Since the dawn of our existence, humans have been telling stories. Be it myths, legends, fables, or poems, storytelling is perhaps the biggest single factor separating us from other living beings. Stories teach us morality and empathy. They establish shared fictions that show us how to be “good” humans within the context of whichever society and area we belong to. But they also rely on universal human experiences that allow them to be interpreted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia. 

 

In performance, we get the opportunity to witness stories embodied, and their impact is exponential. But theater, crucially, is not a one-directional pursuit. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it more than 200 years ago, the goal of storytelling is “to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment.” Stories are nothing without people to hear them. A successful writer, actor, director, or producer, focuses not only on their interpretation of the work and its impact upon them, but also on how their delivery of it will impact the audience. Theater is a vessel for ideas, meanings, and values, and an exchange of humanity. 

 

This podcast explores the role of storytelling, theater, and performance in our collective human experience, from the perspective of the people who make it, study it, and witness it.