Workshops

Over five years ago, a group of complete strangers started meeting at the Toronto Reference Library. Although we didn’t know each other, we were collectively interested in reading and writing personal essays. So, every month Brianne Benness (who started the group) sent us a prompt and we wrote a response to it.

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Book Launch

We made a book! This gallery is from the official book launch that happened on October 17, 2019. Thank you to all the contributors to the book, all our storytellers, everyone that made this night a huge success, and of course the audience. Photographs by Tyler Blacquiere.

We Made a Book

To mark our fifth anniversary, we decided to take a look back and publish a book that included stories that were performed at the event. We settled on sixty-one stories and set off to put it all together. The clock was ticking, and in order to accomplish this for our fifth anniversary, we had to produce the book in four months. That’s a pretty tight turnaround time. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the process we went through to make it happen.

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Milestones

An important part of Stories We Don’t Tell is the location. Usually, you’ll find us in homes or apartments somewhere in downtown Toronto. However, a few times each year, we like to bring our event to a wider audience and a bigger venue. Our January 2019 show was held at the Centre for Social Innovation and featured amazing stories and an incredible audience.

Photography by Elisa D’Arcangelo. Set design art by Peggy Sue Deaven.

Stories of Home

How do you make housing a community conversation?

This was the question that gave rise to Stories of Home. It was posed to us by Evergreen last year, and our continued shared interest brought it to life again with new partners and new communities in 2018.

The answer, at least from our perspective as the producers of the Stories We Don’t Tell, was to focus on what we knew best, asking people to share their story. Hosted at CSI Spadina we invited people into a warm (Nov 22 was a cold night), welcoming, and comfortable space to hear them.

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Presentation and Expectations

This is the last episode in this Five-in-Five Series. So what are we talking about in this episode? We’re talking about presentation and audience expectations. An episode where we talk about how an audience might experience your story.

And I feel like you and I are going to maybe have some disagreements on this. Previously, we've discussed our opinions about what makes a good story and how to tell a story.

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Perspective

This is our Five-in-Five Series where we talk about writing and storytelling tips and all of that. We’re talking about a lot of things, and also offering challenges to help get your groove back.

Yes. We're trying to get our groove back just like the llama impersonators. Sure let's go with that. All the llamas in the house getting their groove back!

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Genre

Here we are for the latest instalment of the Five in Five Series: After Dark. These are five little short episodes of some writing tips and challenges to help you get your groove back.

I lost my groove a little bit over the summer. We're trying to get her groove back by issuing a challenge to ourselves and others. Hopefully we’ll help make it a little bit easier to write or to at least get the first 20 or 30 words on a page. That's the real key - start the writing and then it sort of flows from there.

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Tone

So we are in our second episode of this new season and it's also the second episode in the series of Five in Five: After Dark. The topic today is tone.

We mean the way the story is written. For example, a lot of the stories that I write have a sort of earnest, struggling kind of tone. Some of our favourite storytellers have vastly different tones. Storytellers and writers will develop a tone that they feel most comfortable with.

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Writing from a Theme

We're back. It seems like we've only been gone for about four months and that's because we have. Well it's very exciting because we're gearing up at the time of this recording for our first event of the season.

We started the season off and we kind of ended the season off of the podcast with a short little series that we like to call five and five After Dark.

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The Crowd

We love the audiences we get at Stories We Don't Tell. We might be biased, but we think our shows attract the best crowds. They deeply listen to the stories, have tremendous respect for the performers and engage with them afterward. And sometimes they even end up as storytellers as well! So, we're lifting our glasses to you, dear audience. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you again in September! Below are some photographs of our audiences from the last few years.

Performance Voice

Here we are with the last episode of this Five in Five: After Dark series.

This is one of my favorite things and I've been obsessed with this over the last year because it keeps changing. When you’re a writer and you finally find your writer’s voice, things click into place. In a similar way, through my experience you develop a performance voice. Or, a way that connects your writing to your delivery. It can take a while to figure this out.

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Re-Structuring

Alright, Five in Five: After Dark.

I just feel like we need to still include editing in here somewhere. There's a requirement especially since it’s so hard and a lot of people don’t do it. I actually think that perhaps the most common fault of new storytellers is they cannot accept that they have to cut things. You don't have to say everything and every word isn't precious.

I'm biased because editing is so important to me. I wonder if there's two kinds of people in this world. People that like to edit and people that don't like to edit. I like to edit and sometimes it’s even down to the actual show and I’m still changing words that I think may sound better.

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Know Your Ingredients

Now don't worry faithful listeners it's only five minutes because this is Five in Five: After Dark.

So, know your ingredients and make them quality. What do we mean by that? Basically, write a good story.

It’s more about the scenes in your story and how you use them in the time allotted. It’s using those limitations to get at what is most interesting in your story.

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When One Thing Represents Another

I don't think we should introduce ourselves at all. Listeners will figure it out.

Yes and I think we don't we only have five minutes so so we can't even waste time doing that. We’re back with the second installment of Five in Five: After Dark.

We talked about finding a moment like in the original Five in Five at the beginning of the season. This was about finding a moment in the story that you can build your story around. But say you have a certain theme or more universal thing or something larger you want to get at. It’s then looking at your own personal story and how something can represent those themes or whatever you're trying to do.

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Upside Down

So we were doing - another five and five.

We did this at the beginning of this season which was five writing tips and things that we've learned through the course of doing all the workshops with Stories We Don't Tell plus all of our own experiences. And now we've got five more that are like companion pieces and revisiting the first five.

Maybe at some point we can do the opposite versions? Like the Upside Down World in Stranger Things.

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Dwindled Dawn: Gallery

Check out some of the excitement from our January 2018 show Dwindled Dawn. Check out the next Stories We Don't Tell on February 24th, 2018 - RSVP via Facebook.

Photographs by Elisa D'Arcangelo. Set design by Maximilian Suillerot Wilke.

10,000 Leagues: Gallery

Check out some of the excitement from our November 2017 show 10,000 Leagues. Check out the next Stories We Don't Tell on January 27th, 2018 - RSVP via Facebook.

Photographs by Elisa D'Arcangelo. Set design by Maximilian Suillerot Wilke.

Gameshows and Friendships

PD: The thing about this story was that it was hard to write - not specifically from a standpoint of it's a difficult topic or at least a terribly difficult topic. I feel like you struggled with the story consistently and that you kept having iterations of versions of the story over and over and over again. And none of them exactly seem to land where you wanted them to.

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The Law of Threes

SH: Today we're talking about sequels. And no we're not going to be talking about The Godfather Part 3 again. But curiously enough this would be the third time that it was mentioned on this podcast. Should we go there or not go there?

PD: I love the Godfather Part 3. That has been a stance that I've always had and have made my point on this show multiple times about how much I love The Godfather Part 3. You have refused to see The Godfather Part 3 and I find that offensive.

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