Every year, in late October, the storytellers of Better Said Than Done, gather for an experiment – an experiment that has been so successful we’ve been doing it for five years!
In our 5th Annual Night at the Improv, the storytellers made up true, personal stories on the spot, as we’ve done in our 4 previous nights of improvised storytelling. Host Jessica Robinson started out the night by explaining the rules of our storytelling improv game.
The storytellers were invited to get inspired by anything that was said – by the audience, the host, the other storytellers. And, like a game of telephone, many storytellers’ stories followed on a theme.
Here’s a video of the first half of the night:
Between the first and second half of the night, all the storytellers got to share at least one story. Thank you to brave storytellers Richard Barr, Catherine Calvin, David Foxworth, Sandra Hull, Robert Lovejoy, Kathy Stershic, Sufian Zhemukhov and Michael Zhuang. Several of them were participating in our improv show for the first time.
Here’s a video of the second half of the night:
I don’t break out and publish videos of individual stories. Because they are made up on the spot, many of the stories told are more like a work in progress. In fact, I get inspired every time I participate to work on and develop a new story – either one I told a version of on stage, or one I thought of while listening to other stories or prompts.
One of the most magical things about our annual night at the improv, is that no one knows what to expect. The storytellers who volunteer are all nervously hoping they can come up with a new story on the spot. The audience is nervously hoping the show will be good. And yet, year after year I hear from storytellers and audience alike that this night of storytelling improv is one of their favorite nights of the year.
Join us next year – on stage or in the audience.
In the meantime, we have one more storytelling show remaining in 2018. Join us for “God, the Universe, and Everything: really big stories” on November 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, at The Auld Shebeen in Fairfax, VA. Bring your family to join ours. Or leave them behind if you’ve had your fill!
Details and advance discount tickets to our storytelling show here.
And one final point. Though the storytellers of our night at the improv arrived without prepared stories, they were not completely unprepared. As storytellers, they’ve been working on the craft for years. And many of them started by taking a storytelling workshop. We just happen to have one of those left in 2018 as well! At The Insight Shop in Vienna, VA. Information and registration for our storytelling workshop here!
