Gather Around the Dinner Table for a Storytelling Series

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 13, 2011 7:00PM

A newish monthly literary reading series and potluck, Here’s the Story, is happening tomorrow night. Each month, they’ll bring five readers to Stage773 at 1225 W. Belmont. Five audience members get to tell stories, too. They can tell any sorts of stories, be they fact or fiction. Audience members get 50 points to doll out between the walk-up stories, and the person with the most points gets invited back the following month as a featured reader. We’ve been to amateur reading events, and events with only published authors, and from our own experience, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve been published in a literary journal or not; writers of all calibers have great stories to tell, so we look forward to a friendly mix of both.

For tomorrow night, Arlene Malinowski, Joe Janes, Aaron Carter, Stephanie Douglass and Jennifer Burns, last month's Here's the Story audience winner, have been invited to read. As far as the audience readers go, it could be you! Get there by 7:30 p.m. to put your name in the running (and chat with other folks and swap your own stories), and you’ll know if you made the cut by the time stories start at 8 p.m. Here are the rules for the potluck: “You don’t have to bring anything, but if you want to yay! Don’t bring alcohol, or anything you don’t want to lose. We will thank you so super duper extra much! That’s a Promise.” So there’s a game element and of course the eating element, which makes storytelling that much more fun.

If you can’t make it tomorrow night, the Here’s the Story crew is also organizing a gargantuan tag game at Harrison Park on Saturday night. There’s not so much storytelling involved in that one, but 200+ people have already RSVPed, so could be super interesting.

Here’s the Story, Wednesday Sept. 14, 8 p.m., Stage773, 1225 W. Belmont, free - but bring some chow for the potluck!