Space

In discussing how he, Randy, and Joyce looked for a venue, Lance talked about what they were looking for - the feel they wanted.

You wanted an environment that

was big enough to hold

a group of 30, 40 people plus or minus.

But at the same time,

you wanted it to feel

small enough

that they're not completely overwhelmed.

The space had to be big enough to hold an audience, but not so big that it would “overwhelm” people.

It was trying to capture that idea of

sitting in front of a campfire or

sitting in some body's house

or sitting down on a porch

This connects directly with the feel other reality storytelling show producers try to create. The origin story of The Moth includes a reference to the porch. (George Dawes Green was moved to recreate the feel of swapping stories on his friend Wanda’s Savannah, Georgia porch.) Ben Lille of Story Collider wants his live shows to feel like simply swapping stories with a friend in a bar (Curator: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cura.12003/abstract). In the case of Lille’s comments especially, being in a bar makes perfect sense. The space really suggests the feel he is going for. How does a show achieve an intimate feel while accommodating an audience that may not be intimate in size?

Lance described some of the spaces they decided not to go with as “cold.” He thought they suggested a different type of interaction: “It almost came across like we're asking them to lecture one another.” This seems to relate to Randy’s discussion on the second circle. A space can make it more or less likely that people will truly be present with one another.  

Lance’s story of how Manuel’s came to be the venue is really interesting:

And Randy discovered Manuel’s,

and I cannot even remember now

how he came across it.

So, he called us up and was

oh come to Manuel’s,

I think I finally found the place.

Come to Manuels, blah blah blah.

Joyce and I headed down town

because she's living

in a house on the perimeter not far from where I was

so we drove into downtown,

walked into Manuels

he showed us their back room,

a little back area there,

and we both kind of looked at each other and,

op, this is it.

This is perfect.

He can’t remember how Randy found Manuel’s (maybe that isn’t important). What comes across is that each of the three of them had the same reaction. When they saw the space, when they felt the space, they all immediately knew it was perfect. The space had something, before they did anything to shape it, that made it ideal for sharing personal stories. It was naturally warm and intimate.

The creators saw and felt that Manuel’s was the perfect space, but many attendees might have been attracted by other things they already knew about Manuel’s:

And plus for the people that lived in Atlanta that knew Manuel’s

reputation,

for being a place to talk

and exchange

and discuss

and debate

I think that was another part of the attraction too

because it already kind of had that reputation

for allowing people to come in and be themselves

and voice their opinions

and get stuff out.

Rather than thinking (actively) about the physical space, attendees might have understood Manuel’s was a good place to hear personal stories because it is a place where people talk to each other.

The timing of Carapace was also chosen around the bar venue.

We decided on a Tuesday

because we figured, as far as,

Manuel’s ultimately is still a tavern [laughs]

so we figured that a

Tuesday would probably be the best night

to cut down on a lot of the

bar chatter

and a lot of the bar noise.

When Lance started this sentence, I thought he was going to talk about how Manuel’s is a business and they are interested in having events on slow nights to bring more customers into the bar. But then he took a turn and indicated that picking a slow night was done to benefit the event. They were consciously trying to avoid bar noise.

The space also presented physical limitations in the number of people who could attend the show. Carapace had some room to expand initially, moving from a smaller room (walled off from a larger space), to the larger room, to the two rooms combined with the wall removed. But the audience maxed out even the largest space available.

our average was 130 to 150 people,

and we hit that within the first year?

The first fourteen months.

Manuel’s had to obey fire codes and Carapace was forced to turn people away when the room got too full.

I hated to do it,

but when we had to shut the doors

and just

if you're not in here at that point

we're real sorry.

Lance didn’t like turning people away, but realized it was a “luxury problem.”

When we started this we'd be happy if there were 20 people and

now we're dragging because we have to turn people away,

as bad as it sounds.

The space shapes the event in that it allowed the audience to grow to a certain point. But because that growth was eventually capped, people had to start showing up early if they wanted to get in, and latecomers could be turned away.