Storytelling, Writing, and Performing

From my November 8 memos:

Cris talked about other shows in Atlanta’s “live lit” scene in his interview. Like many Carapace attendees, he went to other shows before learning about Carapace. He made an interesting distinction about what happens at the writing-based shows:

And the first couple I went to

and I was just really blown away by like

the writers, you know,

because really, I really feel like those shows are really more

for writers,

not so much performers, ‘cause like

Naked City and Write Club, they’re

reading their material.

He differentiates between writers and performers. This suggests that “performers” aren’t reading something they wrote. I know what he means. He came from a comedy background, so reading a piece of writing is very different. But he suggests that Carapace is for performers, like comedy is.

Then I went to Write Club and observed that the Write Club contestants were much better performers than the winners of the Creative Loafing writing contest who got up to read their pieces. Writers can be performers and reading can be a performance.

The difference between reading and storytelling is a little different, but connected to performance. A storyteller has more performance options, not tied to a script. A storyteller has more freedom to react to the audience and be in the moment, as Randy suggests.