East Hartford Public Library Hosts Storytelling Show

The East Hartford Public Library will host Speak Up Storytelling for an after-hours “salon show” on Saturday, September 23 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7:00). Tickets are $15, purchased at the door or online through the library’s events calendar.

Speak Up is a Hartford-based storytelling organization that seeks to promote the art of personal storytelling to a wide audience and foster and support a community of storytellers in Connecticut. Speak Up brings professional and amateur storytellers to the stage to share true stories from their lives. Shows are produced by Matthew and Elysha Dicks. They are hosted by Elysha Dicks, and Matthew Dicks serves as one of the storytellers for the evening.

Speak Up’s salon show is a more intimate and interactive night of storytelling. Four storytellers tell hilarious, heartfelt stories on the assigned theme without notes. The first half of the show features two of the storytellers, followed by a question-and-answer session, during which the audience and the host can ask follow-up questions about the stories. These can be questions about the content of the story (“What happened next?” or “Does your mother-in-law speak to you anymore?”) or about the process that the storyteller went through in preparing the story (“Did you memorize that whole story word for word?” or “Why did you decide to end your story there?”). This is followed by a ten minute intermission.

Before beginning the second half of the show, the storytellers will participate in an interactive storytelling improv that requires each of them to generate a brand-new true story on the spot based upon prompts from the audience. This is high stakes storytelling without a net! You never know what will happen. Following this interactive game, the final two storytellers tell their stories, and the evening ends with a final question-and-answer session. It’s a night of unforgettable storytelling where the audience is given a voice and even some say in what stories are told.

This show is the kickoff event for the library’s monthly MILE programming series, at which millennials, new adults, and the young at heart are invited to gather at the library for a nibble after work followed by a great program. Future events include “Meet the MakerSpace” on Monday, October 16 from 6:00—7:30, and a craft program, “Metal Stamping,” on Thursday, November 16 from 6:00—7:30. Both events are free of charge.

Purchase tickets for the Speak Up show and learn more about upcoming programs at the library’s events calendar: www.easthartfordct.gov/library. For further information contact Sarah Kline Morgan, Library Director: smorgan@easthartfordct.gov. The East Hartford Public Library is located at 840 Main St., East Hartford, CT 06108.