“This American Life” host Ira Glass once said,“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” With the immense popularity of Glass’ NPR story-based show, as well as live events like “The Moth,” the Bellingham Story Hour (BSH) has offered Bellingham and surrounding areas its own live storytelling experience since 2022.
BSH Co-Artistic Director Kamarie Chapman, theatre arts faculty at Western Washington University, first tasked her playwriting students with the challenge of telling a true story about themselves in front of a small audience at New Prospect Theatre. She wanted to expand the offering to the larger Bellingham community and partnered with Krissa Woiwod and the theater to create a regular event that was open to the public.
“We’re definitely inspired by ‘The Moth,’ but we aim to champion smaller, slower stories,” Woiwod said.
In addition to Woiwod and Chapman as co-artistic directors, Danielle Morgan serves as the technical, morale and creative support team. All three organizers have a shared background in theater and have known each other for a long time.
“I think we’ve all been intrigued by the challenge of telling a true story in the most authentic way possible,” Woiwod said.
Each Bellingham Story Hour is inspired by a different theme, such as “Spicy” or “Stories About Pets (ish),” which are sourced from an ongoing suggestion list. Knowing that personal storytelling can be a vulnerable experience, the group tries to be as welcoming and inclusive as possible: They have a pre-show anonymous survey that they use to get to know the audience. The house lights are up during the show, so the audience is visible, and they offer grounding practices before participants take the mic.
Woiwod is also the owner of Sparkle Magic Sound Therapy, which she said “may seem like a direct opposite thing to telling stories, but with both practices my focus is on communication, connection and embodiment. I use sound to help people connect with and to learn to stay present in their bodies; and that’s something I emphasize and encourage during Story Hour workshops and live shows.”
Woiwod also makes the point that while storytelling is therapeutic, it is not therapy: “Stories should be told from a place of having healed, not as a means for healing.”
The Bellingham Story Hour community has a range of ages: college-age and post-college- aged people, in addition to a lot of folks over the age of 60. “We’re all very LGBTQIA++ and I feel hopeful that we’re creating a space for the kind of stories we don’t get to hear as often,” adds Woiwod. For each session, they’ve had as many as eight and as little as three people sign up. The founders themselves try to have a story ready to share to fill in any gaps.
Ramona Abbott has attended and participated in most of the Bellingham Story Hour events. As a writer and a storyteller by nature, Abbott found the opportunity to craft stories from one’s own life intriguing.
“Telling them in public was a tiny bit frightening until I realized that we were all there to share stories, and I would never find a more welcoming audience,” Abbott said.
“For me, going to a show I might see an old friend, but usually I’m just watching in the dark and then head home,” added Aurora Rupert, another BSH regular who has attended both the live events and workshops. “At Story Hour, it was easy to strike up a conversation with a stranger and I made quite a few new friends.”
Attendance varies, but about 45 people attended BSH’s most recent show. Support for the event is growing, and the next two shows slated for the New Prospect Theatre are March 25 (with the theme “Warm Heart”) and May 27 (with the theme “Anything Goes”). The March 25 even will be filmed for an upcoming feature by City of Bellingham TV.
Storytelling workshops are offered at Champion Street Sound Studios, where BSH’s podcast is also produced. Currently there are four podcast episodes available with more in the pipeline scheduled for release soon. Live show tickets are available on a sliding scale.
The next Bellingham Story Hour show is themed “Warmed Heart” and takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25 at New Prospect Theatre. Info: bellinghamstoryhour.com.
Jessica Gigot is a poet and writing coach. She lives on a little sheep farm in the Skagit Valley. See her work at jessicagigot.com.
