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Category: Featured

Entertaining Articles and Front Page Material.

Jun 19 2013

July 7th Show!

Happy summer, everybody! We hope you are enjoying the blooming irises, twirling helicopter seeds and puffs of cottonwood fluff snow-globing it through air. We live in such a ridiculously gorgeous city in this season. Even as she sprinkles us with some cool June days, Mama Chicago still loves her children in the summer time.

A good friend of mine began her job on a sailboat this summer, and in between multiple rainbow-sightings and flocks of yellow birds landing on the crew’s shoulders in the middle of Lake Michigan, her days have been filled with magic. Another friend took a train across the country to have the chance to see 2,000 miles pass by, and another got to watch last Thursday’s lightning storm from the Sears Tower. A friend and I found a white lilac tree blooming the other night, and we made wishes for our friends when we picked its flowers. I hope that for whatever joys or sorrows that may approach you this month, the beauty of natural world provides you with a constant source of wonder, comfort and love.

We have some fantastic featured storytellers joining us in July. Amazing writers, performers and yarn-spinners. And as always, we have five open slots for you to fill with your own stories. If you have one you’d like to tell– about anything!– just practice it out loud until it feels good and comfortable, and make sure it comes in at 5-7 minutes. Then come sign up between 7:30 and 8pm at Stage 773 on July 7th. It will help if you bring us a few written sentences about yourself, and your story (nothing longer than 3 or 4 sentences).

We look forward to seeing you in July, and we encourage you to buy tickets online. Our shows have been selling out, and so this is a way to make sure folks don’t get turned away. There is a free potluck ticket option online as well.

July 7th
7:30 potluck / 8pm show
Stage 773
1225 W. Belmont
$8 at the door, or free with a dish to share
brown paper tickets

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/heres-the-story-july-7th-show/

May 15 2013

Here’s the Story on June 2nd!

Join Here’s the Story on June 2nd for some of the greatest people and best storytellers we know. Features Samantha Irby, Ray Teresi, Cory O’Brien, Angelina Pizzi and Polly Yukevich will be on hand to expand your horizons, crack you up, strum your pain with their fingers, and sing your life with their words. For just this month’s show, we will be just next door to Stage 773, at Theater Wit, enjoying their pretty exposed brick walls and abundant air conditioning… sweet.

Click here to know more about June’s fabulous features!

Here’s the Story June 2nd
7:30 potluck/ 8pm show
Theater Wit,1229 W. Belmont
$9 at the door, FREE if you bring a dish for the potluck
to avoid being turned away, please purchase advance tickets online here!

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/heres-the-story-on-june-2nd/

May 15 2013

Auditions for A Month Of . . .

Our not-for-profit organization will be building a new monthly show called A Month Of . . .

We want to shake things up a bit by encouraging tellers to live story. Spring-boarding from that idea, A Month Of . . . is a task-based show. The audience will vote on the theme for the upcoming month, and attached to that theme will be a task which our hosts will complete during the course of the month. The hosts will post evidence of their accomplishment on our website via photo, blog post, vlog, short story, or personal essay. Website visitors/audience members will vote on which host-completed task is the most epic!

Right now we’re looking for at least five dynamic and adventurous people with strong storytelling ability to be hosts for the show. (Confidence with improv is a huge plus!) Hosts must be comfortable on stage moderating the monthly show and also bold enough to complete tasks of varying ridiculousness in public and brag about their deeds online.

The initial time commitment is through December 2013. In addition to the monthly show, there will be one mandatory rehearsal each month where we help each other complete the tasks. The show will take place the second Wednesday of the month from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. All tasks will be complete-able within the time frame of the rehearsal, but we encourage extended hardcore approaches as well.

Auditions will take place on Friday, June 7th, 2013 at Here’s the Story Headquarters in Rogers Park.

If you’re interested in auditioning, please creatively complete this example task for the audition:

Dinner Stories – Sit with a stranger for lunch.

Complete this task prior to audition day. Then please e-mail CV/resume, evidence of completion, and availability to: Contact@heresthestory.org. Accepted evidence of completion: photo, blog post, vlog, short story, or personal essay, etc. If you have any questions, just let us know via email!

Edit by Dan
We’ve gotten some great responses, and we’ve gotten some great questions.

If you can’t make it out Friday June 7th, we will hold an audition for you by appointment.

If you’re shy, you should still sign up, this show is particularly for shy people. You will not have to perform at the shows, we are hoping to have thoughtful and contemplative taskers as well as some of the boisterous type. This show will be a team effort through and through. You’ll be able to build it in the direction you want to take it.

Finally some people have asked for ideas on what they could do. While we are looking for imagination, we also know that the greatest imaginations out there feed off of other people’s ideas. Here are some ideas we’ve thought of.

Sit with a good friend for lunch and pretend they are a stranger.
Bring twenty friends with you to sit with a stranger for lunch.
Make the stranger imaginary.
Go to a fancy restaurant and try to sneak in on a couple’s table.

As to how you document it, that’s completely up to you. We’ve already seen some cool ideas come in. Audio, video, photo, written, and one person asked if they could bring in a signed menu.

If the question is, can I do..? The answer is yes.

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/auditions-for-a-month-of/

Apr 23 2013

May Here’s the Story!

Seems like new creative projects are springing up like wildflowers all over town! This season, Chicago people seem inventive and prolific; unafraid to dream new things up, smart enough to test them out within communities of resourceful friends, and willing to put in the work to make them happen.

