The basketball court was the place to fit in when Michael Haeflinger was in high school. Based on his playing skills, though, he had to start his own club to get there.
PHOTOS: Scott Haydon
Category: Story
Christy Fisher, Puberty Beats Be-Bopping
Rebelling against puberty and spending too long with Ken Burns’ documentaries, Christy Fisher thought she would finally find her tribe at an eight-week summer camp. It wasn’t until she got learned the camp’s religious beliefs that she decided becoming a lady was better than be-bopping across the Universe.
PHOTOS: Scott Haydon
The Members Only Slam
The Tad-O-Meter Audience Applause Scale was at maximum elbow tilt for Story Slam winner, Ayme Art-Bergamot
photo: Britton Sukys
After our main-stage “Members Only” storytellers, five audience members took the stage with their own five-minute tales of fitting in, falling out and finding their tribe.
The winner, Ayme Art-Bergamot, brought the house down with a story of leaving a quarter-century marriage and embracing herself. She won a $50 gift voucher to The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts.
All of the Slam members faced the terrifying initiation of stepping in front of roomful of strangers and sharing their lives, right off the top of their heads. We welcome them to the “Member Only” Story Club.
ALL PHOTOS BELOW: Scott Haydon
Ayme Art-Bergamot, “Embracing Me” **SLAM WINNER**
audio not available
Gene Ryan, “The Unexpected Membership”
Gary Waldron, “Redemption”
Bruce Smith, “Lookin’ for a Date”
Members Only
While Groucho Marx didn’t care to belong to any club that would have him as a member, it’s human nature to want to be a part of the crowd. At our next show on Saturday, March 28, 2015, we have a lineup of storytellers recounting hilarious, tragic, and life-changing experiences of fitting in, falling out and finding your tribe. Get…
Story Snapshots of 2014
As Tacoma celebrated the dawn of 2015 with its First Night Festival, we carted our Port-A-Parlor up to the Pantages Theatre’s front porch to ask people to share their most memorable experiences of the year.
Visitors ranged in age from nine to seven-times-nine. Each one stepped inside our mobile studio and shared the sad, surprising, troubling, and terrific events that will always remind them of the Year That Was 2014.
Story Snapshots From The WaCASA Conference
Sign Painting: Britton Sukys
Stories aren’t just for the stage. They can happen anywhere and anytime people gather for community, connection and celebration. With our Story Snapshot Booth, we capture those stories in their natural habitat.
A couple weeks ago, we took the mobile “Port-a-Parlor” to the Washington State CASA Conference to collect stories about helping foster children through tough times. More than twenty men and women stepped inside a converted minivan to open up about the lessons, rewards and transformations they experienced in their volunteer work.
A minivan disguised as an inviting conversation parlor.
***
When I sat down to record the stories, I expected to hear about real-life events. So, the story below surprised me. And yet, in ninety seconds, Ramona gave me a resonant image of what it means to volunteer for CASA.
CASA is a nationwide non-profit that recruits, screens, trains, and supervises community volunteers who advocate for the best interests of abused, abandoned, and neglected children moving through the family court system. The program grew out of a group started by a King County Superior Court judge in 1977.
Volunteers are not social workers or foster parents. They advocate solely for the child and are trained to offer an informed and objective perspective on the child’s best interest. In doing that, they draw on their own judgment in conjunction with regular training.
***
This story sounds like it’s headed for tragedy, but then passes through Patty Murray’s office and ultimately gives Karen a lesson she’ll never forget.
In this story, Carrie stands behind a teenager with a track record of drug abuse and petty crimes to keep him out of juvenile detention.
People of all ages, backgrounds and points-of-view volunteer, each bringing their own unique perspective and life skills. Advocating for children changed a lot of attitudes Bob formed in his corporate career, but he finds his business acumen gives him the ability to make a difference in the lives of the littlest children.
These are just a few of the stories from our Story Snapshot Booth visit. You can listen to all seventeen stories here.
Storyteller portraits by Britton Sukys.
***
The Story Snapshot Booth will make its next appearance at
First Night Tacoma,
the City of Destiny’s free New Year’s Eve celebration.
Megan on the “Story Phone”, planning our next Story Snapshot Booth event.
We’ll Be Downtown Tacoma From 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Five Drunken Telegraph All-Stars Will Share
“Stories of the Year 2014”
Every Half Hour.
***
We invite you to join us on December 31
to listen
and then
take a spin in the Story Snapshot Booth.
Share your
“Stories of the Year 2014”
Tad Monroe, in the Story Seat.
Megan Sukys, ready to listen.
You can hear stories from a 2013 Story Snapshot Booth visit to the JBLM Welcome Home celebration here.
Tad Monroe, Call Me Coach
>click triangle above to hear Tad’s full story<
Tad Monroe won a football scholarship to college, but a knee injury forced him to use his knowledge of the game for more than life on the gridiron.
PHOTOS: ALANA T
Dean Burke, A Job In The Fast Lane
>click triangle above to hear Dean’s full story<
Dean Burke was lucky enough to land a job with a successful software company in 2007, just before the Great Recession began. But, his luck didn’t hold out.
PHOTOS: ALANA T
Karrie Zylstra, A Job Gone To The Dogs
>click triangle above to hear Karrie’s full story<
Karrie Zylstra imagined a happy career training service dogs, until she started working at a shelter in Bellingham after college.
PHOTOS: ALANA T
Morf Morford, Be Like Water
>click triangle above to hear Morf’s full story<
Morf Morford once taught a class in prison, and he found advice from Bruce Lee helped him navigate the violence and humanity of helping people with nothing to lose.
PHOTOS: ALANA T