Standing on stage and telling a very personal story can take nerves of steel. Tonight, more than a handful of locals are giving it a try. The event is similar to the radio show The Moth. It’s part of a new local series by Justice Snow’s and Colorado Mountain College. Aspen Public Radio’s Elise Thatcher has this story.
On a quiet afternoon in Aspen at Justice Snow’s, a small group waits for a microphone and speakers to get set up. David Cook is here. He’s co-owner of local TV station Aspen 82.
“I’m at Justice Snow’s for our final dress rehearsal for the Writ Large performance," says Cook.
Like The Moth, people here will tell a personal story in front of a crowd. Cook is used to being in the spotlight. He participated in the Aspen Cares benefit fashion show this past weekend. That meant being "literally in underwear on stage, dancing around, which is very exposing and sort of outside of my comfort zone. Whereas this is quite personal,” Cook continues, “in that it’s a story about me and my life, and my family, that I’ve never told some of my very best friends."
Michael Conniff is overseeing the production, and describes it this way: "We’re getting seven speakers to speak, seven minutes each...And we tell them it has to be personal story, and it has to be revelatory. So this is not the funny you guy met on the lift. This is more about something that’s deep in your heart-- that’s hard to talk about."
Conniff is a local media fixture, and runs the Digital Story Lab with Colorado Mountain College. CMC Students are part of the story telling crew, and will help run the event. It’ll be the second Writ Large-- the first was in January. Organizers hope to continue holding one every other month.
Another participant tonight is Matt Haslett, a musician living in Carbondale. He likes to tell stories before his songs.
"I chose to get a little up close and personal with this one,” says Haslett at the rehearsal. “And talk about my own experience with depression. It was recently drawn to my attention that there’s a lot of depression in this Valley...and I thought it’d be a good idea to tell a story about it.”
Haslett hopes it’ll help someone in a similar situation.
Another participant, Shere Coleman, tells a story about her family and new beginnings. Here’s an excerpt:
“My father hitched a thirty foot ranch home trailer house to the back of the woody station wagon with powder blue fenders and leather bench seats, and we headed for Oregon. And I really think that, had I been standing aside watching, I would have watched them snip the ties to New England, as we made our way West."
Coleman is an Aspen artist who works with wood and puppets. She tells stories in schools and with the Aspen Historical Society.
“I get really nervous before the performance, and I think that’s part of the extreme part of it-- is to grapple with whatever those demons are and rise above them,” she says. “So it is good challenge, and you realize that once you’re there, you’re really connecting with the people who have come to hear stories.”
At the rehearsal, Coleman and other speakers critique each other’s technique, polishing their stories for tonight’s event. Writ Large is at Justice Snow’s and starts at at 7pm. Topics also include communicating with dogs and having family members live in a cult.