One of the coolest things we have added to this year’s season, and something we will be expanding upon in 2013, is our year-end show on December 2nd. This very special evening will feature a full line-up of your audience favorite walk-up tellers from 2012, and will also be an award ceremony!
On this night, Here’s the Story’s Year-End Prize will be given to the walk-up teller who has been given the most points by our audience over the course of the year. The prize is to have Here’s the Story advertise and produce a one-night performance of your own 45-60 minute solo-show.
We will give you script feedback and direction, and both promote and pay for one night of your solo show at Stage 773. You will have the benefit of community awareness generated through the Here’s the Story friends, family, colleagues, fans and the personal support of an experienced director and producer.
As storytelling is a reciprocal art… giving and giving back endlessly, our Year End Prize is an honor given to the person who garnered the most points from the audience over the entire year. We want to thank you for moving them, the audience, and we want to celebrate your stories.
But, A LOT of you move our audiences throughout the year, and this prize isn’t any true measure of who did it the “best.” Because of the multitude of factors involved in who is picked for the walk-up slots each month, there will be a good bit of chance and magic involved in who has the most audience points at the end of a year. For that reason, we’d like to both ask you a favor and make you a promise.
First, the promise. With the creation of this prize, we recognize the ideal of having various people who sign up more than once, tell stories the same number of times. However, this won’t always be possible. As you know, we pick walk-up tellers for every show based on the spirit of each individual show. We strive for fairness (giving precedence to those who have never told before) and balance (trying to balance gender, age, and heritage, so that we have a full spectrum of voices.) When the chips are down and all things are equal between multiple candidates, we sometimes roll a dice, and sometimes go with a person we have heard or seen do good things elsewhere. These will continue to be our guiding practices in choosing walk-up tellers. But we will also attempt to balance opportunities for tellers who return. It is an imperfect science, juggling many factors in 5 minutes before each show, but we promise you that favoritism has never been, and never will be a factor in choosing people to tell. (Unless it is Xavier. Kidding. Maybe.)
For the favor, we just ask that you continue to only sign up to tell a story at Here’s the Story when it feels right to you. When something is legitimately pulling on your heart, or making you excited to share, and not because you want to win a contest. Staying attuned to that subtle difference will help preserve the integrity and what people describe as the “magic” of these events. This prize is not a reason to share with us. It’s just a lucky gift at the end of the year to one person who brought us great stuff. Come and share with a community of new and old friends, because you feel some joy in that, and because you like free dinner.
And finally, a word of caution… a full solo show is awesome, but it’s also serious work. Ye who are chosen, do not accept this prize lightly. This is an award, but it’s also a real project. We strive to make Here’s the Story events ones worth telling stories about, and you, our confirmed year-end champion, must strive for that too. If a solo-show isn’t something you are up for, and you win, you can always politely decline and we will give the opportunity to someone else who’d love it. It is an optional thing, so you can still freely and fully come and tell your stories with us, whether or not you are interested in doing a solo show.
If you like what we are doing here, please join us on Kickstarter. We have until October 8th to build our next season!
