{"id":804696,"date":"2020-02-27T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379678"},"modified":"2020-02-27T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:30:00","slug":"the-raconteurs-the-moth-mainstage-comes-to-breckenridge-for-an-encore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/the-raconteurs-the-moth-mainstage-comes-to-breckenridge-for-an-encore\/","title":{"rendered":"The raconteurs: The Moth Mainstage comes to Breckenridge for an encore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Moth Mainstage returns to Breckenridge for the first time since 2016. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cLeap of Faith,\u201d and attendees can hear stories from Andrea Collier, Alistair Bane, Aaron Trompeter, Wang Ping and Monte Montepare along with music by Russick Smith.<\/strong>
Courtesy Ben Godkin<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Gather \u2019round and pay attention. It\u2019s time to hear a story.<\/p>\n

The Moth Mainstage, the flagship program of the Public Radio Exchange show, is spending a night in Breckenridge this weekend. Like the insects crowding around a porch as friends talk outside on a summer\u2019s evening, the occasion is a chance for people to hear stories that go against the dominate narrative and hopefully leave the venue changed after being entranced.<\/p>\n

The Moth launched in 1997, and over the years people like Malcolm Gladwell, John Turturro, Molly Ringwald and Rosanne Cash have taken the microphone in hand to open up and tell a tale about themselves. By not sharing work written by someone else, the events help connect people and build a community.<\/p>\n

Bringing these stories to life is Executive Producer Sarah Austin Jenness, who will be directing the show in Breckenridge. Jenness first joined the organization as a one-night volunteer, fell in love with the \u201cmodern take on the oldest art form\u201d and then became an employee in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of these 15 years, the heartbeat of The Moth is still the same,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about a simple, well-told, personal story. But the stories are amplified in a way that they weren\u2019t back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Long Island, Jenness grew up in a family of storytellers and loved theater when she was younger. In college at Boston University, her passion became documentaries, and after graduating she worked as a freelance producer for film, television shows and commercials. Yet she wanted to put down roots in New York, so she sent in her application to The Moth a year after volunteering at one of its shows.<\/p>\n

The medium was different, but the commonality of individualized stories is what drew her to the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Moth stories are like short, live documentaries where you\u2019re not playing a role. You\u2019re not cast as someone else,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cYou\u2019re sharing with a group of strangers something true about yourself. They\u2019re almost like fingerprints. It shows me something really unique about everyone who steps on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first, the only way to hear the shows after the performance was to purchase CDs, and over time Jenness has seen The Moth change from an underground scene to having wide reach with the OpenSLAMS, the internationally touring Mainstage, The Moth Podcast and The Moth Radio Hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re in 30 different cities with our open mic nights. We have about 40 Mainstages every year,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cWe have global workshops in Africa to help people who are advocates to use personal storytelling in their work. The Moth Radio Hour is on over 500 radio stations, and the podcast is downloaded 72 million times a year. \u2026 Every story that moves on to our channels is heard by at least 2.5 million people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a not for profit organization that\u2019s helping people practice the art of listening and understanding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Executive Producer Sarah Austin Jenness is directing The Moth Mainstage show Saturday, Feb. 29, in Breckenridge. Jenness has been with The Moth for 15 years, helping storytellers bring their tales to life.<\/strong>
Courtesy The Moth<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Into the unknown<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breckenridge\u2019s show will be recorded, like all The Moth Mainstage events, but it is still to be determined what, if any, clips will make it on the airwaves or online. This makes Leap Day the only guaranteed opportunity to catch unique tales.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething about each story is going to be fresh,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cPeople buy tickets to these live events not having any idea of who they are going to see. That still floors me. We rarely have someone that\u2019s like a headliner in these shows. It\u2019s usually like the sheriff and the hot dog eating champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing off the day that occurs almost every four years, Saturday\u2019s storytelling theme is \u201cLeap of Faith.\u201d The five handpicked speakers \u2014 author, journalist and photographer Andrea Collier; Denver-based Alistair Bane; real estate broker Aaron Trompeter; poet, artist, dancer and English professor Wang Ping; and mountain guide and comedian Monte Montepare \u2014 will be sharing pieces of themselves for about two hours, without notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is a thriller, one is the story of a man buying his first home and he finds that there may be spirits still in the home, and then we have a story of a mother from Michigan, and there\u2019s a twist that happens right at the top,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cThe stories are pretty gripping. You don\u2019t know which way they\u2019re going to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the stories that are the most fun for me to work on, where the audience really has to just buckle up and they have no idea how these stories are going to work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though no one on stage is a current Summit County resident, former local Montepare is returning to his hometown for The Moth. He moved to Alaska when he was 20 and is now based out of Los Angeles. Montepare is a three-time Moth StorySLAM winner, a Moth GrandSLAM champion and was a keynote presenter at the 2018 Ouray Ice Climbing Festival.<\/p>\n

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Former local Monte Montepare is returning to his hometown for The Moth. Montepare is a three-time Moth StorySLAM winner, a Moth GrandSLAM champion and was a keynote presenter at the 2018 Ouray Ice Climbing Festival.<\/strong>
Courtesy Kerry Tasker<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Introducing each storyteller is regular Moth StorySLAM host Jon Goode, an author, poet and playwright from Richmond, Virginia, who resides in Atlanta. Cellist Russick Smith, known for frequently participating in the Breckenridge International Festival of Arts, will open the show with a musical arrangement and perform an interlude after intermission. <\/p>\n

If by the end of the show audience members are inspired to share their own stories, there are a few options to get involved. For starters, those who are interested can participate in a StorySLAM open mic. Bane was discovered via the one in Denver, and the next events are March 20 and April 17 at Swallow Hill Music in Denver.<\/p>\n

Secondly, there is also the option of calling the pitch hotline, like Trompeter did, and leaving a two-minute voicemail that gives a sense of one\u2019s personality and a story outline \u2014 without any cliffhangers.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how people submit their ideas, Jenness stresses that most speakers are everyday people. They might have nerves at the start, but she said lots tell her when they get off stage that they want to do it again. Jenness also said The Moth audiences aren\u2019t usually judgmental people coming in with their arms folded, waiting for something good, like they might at an evening of stand-up comedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best Moth shows include people who have extraordinary stories but don\u2019t necessarily think of themselves as storytellers,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cI love to laugh, and I love working with comics on serious stories. I love working with people who are serious on fun stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the storytellers operate in a vacuum, and Jenness helps people fine-tune what they want to say with the rest of her team. She notes that a story should include personal change while letting the audience in on something special as the speaker peels back their layers over the course of 10 minutes. The audience should feel like they\u2019re in the storytellers shoes, but the story shouldn\u2019t be a confessional.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like driving a car,\u201d Jenness said. \u201cYou don\u2019t just go from point A to point B. You stop along the way and really point things out. You tell us what these things mean to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Moth Mainstage returns to Breckenridge for the first time since 2016. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cLeap of Faith,\u201d and attendees can hear stories from Andrea Collier, Alistair Bane, Aaron Trompeter, Wang Ping and Monte Montepare along with music by Russick Smith.Courtesy Ben Godkin BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Gather \u2019round and pay attention. It\u2019s time to hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-20 08:57:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}