It’s a simple concept but it might give a lot of people a major case of the nerves, at least until they do it.
Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids is exactly what it sounds like: grown adults reading their own youthful writing on stage in front of a live audience. Dan Misener is the generous host who offers encouragement to people willing to get up to the mike.
Misener said there is no warmer crowd in the world. Often people are reluctant to do a reading, but once they see the audience is on their side, they gain confidence. The same people who said they would never be able to do that can be up reading at another show.
For 11 years now, people across the country have stood up in front of the crowds to read their lively childhood stories, their awkward teenage poetry, their youthful love letters, their bittersweet coming of age journals, their embarrassing diary entries, and more.
GRTTWAK started off as a podcast then became a short-lived CBC radio series before returning as a podcast and a kind of ongoing tour. In the last four years, Dan and his wife Jenna have brought nearly 100 shows to theatres from sea to sea. They were last in the city in June 2017, a show that functioned partly as a charity partnership with STAR Literacy, the local agency that helps adults learn to read, write and speak English as well as build on their numeracy skills.
“We’re pretty excited to be making yet another trip to St. Albert. We had such a good time last time,” he said. “The Arden’s a beautiful space and I think we’re going to fill it up. There’s a willing and warm audience.”
The show is billed as an open mike except for the stipulation that people must sign up in advance to read. Beyond that, the only rules are that you read your own work, it has to be short, and it has to be from “reasonably far in the past.” It should be from ten years or more in the past.
“We want you to be at a different place in your life to have the perspective and the temporal distance that’s required to have a moment of reflection. What’s the expression: comedy is tragedy plus time?”
Kate Wolfe has stage fright, or rather she did until right after she stepped off the Arden’s planks for last year’s performance. Her reading was from a poetry assignment about personifying emotions in a Dr. Seuss style when she was 14.
“It was really awesome. I actually suffer from huge stage fright but being in front of a crowd that wants you to succeed, it was really empowering just to get up there and read something,” she said.
She was convinced after a friend of hers, Maura Penn, had her moment on stage during a previous event and spoke so highly of it. Penn went back up again last year to show solidarity with Wolfe as they each did their own readings. Next Friday, the two will be back in the spotlight.
While Wolfe didn’t notice the applause, she sure remembers how welcoming and supportive the audience was.
Misener himself walks the walk by talking the talk too. Next Friday, he’ll share some of his earlier works with us, as he always does. He plans to read a few selections of some poetry he wrote when he was in about Grade 4.
“The famous children’s author Roald Dahl had a book of poetry called Revolting Rhymes. When I was a kid I read Revolting Rhymes and really, really liked it so I was inspired to write my own collection of poetry called Putrid Poems.”
Before then, the organizers hope to sign up a few more presenters as the slate is only about three-quarters full. Misener hopes that the weekend will give people the chance to rediscover their own words … if they can find them.
The 90-minute show typically has approximately 15 readers, each taking the stage for up to 5 minutes. The upcoming St. Albert show still needs a few brave souls to sign up, which they can do by visiting www.grownupsreadthingstheywroteaskids.com/event/stalbert-2018-june. There, they can also buy tickets to watch from the audience. Each general admission seat is $17.85. For more information, call the Arden box office at 780-459-1542 or visit www.stalbert.ca/exp/arden/tickets-box-office.
