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First up from our “Noted” show is a story about accepting your accomplishments and honoring your failures. Of gratitude in the face of disappointment. Of learning to take the note as they say in the theatre – when to wear the mask and when to let it fall away. Here is Jim Cairl performing Stephanie Willing’s “Anybodies Came From a Small How Town.”

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“Noted” Artwork by Allison Gazdik – read about her inspiration below.

In this story of freshman year of college, newfound freedom, and the history of the Roman Empire, our narrator learns the importance of preparation and paying attention to instructions. Switching it up, Stephanie Willing performs Jim Cairl’s “Lacuna.”

These stories were performed live at Jimmy’s No 43 on June 3rd, 2013. Here are the “switched-up” storytellers bios from that evening:

Jim Cairl (in addition to being a gigantic nerd) wrote an adaptation of the Maupassant short story Madame Tellier’s Establishment that was performed at Theater for the New City’s Dream Up! festival last year and was a writer on the Web series “Intersection.” As an actor, Jim is a founding member of The Mighty Theater, and appeared in True West, and An Apology on the Course and Outcome of Certain Events as Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening. He also performed in the One Minute Play Festival at Primary stages, several shows in the New York Fringe Festival, and in the independent feature film, “Homecoming” with Josh Hamilton. He also won on the TV Quiz show “Jeopardy” and (briefly) talked to Alex Trebek.

But, far more important than any of the preceding is his amazing wife, Victoria and the very nearly fully ripened baby she is busy tending.

Stephanie Willing is an actor/dancer/writer, and she is thrilled to be doing two of the three at the same time with No, You Tell It! She has performed with many indie theater companies including The Theater Accident, Blue Coyote Theatre, Nosedive, Piper Mackenzie, Gemini Collisionworks, and many Brick Theater festivals. She recently choreographed for Rosie the Retired Rockette (EstroGenius Festival), Blood Brothers Present…(Nosedive), and The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival performance of Feiffer’s People.  Her writing has been presented by the Writer’s Voice, where she continues to study memoir and creative writing.

We reached out to Allison Gazdik to come up with original artwork for our “Noted” show and here is what she had to say about the theme and how she devised this fantastic image:

The idea behind this piece for the “noted” theme was one of lessons learned. The first image that came into my head was of someone in the rain, as some of our most valuable lessons come from painful experiences. The well-known quote people usually think of is “that which does not kill us makes us stronger” by Friedrich Nietzsche. I wanted to take a colorful and slightly humorous approach to the idea by depicting a gray Nietzsche under a rain of colors, a fitting blend of optimism and pessimism towards life’s lessons. 

You can find more of Allison’s work on deviantart and in her portfolio.