It started as a simple idea: Portland Story Theater would go on the road. We would take our stories to places that had never experienced the art form of storytelling quite like ours. We tell stories, real, true stories – what we call personal narratives. Stories that are about our lives. Stories that matter and have meaning. We would take …
Nansen of the North
When I was a boy growing up in the New York area, I was always drawn to the North. North was the direction of the Catskills where I went to summer camp and the Adirondacks where we went fishing and camping. North was the direction the compass pointed, north was where to find the North Star. North was where Sam …
Kate Ristau, Urban Teller
As part of Wordstock, I was invited to join Portland Story Theater for a special performance — Urban Tellers® Wordstock Edition. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It wasn’t just one performance; it was a series of workshops led by Lawrence Howard and Lynne Duddy. We started out by getting to know each other. I had …
Urban Tellers® Wordstock Edition
We invite you to a dangerous realm. This place is haunted and happy, tragic and true. It’s cast with ordinary heroes and everyday villains, and set in duplexes and on street corners. This place is unique and common, foreign and familiar. The shadows and the successes are intimate, and vulnerable. Welcome to live storytelling. This is where it doesn’t matter …
On The Road
There is this word CODDIWOMPLE. It’s a verb and it means to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. I love this word. It was a favorite of our long-time fan, Petter Moe, a Norwegian immigrant and ‘best dad’ to Talen Nikolai Moe, one of our On The Road storytellers. I love this word because it captures so …
The Fremont, Our New Home
As our 12th season approaches, Portland Story Theater is excited to be moving to a new venue: the beautiful, brand-new Fremont Theater! After two full seasons at the cavernous, 375-seat Alberta Abbey, we are stoked to be moving back to a smaller, more intimate space. Located at the corner of NE 24th and Fremont, just nine blocks from Portland Story …
Portland Story Theater’s 2016-2017 Season
Ever come to that crossroad in life where you just want everything to be more fun, more profound, just more? Are you haunted by that nagging question, “Is this all there is?” I know it’s not just me. I know we’re all searching for something… more. That’s where Portland Story Theater comes in. It fulfills the ‘more’ of life: a …
Humanizing Refugees
The year that I was 5, an apartment complex on my street in Tehran was bombed in the middle of the night. The blast was so powerful that all the glass in our building was instantly shattered. Up to that point, my entire existence had been spent in a war zone. My parents had a conference upstairs, and vowed to …
Videos are up: Kiss and Tell, Luck of the Irish
We had two awesome shows recently: celebrating love and romance with Kiss and Tell, our Valentine’s Day show, and our ode to Ireland and St. Paddy’s Day with Luck of the Irish. Both were evenings filled with sparkle, humor, and delight, with everything from traditional Irish dance to romantic serenades. And of course, there were lots of stories: tales of love, sex, …
Warren McPherson is a winner!
Everybody Loves A Winner We love Warren McPherson here at Portland Story Theater. He’s one of our favorite storytellers, a longtime supporter, and a (newly minted!) workshop facilitator. He handles our audio recordings and helps us get our stories up on SoundCloud and iTunes every month. Plus, he understands and loves what we do: telling real, true stories of everyday people. He has a true …
Creating Safe Space
On Saturday, April 9th, we are partnering with PlayWrite, Inc. to create an Urban Tellers® show that gives voice to real, true stories from a new perspective, drawn from PlayWrite’s new Youth Leadership Team. Some of the tellers are guides in the PlayWrite program, while others are young people, ranging from 15-25 years old, who have graduated from the PlayWrite …
2015 Year in Review
Thank you for a fabulous 2015! Everyone at Portland Story Theater is grateful for you — our listeners, our storytellers, our donors, our volunteers — everyone who believes that supporting this art form makes the world a better place, one real, true story at a time. It was a whirlwind year for Portland Story Theater, and we have a lot to celebrate! We had over 5,000 …