Story Time

Sunday night, I attended a somewhat unusual theater event here in town. It was part of a monthly series called "Stories on Stage," and it has evidently been going on here in Denver for quite some time, though I was unaware of it until now.

Local actors are brought in to basically give "story time" to adults. They take turns, standing alone on stage, reading bits of short fiction from various authors. At the conclusion of the evening, the theater even serves up cookies and milk to the audience.

Back in high school, a friend and I shadowed an actor in the largest local theater company. In the intervening years, though my life has headed off in another direction, she has continued to pursue the theater as a career path, and has kept in touch with this actor we met. He was one of the four to read a story this month, and so it was we found out about the performance.

This was a Christmas-themed show, with short stories by Ellis Parker Butler, John Cheever, and Truman Capote. The finale was "A Child's Christmas in Wales," by Dylan Thomas. It turned out to be a very entertaining evening. In these skilled hands, the stories were fully engaging and enjoyable, even despite the minimalist presentation. I was a bit disappointed to learn that in earlier months this year when "Stories on Stage" have been presented, I missed "Masterpieces of Science Fiction" (including works by Isaac Asimov, Neil Gaiman, and Ray Bradbury). But I've now got a month's notice to catch "Tales of Mystery and Suspense," featuring Edgar Allan Poe, among others.

I suppose that this is ultimately something I can only recommend to those of you who live in the Denver area. But then, it's possible something like this might be going on wherever you live. If so, it could be well worth your time. I found it a very refreshing reminder that the simple spoken word can paint so powerful a picture.