Next week I’m going back to my hometown for the first time in 25 years. Last Friday I told a story about my first campout and how I discovered I could make people laugh. Both of these things are related to the two themes we have for April’s show. “Hometowns” or “Finding where you belong.” In a way, they could be the same. Maybe your true hometown is wherever you feel most comfortable.

The place I feel most comfortable is on stage telling stories. Sometimes it feels like the only place that makes sense to me. In a few days, I’ll find out if the stories I’ve been telling myself about Alaska still hold true. I lived there for 27 years and when I left I thought I knew exactly what that place was about and who the people who lived there were. But maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I need to reframe those old stories. Or maybe 25 years later the place and the people are just who I thought they were and maybe I’m ok with that now. Who knows. I’ll report back in full on April 18 at our next show.

I’d love to hear a story about you and your hometown or how you discovered where you belong. Did you leave home chasing a dream? Do you still live in the place you grew up in and found the place where you belong somewhere within it? Did you go back home years later and discover it’s where you want to be now?

Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up and try to wing it.

All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.

The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Workshops are a great way to get feedback on a story you’re working on. Here is one I highly recommend. It’s run by two wonderful storytellers who have told many times at FGS and other shows in the area:  

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop

I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.

See you on Thursday, April 18 at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)

Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

Thanks to everyone who came out to our show last Thursday. What a night! The audience was a true star of the show. Every teller was greeted with love, applause, and laughter. Sitting at the front of the room with everyone behind me, I could feel all the energy wash over me with each new teller. 

I’m writing this away from home and don’t have my notes with me so I can’t do my usual rundown of each story. We had two wonderful first-timers tell and they both did great.  Kate and Marianna, I hope you both come back and tell more stories with us. Thanks to all the people who got up and told stories that night. We heard stories about things that happened 40 years ago and stories that were written on the way to the show about things that happened that week. That night we had everything. Thank you.

In a few days, I’m going back to my hometown for the first time in 25 years. When I told my buddy Hans, he said, “So you’ll be doing a lot of journaling, then.” Yeah, I’ll be doing a lot of writing on this trip. Twenty-five years ago I left Alaska and swore I’d never go back. I wanted to move on and put all that behind me. Now, for some reason, it’s time to go back and chase down the ghosts and get a new perspective on the past. That’s why one of next month’s themes is “Hometowns.” I’d love to hear stories from you about your hometown. You can tell the story of why you left, why you stayed, or about anything that ever happened to you there. The other theme you can choose to tell on is, “Finding where you belong.” I had to leave my hometown to find out where I belonged. I’d love to hear a story about how you found out where you belonged.

In the meantime, there are some fantastic shows coming up I want to tell you about.

Last Friday, I told a story at 7 Stories in Burien. I had a blast. This show is going on my list of places to work on new material. It’s an intimate gathering but very welcoming. Join their meetup group if you’d like to get their invites.

https://www.meetup.com/7-stories

This Tuesday, March 26, there’s a staged reading of “Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down” a play written by FGS regular Gretchen Douma. I love that we have playwrights telling at our show. Gretchen is a great writer so you should catch any play she’s working on. Click the link for details on how to attend the free reading. asiftheatre.com/the-works/

Bar Stories Is happening April 8. This is a new show but is attracting some of the best tellers in the area. You should check them out. Maybe even tell a story yourself 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/BarStoriesLiveOnStage

FGS tellers, Emily Pitts and Nick Vega are producing “My Comedian Teacher”, a storytelling/comedy/PowerPoint show at Jewelbox Theater April 11. They are both amazing tellers and you should go see whatever they’re doing.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1515101765733910

Wild Stories produced by KUOW and Story Collider is happening April 12. This is going to be a great show. It features three tellers, two of whom are FGS’ers, Paul Barach and Lisa Yeager.

https://www.storycollider.org/tickets/2024/4/12/seattle-wa-wild-stories

Don’t forget our free online workshop is coming up Sunday, April 7 https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories-storytelling-workshop/

It’s a great place to get feedback on a story you’re working on. 

I’m also free to help anyone on a story. Write me at freshgroundstories at gmail dot com and we can set up a phone call.

That’s all for now. I’ll get the invite out soon for our next show April 18.

Paul

HI Everyone,

I want to let you know of all the great shows happening in the next couple of weeks, especially those with FGS tellers in them. 

Tomorrow, Monday, Bar Stories is hosting their show in Shoreline. It’s a pretty new show so it’d be great for people to come out and help them get going. One of their producers, Nick, told a fantastic story with us last month and I’d love for some FGS tellers to add Bar Stories to their list of places to tell.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100093668277955

Also Monday, Chris Spengler, someone who has been telling at FGS for years, is doing a solo show for Under The Rainbow.  It’s a Zoom show so you can enjoy it from your couch 🙂

Under the Rainbow

The lovely folks at 7Stories are holding their monthly show in Burien at the Highline Museum on Friday, March 22. It’s an open mic so everyone is welcome to tell. Click here for the theme and details https://www.meetup.com/7-stories/

One of the tellers we met during our pandemic Zoom shows is in Moth GrandSlam this month! Harjas Singh, who has told some beautiful stories with us, will be onstage March 22 at Seattle Town Hall. I hope some of you can go and cheer him on.

https://themoth.org/events/seattle-grandslam-march-2024

Lastly, The Sun magazine is always looking for the kind of stories we tell at FGS. They have a new theme each month in their Readers Write section. I just got a piece in the February issue and would love to see some familiar names in future issues. It’s always a thrill to see your name in print and The Sun is something you can be proud of writing for. Connie, one of our regular tellers, has also been published there. If they accept your submission, you get a free one-year subscription. You don’t need to be a subscriber to send them a story for Readers Write https://www.thesunmagazine.org/submit/readers-write

That’s all I have for now. I hope some of you are working on stories for our next show on March 21. The theme is “Stories of realizing you’re going to make it.” Click here for more information https://www.meetup.com/fresh-ground-stories/events/299374332/

See you in a couple weeks!

Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

It may not always feel like it, but if you’re reading this you’ve probably overcome something you thought you never would. Maybe it was escaping the house you grew up in. Maybe it was getting out from under an addiction. Maybe it was finally getting the career you always wanted after a lifetime of bad jobs. At some point, you looked up and realized what used to be a mountain was now a molehill. 

Hai, one of my childhood friends, came over from Vietnam was he was a kid. I don’t know how he ended up in Alaska but he did and his family took me in when I was 17 and had nowhere to live. I never asked him what it was like leaving his home and having to learn a new language. When you’re young you don’t think about that stuff. One day you just decide you’re friends and you go off and do friend stuff.

A couple days ago Hai posted some photos of himself on Facebook. He just did a one-man show singing Dean Martin songs. How did this kid from Saigon end up in Missouri half a century later onstage doing a Dean Martin tribute show? If he lived here I’d drag him onstage and make him tell that story. I’m sure he’s never told it. After all these years I’d love to hear it.

Next month I’m going back to Alaska to visit my friend David. We’ve been friends since Cub Scouts. We ran away from home together halfway through our senior year of high school. When his mom found out we were hiding in an empty house a few miles away she pounded on the door for what seemed like hours. Boom. Boom. Boom. I’d never felt a house shake like that. We hid upstairs with the lights off as far from any window as we could. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. She’s been dead for 17 years and I can still hear her pounding on that door. I never asked David what that first call to his mom was like when he told her he wasn’t coming back. It took a lot of courage to pick up that phone. Why have I never asked him what that moment was like?

I’d love to hear a story about something you didn’t think you could do and they discovered you could do it. And did do it. And maybe it wasn’t quite as hard as you thought it would be. Yeah, I called this month’s show “mountains into molehills” but it’s ok if you want to tell a story about something that really was a mountain in your life. You should never take my themes too literally 🙂 

Remember to practice your story out loud on as many people as possible and time yourself when you’re doing it. Please don’t get onstage if you haven’t practiced your story. The audience is giving you their time and attention. It’s not fair to them if you get up there and try to wing it.

All stories have to be under 8 minutes. Stories can be as short as you want but not over 8 minutes. Stories also have to be clean in both language and content. Send me an email if you have any questions about that.

The rest of the rules and guidelines are below:

Storytelling Rules and Guidelines

Workshops are a great way to get feedback on a story you’re working on. Here is one I highly recommend. It’s run by two wonderful storytellers who have told many times at FGS and other shows in the area:  

https://www.meetup.com/Fresh-Ground-Stories-Storytelling-Workshop

I’m also happy to help anyone with a story they’re working on. Send me an email and we can set up a phone call.

See you on Thursday, March 21 at 7 pm, at the Chabad of Queen Anne – Magnolia. 1825 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 (Remember, no non-kosher food in the building)

Paul
Freshgroundstories at gmail dot com

7Stories had some tellers cancel due to sickness and need a few more to fill out their show tomorrow night (Friday) in Burien. You can tell a story on any theme you want as long as it follows their usual rules. Click here for more info: https://www.meetup.com/7-stories/events/299082266/

Also, our new friend, Nick who opened our show last week, just sent me links to two new storytelling shows he and his partner Rebecca are running in Seattle. (Naturally, his email came two minutes after I hit send on my own email to everyone). Below is the text he sent me describing the shows.

The first show is called Bar Stories: Live on Stage.

It’s held on the second Monday of each month at Drumlin in Shoreline (in the Ridgecrest neighborhood). 

Sign-up opens at 6:30, show starts at 7.

It’s open to all stories and storytellers. It’s a lot like Fresh Ground Stories, with some Q&A after each story mixed in, and then an invitation for people to come up on the fly if inspiration strikes. The link to our Facebook page is attached here:

https://www.facebook.com/BarStoriesLiveOnStage

They’re also starting a monthly storytelling workshop called Bar Stories: Sunday Salon that Rebecca will host.

The Salon begins on March 17 and will be held thereafter on the third Sunday of each month at Distant World Coffeehouse in Roosevelt (near the corner of 65th Street and Roosevelt Way). It will be an afternoon thing, running from 3-5 pm.

This will be a storytelling show that invites and incorporates feedback, note-taking, mingling, networking, etc. We’re still hammering out the details and will be launching the news this week. The storytelling portion will be about 90 minutes, after which there will be an opportunity for workshopping in small groups, giving feedback, or just casual Sunday mingling.

Contact Nick or Rebecca if you have any questions. 

barstoriesLOS@gmail.com

I love that so many new shows are popping up. Get out of the house and make a new friend. I know, it’s weird making new friends at our age. Try it anyway. The worst that could happen is you go home with a new story.

Paul