Audience members as storytellers

An important characteristic of Carapace audience members, of which I am constantly reminded, is that many of them are also storytellers. This impacts many areas of the event. Shannon Turner mentioned in her interview:

I only put my name in the hat every three or four months because

I know I'm not listening if my name is in the hat.

I’ve heard Shannon talk about this before, and have actually taken it into account in my study. As an observer it is important for me to both have the experience of Carapace storytellers, and to be able to fully listen to the stories. I did not put my name in the first month that I attended as a researcher (July). In August, my name was in, but I wasn’t called. And, yeah, just knowing I might be called was a little distracting. I think it is even more distracting than knowing you are going to perform as part of a scheduled line up. I have been guilty of thinking about my upcoming turn to perform, perhaps making sure I haven’t forgotten my first line, during a curated performance. But the uncertainty of whether you will get to perform at all and when causes more distraction. A portion of each Carapace audience is made up of these potential storytellers. They may not be engaging with the other storytellers (or at least those that go before them) as they otherwise would because they are wondering if they will be next.