ADAMS, Mass. — Community members will take center stage on Aug. 16 at 7:30pm for the Northern Berkshire Story Slam, an up-close-and-personal look at people's biggest mistakes, greatest triumphs, and painful losses. 

 

Hosted by actor, writer, and comic Diana Yanez and produced in collaboration with Life Jacket Theatre Company, this event offers real stories from real people–who have been working for months to get their performances just right. 

 

"You as an audience member might know everyone on the stage, but you're going to find out something new about them at this show," said Travis Russ, Life Jacket's director and a Fordham University professor who teaches communication, narrative and storytelling. 

 

Russ said his job is to give these community members a chance to shape their story– "we want to experiment, to reflect their own authentic voice back to them," he said. "We're coaching them to share that view, and it's our job to say, 'that sounds like the real you, keep going.'"

 

The cast

 

Jamal Ahamad, educator and Interim Dean of Student at Pittsfield High School, choreographer at dysFUNKcrew

 

Meg Bantle, six-generation farmer and co-owner and founder of Full Well Farm

 

Barby Cardillo, theatre teaching artist

 

Muriel Dyas, historical reenactor

 

Xavier Jones, Owner of Bigg Daddy's steak house Philly Steak House

 

Matti Kovler, composer, founder and artistic director of Floating Tower

 

Yina Moore, founder and artistic director of The Adams Theater

 

Timothy Olver, student at Hoosac Valley School

 

Diana Yanez, filmmaker, director, artist, and stand-up comic

 

NYC-based Life Jacket Theatre Co. bills itself as "a purveyor of undertold stories" through its storytelling events and original productions. Life Jacket's members work with communities to produce storytelling events where community members share their true, authentic, compelling experiences; the company's other productions take on heavy subject matter like the story of the "Fag Ward" — an isolated wing at the Men's Penitentiary on Welfare Island, NYC, for inmates convicted of homosexuality during the 1930s. Past Storytelling Project events have been produced in collaboration with rural and urban high schools, several universities, and organizations like GLSEN and the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project.

 

"It's vulnerable and insanely thrilling to watch people go through this experience onstage," Russ said. "There's something about when you come together as an audience and watch people you know let their guard down and speak their truth. It creates a sense of community and a strong bond within everyone in that room." 

 

Life Jacket Theatre Co. has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, two American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Awards, seven New York Innovative Theatre Awards, and eleven BroadwayWorld Awards. Our work has been selected as Critic's Picks by The New York Times, Time Out New York, Fest Magazine, Voice Magazine, and The List and has been named the "#1 Show at the Edinburgh Fringe" by Fest Magazine and among the "Top 10 Plays of the Year" by New, Now, Next.

 

See a full lineup of events this season at www.adamstheater.org/present.