A couple runs into their neighbor at intermission and introduces the woman to their group of friends. Rather than small talk or awkwardness, the conversation naturally evolves around the stories that were just heard. During the show, the theater is filled with collective sighs, laughs, and the silence of anticipation. In the theater's mailbag recently was a letter from a UPS truck driver who listens on the road. A growing phenomenon is the organized storytelling event.
Festivals are somewhat of a subculture, and people who have never attended are often skeptical.
Audience members mingle at 'Selected Shorts,' a storytelling event at Symphony Space in New York. The unofficial storytelling capital is Jonesborough, Tenn., host of the National Storytelling Festival in October. The festival got its start in the early 1970s. Jimmy Neil Smith, who was teaching journalism at the time, was driving into town with his students to print the school newspaper when they became engrossed in a story on the radio. Mr. Smith recalls.