Portland Story Theater has been invited by Windy City Story Slam to compete in the First Ever National Story Slam in Chicago on Sunday, June 13
th. It’s all part of
Printer’s Row Literary Festival (think Wordstock, only Chicago-style).
One week from today,
Lynne Duddy, one of the co-founders of PST, will be Portland, Oregon’s champion in the national competition and the competition is stiff.
Bill Hillman of Chicago’s Windy City Story Slam is hosting and has invited people from all over the country to compete in this prestigious event. People like Anthony Bedard representing San Francisco’s
Porchlight and Regie Cabico from Washington D.C.’s
Speakeasy will be there, along with a plethora of talent, including nationally known storyteller,
Nancy Donoval. With these heavy-hitters, it feels a bit like the battle of David and Goliath, but Portland Story Theater is ready to accept the challenge.
Each teller only gets five – that’s 5 – minutes to make or break their place in the competition. But this should be no problem for Lynne who has been telling professionally, crafting stories, and coaching others in the narrative arts since PST’s inception in 2004.
All stories in the Nationals must be true, personal stories. And, as you know, personal story is what PST is all about. Lynne's work in personal story has been described by The Oregonian as “raw, revealing, vulnerable.” Just a few weeks ago, as part of PST’s 2010 solo festival, Singlehandedly, some of you saw the premiere of her new solo piece, There’s No Place Like Home. The house was packed and the audience was enthralled with her personal story about the search for self, for identity, for family, for home. Lynne plans to tell a five-minute excerpt from this latest piece for the competition.
The challenge is accepted and Lynne Duddy is ready. Portland Story Theater will be a long way from the warm embrace of it’s loyal fans, cocooned in the Northwest’s organically grown approach to the world, but it is excellent that Portland is a part of this historic happening. (Oh, and she’s got her sling shot.)
Portland Story Theater
PST will be offering workshops later this summer in August on creating your own personal stories. Space is extremely limited. The setting intimate. A few of you have already let us know that you're interested. But if you haven't yet, please email us at tellers@portlandstorytheater.com. We'll be sending out details to everyone about these sessions later this month.
