Opening weekend of Singlehandedly! faced tough competition – that bright light in the sky revealed itself for the first time in weeks, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival was in high gear, and the Blazers rallied to beat the Mavericks over at the Rose Garden.
But that did not stop people from making their way over to Hipbone Studio – the power of story pulling them into the black box performance space with eager anticipation of the personal confessions, secrets revealed, and identities claimed. It was packed.
This is the third year for Singlehandedly!, a storytelling solo festival hosted by Portland Story Theater, in which storytellers take the stage with no props, costumes, special lighting, music or co-stars, and deliver stories that strike a chord of shared humanity with everyone listening.
The tellers don’t try to shock people with hilarity or tales of gruesome embarrassments. No. These are stories crafted to reach out and grab you. Real. Authentic. True. But that’s not to say there weren’t a lot of laughs. In fact, one audience member wondered “is this part of the comedy festival?”
The storytellers included Ryan Wolf Stroud, Lynne Duddy, auGi aka the SexyNurd, Kristin Olson-Huddle, Brad Clark and Joseph Boyd. Each night had a feature-length debut. Ryan Wolf Stroud told a tale of coming full circle in his quest to break free from his past. And Kristin Olson-Huddle made peace with the loss of a lifetime.
Each evening there was a different combination of stories that took the audience on a journey. Some told us their faces hurt some from “trying not to cry,” and others “from laughing so hard!”
Singlehandedly! continues this weekend featuring the voice of the MAX, Enrique Eduardo Andrade, telling Interpreting America With A Queer Face; PST co-founder Lawrence Howard telling The Night On The Island; Portland actor and author, Sharon ‘Shay’ Knorr with The H Words, Joseph Boyd, founder of Stories from The Inside, with Resurrection; and Kristin Olson-Huddle retelling Going On, which received a standing ovation on opening weekend.
The Singlehandedly! Solo Performance Festival continues Fridays and Saturdays through May 13th over at Hipbone Studio. It looks like the rain and hail and gray skies are back, so gathering in the studio to listen to stories will be a welcome repose. The Singlehandedly! website has details about each storyteller and when they will be performing. Seats can be reserved by calling 503-793-5484.
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