Recipe for Wordstock Delight: Two Cups of fresh 2nd Story – Wordstock Opening Night

The “Recipe For Wordstock Delight” posts will be a series of brief profiles of the events surrounding this years Wordstock Festival.  Inspired by the “Be a Literary Omnivore” catchphrase adopted by Wordstock and suggested by contributor Spencer Cushing, the “Recipe” posts will appear throughout the next week.  This profile is authored by Spencer, keep track of the many things he’s up to over on Twitter.

Wordstock Festivals Opening night is always a joy. They bring in something different from the festival floor experience every year and it really gets people jazzed up for the festival itself. This year is no different. Wordstock is bringing in a group from Chicago that makes it their business to tell stories. While info about them from their website is below, their show is going to be a fine testament to what performance storytelling can be.

From the Wordstock website, “2nd Story mixes the immediacy of personal storytelling, the stage presence of theater, and the ambiance that only live music can provide. The result is a one-of-a-kind literary experience by turns funny, mordant, clever, cringe-worthy, and lovely, and never less than engrossing, exhilarating, and moving. ”

It’s opening night for Wordstock, not only will there be storytelling–and of course drinking–,but there’s also that wonderful sense of giddiness that comes from a near future filled with books; free books, and those fresh off the shelves. Lots and lots of books, authors to read and sign them, and that energy emanating from the literary souls that have gathered together to celebrate telling stories, a tradition as old as human kind.

Get your tickets for 2nd Story here – Hurry before they sell out!

What is 2nd Story – (From their Website)

“The best stories I’ve ever heard come from hanging out with friends over a good bottle of wine. That’s when people really start talking, really get to the meat of their experiences—the wild beauty of it all, the destruction and the hope. That’s the feeling we’re going for: the crowd at Webster’s Wine Bar has the intimacy of my own living room and the crazy secrets that have been told there.” 
—Megan Stielstra, Director of Story Development

2nd Story is a hybrid performance event combining storytelling, wine, and music that is produced by the Serendipity Theater Collective as both a Monthly Performance Series and an Annual Festival. A typical 2nd Story evening goes something like this: you hang out with your friends and eat and drink and make merry. Four or five times during the night, the lights go down, a spotlight comes up on somebody—maybe the person sitting next to you!—and they tell you a story. It’s a great time, and our hope is that if we do our job right, you’ll leave telling your own stories.

We tell stories every month at Chicago´s Webster’s Wine Bar and Red Kiva Lounge. In addition to these ongoing series, we do frequent special guest performances, including The Goodman, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Story Week Festival of Writers, Victory Gardens, Strawdog Theatre and Sunday Salon, among others. We´re also planning a West Coast vineyard tour, and love to travel far and wide! Please contact us if you’d like us to come and share some stories (and hopefully hear some of yours!)

2nd Story has been featured on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio; we produce 2D, an annual print publication featuring many of our 2nd Story writers; and in January of 2008, we launched our Podcast series, featuring live recordings of many of our favorite stories. Serendipity also runs a number of outreach programs, including collaborating with The Goodman on their GTS program—a 6-week intensive for Chicago Public High School students. We also have teaching artists working with multiple high schools during the regular school year, and are happy to custom tailor programs for the classroom. Our artists make frequent presentations at academic conferences including Columbia College´s Creative Nonfiction Week, Pilcrow Literary Festival, The Center for Art and Public Life in San Francisco and Associated Writing Programs.

Details-

What: Wordstock Festival Opening Night w/ 2nd Story

When: October 8th, 8:00pm

Where: McMenamins Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Price: $20, Get Your Tickets Here