JUNE 2024
Five Star Review
I. SUMMER VACATION
Fun in the sun.
We wrapped up the SWDT season on a high note. The May 2024 show was a line-up of amazing stories and wow did they deliver. It was certainly one of those special nights that seemed to contain an invisible energy that heightened and intensified with each storyteller. There’s such a magic to storytelling that can change the molecules in the air and make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. We want to give a big heartfelt thanks to all our storytellers, audience members, and hosts for making this one of the best seasons of Stories We Don’t Tell ever.
A few months ago, we came up with the idea to reach out to people who have performed on our stage and see if they’d be interested in guest producing. We wanted to provide the support and basically hand over the keys to the event to them. It’s safe to say that the idea was a rousing success. Our four guest producers each brought something new to their event and it made us see different ways we could improve the experience. We want to thank our guest producers Kale, Jake, Martha, and Veronica for all the work they did and for creating incredibly memorable and special events. We hope they’ll all be joining us again next season.
Speaking of next season, we’ll be starting back at the end of September. Which, by the way, happens to be our 10th anniversary. Yep, Stories We Don’t Tell is entering double digits. We don’t have all the details of what will be happening, but it will be big. Real big.
In the meantime, here are a bunch of ways to engage with us online and get information on how to participate in SWDT events:
Learn more about the process of telling a story with us.
Use this form to sign-up to join workshops and tell a story.
Get your copy of the SWDT book.
We hope you have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you in September!
— The SWDT Crew
II. SWDT PODCAST
We finally made it happen.
For about three years now, the SWDT Producers Paul and Stefan have been making a promise. An empty promise, but still, a promise nonetheless. At every event, we do a little promoting (trust us, we are bad at this) and promised that we would eventually be making more podcast episodes. Well, a few weeks ago, we fulfilled our promise.
Before posting these new episodes, we did some updating in the backend. We noticed we only had two reviews on Apple Podcasts (again, we are bad at promoting and asking for things like leaving reviews), one five star review and the other a one star review. No comment or context, just that one star sitting there taunting us. As hosts of the show, we couldn’t help take it personally.
We brought this up at our last show and had the entire audience boo that one star review, and that helped a bit. What would help more is if we got a few more good reviews to sway the balance back in our favor. So, if you listen to the podcast and enjoy it, leave us a review. Obviously, we’re not going to tell you what to rate the podcast, but just remember, if you give us a bad review, at some point in the future a room full of wonderful people might boo and curse you.
The Stories We Don’t Tell Podcast has almost 150 episodes. Each episode includes a live story recorded at our event and a brief discussion about storytelling. We have also done mini-series about the art of storytelling and writing, dispensing some tips and tricks we’ve learned after working with people and their stories for 10 years.
After an almost three year hiatus, we’ve finally been posting some new ones. We’re about halfway through a run of 12 new episodes. And keep following our podcast as we’ll be doing something special episodes leading up to the 10th year anniversary. Here are the latest episodes from the last few weeks with more to come:
Episode 145 - Vision Boards: Lee-Anne shares a story about creating a vision board that manifests an experience that is perhaps a bit more dangerous than she had expected. Paul and Stefan talk about developing an entire story around one incident.
Episode 146 - Alternate Timelines: Sam shares a story about a very serious neck injury - in this timeline, at least. Paul and Stefan talk about how to take a very plot-driven story that you’ve told many times and unpack the emotions.
Episode 147 - Date Night: Veronica shares a story about finally finding the time to go out on a date, but it doesn’t end well. Paul and Stefan talk about structuring a story by using a time limit.
Episode 148 - Themes Revisited: Stefan shares a multi-generational story about trying to stay afloat. Paul then joins him to talk about one of their favourite topics: themes.
Episode 149 - Taboo Topics: Paul shares a story about doing things alone as a single person. Stefan then joins him to talk about using humour to dig into taboo topics.
If you haven’t already subscribed to the SWDT Podcast, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
We welcome any comments or questions, whether it be about the event, podcast, telling a story, or general thought about storytelling. Email us: thestorieswedonttell [@] gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
