much they’d enjoy it.” This is a sentiment echoed by his fellow storytelling producers.
“That feeling of sharing something, in your voice, from you — there’s no replacement for that,” he says. “And I would imagine if folks want to use AI, they will feel that magic is lacking. Because if the end goal is ‘I want to get a great story,’ well maybe a computer can write a great story, but it’s not your story, even if it’s based on your experience. So I’m hoping if there is more of a reliance on AI, people quickly realize, oh, this sucks. I’m not too concerned about that as a producer of events.”
The intimacy and immediacy of being in person
This comes up often. As Whitehair puts it: “It’s a person talking to you. There’s no fourth wall — we’re never pretending the audience isn’t there. It’s a slightly more formal version of something we do on street corners and train platforms and bars.”
And while The Moth is unique in that it is also a podcast, the draw of a live event is that it only happens one time.
“I see the value of podcasts, but I haven’t personally delved into that because I love that these stories live in this moment and that’s it,” Whitehair says. “Even if you hear that story 30 more times at different venues at different times, it’s never the same because it’s never the same group of people, it’s never the same conversation, it’s never the same reactions. Stories I first did 10 years ago are very different now because I’ve changed as a person, but also this world is very different, so the context might feel different. And the listeners bring themselves to it, so you don’t know what someone is going to find especially funny, or hit them right where they live because they just went through something like it. That connection is different every single time. And that’s what keeps people coming back as listeners and as tellers. So whatever it is in that moment is what it is, and I think that comes across: This is special. This is happening right now and will not happen this way again.”
Our commonalities and our differences
A consistent throughline mentioned by all the producers is the feeling of connection that often exists between the storytellers and audiences who relate to their experiences.
But sometimes it can be just as compelling to hear a story and think: I would never make those choices. I would never want to live that life. It’s healthy to be presented with someone else’s experience and a viewpoint that is different from your own. A person standing in front of you telling you about their life is a fundamentally humanizing act, rather than what tends to transpire on social media.
“We have our shared humanity,” Whitehair says, “but we can also go ‘Oh, wow, that’s very different than what I would do in that situation,’ and you’re seeing them as a human who is making a decision and it doesn’t feel so alien to contemplate that. There isn’t necessarily a judgment attached to that.”
Here is a roundup of some of the regular storytelling events in the Chicago area:
Short Story Theatre: A storytelling event in Highland Park featuring real stories from people’s lives. There is no regular schedule, events happen periodically. Next show is Jan 22 centering around the theme of “family tales unplugged” at The Art Center Highland Park, 1957 Sheridan Road.; shortstorytheatre.com
2nd Story: A curated monthly storytelling event (rather than an open mic) with a straightforward but meaningful mission: “We want to live in a world driven by empathy. We believe that stories are what bind us to each other. Therefore, we create spaces where people can share and deeply listen to one another’s stories.” Next show is Jan. 25 at Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph St.; 2ndstory.com
The Moth StorySLAM: An open-mic storytelling competition focusing on true, personal stories about that night’s theme, lasting no longer than five minutes. Open to all. The next show is Jan. 20 at FitzGerald’s and the theme is “tightrope”: “Prepare a five-minute story about big risks, sneaky sidesteps, and treading lightly. The time you found yourself in territory so treacherous that one wrong move might crack the whole surface. Flirting with catastrophe, the texts you shouldn’t have sent, the secret you let slip, the gamble that cost you everything. Did you narrowly miss disaster, or did you plunge right through?” Twice monthly, alternating between The Den Theatre in Wicker Park, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., and FitzGerald’s in Berwyn, 6615 W. Roosevelt Road, themoth.org/events
Do Not Submit: A series of free open mics that take place monthly across the city, wherein “people from all walks of life and backgrounds can come together each month to connect through the sharing of personal stories in a safe, supportive environment free from pressure, judgment, or scoring. No experience necessary.” Venue and date varies depending on location, which includes spots in Andersonville, Berwyn, Bridgeport, Edgewater, Glenview, Lake Forest, Lakeview, Libertyville, Lincoln Square, North Center and Printer’s Row; donotsubmitchicago.com
Story Lab Chicago: A monthly event featuring people “from every walk of life and experience level to share their true personal stories with packed houses of attentive listeners. Each show is an unpredictable mix of the hilarious and the heartbreaking, featuring memorable tales from your friends, neighbors and fellow Chicagoans.” Third Thursday of every month at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro, 3905 N. Lincoln Ave.; storylabchicago.com
This Much is True: A curated monthly storytelling event featuring true, personal stories from a new group of people each time, from the “heartbreaking to the hilarious and everything in between.” Past storytellers have included chefs, theologians and “Saturday Night Live” alums. Second Thursday of every month at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro, 3905 N. Lincoln Ave.; thismuchistruechicago.com
Monday Night Open Mic: An open mic hosted by the Chicago Public Library, where people are invited to “share a work of your own creation” or simply attend as an audience member. Last Monday of the month at the Chicago Public Library’s Rogers Park location (6907 N. Clark St.); chipublib.bibliocommons.com