I used to feel like there was a long distance between the dreams and ideas that lived inside me and the actual world; an almost unbridgeable gulf. I came to Chicago with a heart’s desire to learn to build such bridges, and I couldn’t have chosen a better place to learn. Friends and colleagues here remind me daily of the powerful combination of want and will and wiles, and I am grateful. (I include a gracious tip of the hat, or curtsy… or something more gender neutral?… to my HtS collaborator Dan, for all he continues to teach and discover with me in this regard.)

Our next show features some awesome givers. People who are making and doing very cool things. Read on to learn more about them!

Here’s the Story
May 5th, 7:30 potluck/ 8pm show
Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont
$8 at the door or free with a dish for the potluck


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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/may-heres-the-story/

Mar 18 2013

April 7th Features

Guys! We are proud to present another entirely fancy collection of people coming to tell you stories on April 7th. These magnificent folks, plus the opportunity for unknown goodness offered by our five open walk-up slots, are likely to equal yet another wonderful night.

If YOU feel you might have a story pulling on your sleeve to tell it, we say give it a voice! Just practice a little, make sure it rounds out in about 6-7 minutes, take a deep breath and jump. It can seem a little scary to go solo, but people almost always report that it is fun and exciting and transformative in ways they never expected. So if you’ve got something good to give, come give it away.

Read on to find out more about the folks who will definitely be doing the same on April 7th!

Here’s the Story on April 7th
Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont
7:30 potluck/ 8pm show
$8 tickets or free with a dish for the potluck

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/april-7th-features/

Mar 04 2013

Congratulations and thanks sent to Jesse! We look forward to seeing you April 7th!

Another successful show. If I don’t say so myself. Love and food and camaraderie, and hard words, and easy words, and music and a super hero or two. Sort of a perfect mix! Perhaps a magical potion of words and listening, if one will.


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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/congradulations-and-thanks-sent-to-jesse-we-look-forward-to-seeing-you-apr-7th/

Feb 20 2013

March 3rd Show!

I like Here’s the Story in the wintertime. Seems like it’s right at home in the season when people all over the world have always gathered close to share food and stories and warmth. Storytelling is interesting to me because it is at once something that comes naturally to all of us, and something that can be practiced and honed and artfully done. I also respect its traditional use as a teaching tool. Long before the printed word, storytelling was the primary transmitter of human history and memory.

In many native traditions, like the SiSi Wiss medicine way shared by most northwestern tribes in the US, storytelling is also how wisdom has been passed through generations. In that culture like many traditional cultures, hard-won knowledge about loving, and healing, and raising happy kids, and facing fear and overcoming conflict and achieving personal purpose, has been passed along through telling stories. In the SiSi Wiss tradition, there are some teaching stories that are more than 4,000 years old, and that last anywhere from hours to 3, 6 and 9 days long. In sharing ceremonies, people travel from far away to be together for big potlach feasts (where the modern potluck comes from) to be with friends and celebrate their time together and laugh and listen.

I share a little bit about that just to reflect on the fact that all of us who are enjoying storytelling in Chicago now are participating a beautiful and noble practice that has its roots in ancient and global history. Even our personal stories, when they are chosen and shared with generosity and a true desire to tell them, constitute evenings of personal truth that are moving, funny, illuminating and inspiring.

Here are some of the excellent folks who will be telling with us on March 3rd…

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/march-3rd-show/

Jan 14 2013

February Features!

Here’s the Story happens again on February 3rd at our temporary location at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, at 8pm! We’re right next door to our regular digs at Stage 773, which we will return to in March.

Please join us for a big, beautiful, free potluck dinner, and stories from some of Chicago’s most beloved tellers.

Arlene Malinowski
Deanna Moffit
Jeff Gandy
Lisa Scott
and Monte LaMonte

Keep reading for more information on our features!

Here’s the Story
February 3rd
7:30 doors open, potluck time
8pm show
Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont
$8 or FREE with a shared dish for the potluck

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/february-features/

Dec 22 2012

New Year, New Stories!

Bam Class Full

Hi friends! Hope that everyone’s surviving the hustle of the holiday time, and that each of us gets some rest and rejuvenation somewhere in its midst. I’m in Arizona, where the rocks are rainbows, and anemone-colored cactuses and rusty treasures spill across people’s front yards like shipwrecks. It is surreal and beautiful, and even this far away, I am filled with love for Chicago, and for the wonderful people there. Wherever you are, Chicago or farther afield, I hope you feel loved and included like I do in the community we all are making.

Even with all the work-hecticness and travel and events and endings and beginnings of December and January, I am looking forward to the next show! In case you’re looking forward to it too, here is a glimpse of the people we’ll be featuring at our show on January 6th. They are beautiful humans, each. And great artists as well.

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/new-year-new-stories/

Nov 18 2012

Holiday Show and Year End Prize!

Hello beautiful Here’sthestorians! We are proud and pleased to announce our very first year-end holiday show! Dan and I have put a lot of work into dreaming this up for you, and think it’s going to be a really special night.

This show’s format will be different from usual, as we’ll be featuring 100% Audience Favorite tellers from the course of the year. There will be no walk-up slots; just your favorite Chicago tellers, gracing you with 8-minutes of their storytelling magic. As always, there will be a potluck dinner (we are hoping grand holiday feast style!) and great friends and community. The event is casual as ever, but if you’d like to get a little fancy, or costume it up, please do!

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Permanent link to this article: https://storyluck.org/holiday-show-and-year-end-prize/