Tag: Readings

Thanks for coming to Fiction Edition


Thank you to everyone who came out to our very first NYTI Fiction Edition. Click to listen to the full show, or cue up the individual stories as listed below:

The Sleeping Season (6:00)
written by: Jim Cairl
performed by: Raquel I. Penzo

Breakfast with Nana in the Small Visitor’s Room (21:54)
written by: Raquel I. Penzo
performed by: Jim Cairl

Back to the Beach (43:50)
written by: Katie Johnston
performed by: Todd Faulkner

Clowning Around (59:00)
written by: Todd Faulkner
performed by: Katie Johnston

Thanks for Joining us at Uproar!

Thanks again to everyone who braved the cold to join us for Uproar last night. Stories will be online shortly.

Meet the Uproar Storytellers

Nov 18 2014 @ 7:00PM

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Well, here we are. It’s somehow mid-November?! Pretty soon we’ll be tucking in to a turkey (or tofurky or whatever your preference is) dinner with relations and friends, having to negotiate thorny topics like #TaylorSwift and #Feminism and #TheWarOnChristmas without completely alienating our table mates,and then drawing straws for who’ll be the muscle when rolling up on a Black Friday sale. Which is all a lead-in to the minefield that is December, with awkward office holiday parties and end-of-year malaise and the promise of “quality family time” and oh mercy. We are on the brink of that territory, oh yes, but before we slide headfirst into the season, we offer you our next storytelling joint of 2014: Uproar. And it will be uproarious indeed. These stories run the gamut from heart-stirring to outré. Think of this show as a safe space and final chance to engage with words and feeelings that aren’t explicitly motivated by holiday insanity!

And with that rather ominous intro, let’s meet our Uproar storytellers. (Seriously, how can you go wrong with this talented slate of writer/performers?)

Noah Diamond spent years researching and adapting I’ll Say She Is, the lost Marx Brothers musical of 1924, and played the role of Groucho Marx in the show at Marxfest and FringeNYC. I’ll Say She Is will return in 2015. Other credits, as author, songwriter, performer, and/or producer, include Groucho on the Air, Travesties of 2012, Moral Value Meal, and Life After Bush. He is the author of the book 400 Years in Manhattan, based on his stage show. In 2013, he wrote and illustrated the daily comic strip Love Marches On, set in Times Square in 1925 and 1975. Discover true happiness at noahdiamond.com.

Merritt Minnemeyer is an educator, writer, performer and advocate. She holds a BFA in Acting from NYU and has nearly 20 years experience teaching and producing theater in and outside of New York. She is most passionate about employing those skills in the social justice arena, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Humanistic/Multicultural Education at SUNY New Paltz. Most recently she founded Tipsy Gazelle, LLC with a focus on developing a community arts space in a 200 year old home in Beacon, NY where she resides with her three children. Merritt is deeply grateful for and honored to work with NYTI.

Minna Proctor is an editor and essayist. Her first book, Do You Hear What I Hear? came out in 2005. She has published a number of translations from Italian, including the award-winning Love in Vain: The Short Stories of Federigo Tozzi. Her essays and reviews have been published in Conjunctions, BookForum, BOMB, The Nation, Aperture, NPR.org, American Scholar, The New York Times Book Review, Time Out, New York, and others. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is the Editor of The Literary Review. She is currently writing a collection of linked personal essays.

Lyric tenor Peter W. Tinaglia is a recent graduate of the master’s program in voice at Manhattan School of Music. He was seen as Fatty in MSM’s Spring 2013 opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and was featured in MSM’s Spring 2013 musical revue Side by Side by Sondheim. Also while at MSM, Peter participated in the Opera Scenes program, Mr. Ken Merrill’s seminar on the music of Kurt Weill from 1927-1933, and the American Musical Theatre Ensemble’s production of Ragtime. Favorite opera scene work includes Alfredo (La Traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). Favorite regional opera and operetta credits include The Rape of Lucretia, Così fan tutte, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Kismet, and The Great Waltz. Peter is a proud graduate of Northwestern University (B.A.) and Boston University (M.S.). In addition to performing, Peter maintains a private voice studio in New York City. He also works as a non-profit project manager and teaches introductory project management courses online at Boston University.

No, YOU Tell It!: Uproar will take place on Tuesday, November 18th at 7PM. Do click on our Facebook invite for more info.

Event Information

Nov 18 2014 @ 7:00PM

Jimmy's No. 43, East 7th Street, New York, NY, United States

Fated: The No, YOU Tell It! Fall Workshop

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We recently wrapped up our fall workshop, where participants followed the NYTI formula of drafting a story based on a theme, in this instance Fated, revising those pieces, then switching-up and performing them. We’re grateful to The Astoria Bookshop for hosting the public reading. A final workshop session allowed the authors to compare their experiences and explore options for further revisions.

Speaking of the process, here’s a testimonial from May Flam about her experience:

I had no idea how valuable switched-up storytelling would be for my writing and performing. I decided to take the workshop to “shake up” my performing voice and make myself write. As someone who has only ever performed my own stories, I was enlightened when performing a piece with a different sensibility and tone than my usual writing. The vulnerability and immediacy with which I had to perform showed me that before this workshop, I had been holding back. I would recommend this workshop to anyone interested in writing and/or performing. No, YOU Tell It’s writing exercises, performance direction, and workshop model have honestly been more helpful to my growth as a performer than any other model I’ve ever tried. And all by telling another person’s story. Who knew?

From the reading at the Astoria Bookshop, here’s Cailean O’Connor performing “A Painless Chronicle” written by May Flam.

Our second half of the night paired workshop participants Steve Baird and Amanda Jacklin, who wrote the stories “Animal Rescue” and “Journey to the Top” respectively. Below you can listen as they perform one another’s pieces.

Of the workshop experience, here’s what Amanda had to say:

I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to work with talented writing instructors and classmates, and feel that my writing improved as a result.  I also had a blast doing the reading – it was more fun than I ever would have expected!

Echoing those sentiments, Steve said that “NYTI was a fun, enjoyable process with a very supportive group of directors and writers. As a first-time story writer (and teller) I learned a lot.”

If you’re interested in taking part in an upcoming workshop, or bringing one to your school or business, get in touch with us!

Alumni Reading at the Astoria Bookshop

Jul 17 2014 @ 7:00PM

So, we’re putting the finishing touches on the stories we’ll be presenting at our special edition of No, YOU Tell It! at the Astoria Bookshop on July 17th. This evening will feature four of our series alumni: Julia Granacki, Marcos Stafne, Molly Touger, and Jeff Wills. After two years of presenting NYTI, we have a deep bench of innovative storytellers and we thought this would be a great opportunity to highlight the pieces they’ve been working on most recently.

You can find more info on our Facebook invite. Space is limited so please RSVP.

The reading starts at 7PM. The Astoria Bookshop is located at 31-29 31st Street in Astoria (btwn. Broadway and 31st Avenue), close to the Broadway stop on the N/Q train.

[Chalk art version of our logo courtesy of Marcos Stafne, who graciously hosted our first story meeting for this event. And provided snacks! Mmm snacks.]

Event Information

Jul 17 2014 @ 7:00PM

The Astoria Bookshop, 31st Street, NY, United States