Saturday, May 12, 2007; Webster Wine Bar
By: Marci Merola

What happens when you mix storytelling, award-winning tech-folks and theater people, and throw in sponsorship from deep-pocketed wine distributors? At the 2nd Story Story, Wine and Music Festival, you get a packed house and a recipe for success that borders on brilliant.

Saturday’s festivities at Webster’s Wine Bar, 1480 W. Webster, marked the ninth night of ten of the 5th Annual festival, presented by Chicago’s Serendipity Theatre Collective.

Webster’s Wine Bar provides a warm setting for the communing that will ensue. An anomaly itself, the venue is literally the second story of an old two-flat in the midst of the corporate Clybourn Corridor. The format works like this: Guests line up in the main bar, willingly cough up $15 per ticket and then scramble upstairs to get a seat. The ticket buys guests a flight of wine, and each of the four pours is provided by the sponsoring winery. And it’s not your usual mix of literati here: blue hairs, Trixies, and everyone in-between gathers, sharing tables, chatting and seeming comfortably involved in their plates of pates and cornichons, while guest DJs spin ambient sounds.

An hour or so later, an emcee kicks off the night and offers a poetic description of one of the wines that waitstaff quickly distribute around the room. Then she introduces a storyteller, usually from Serendipity, who tells a well-rehearsed yarn, complete with high-tech soundtrack. Choreography is everything: storytellers are planted in different corners of the room, and 10-12 minute performances are followed by 20 minutes or so of conversation. This structure appeals to our short attention spans while creating an opportunity for conversation. That’s precisely the goal of 2nd Story folks, whose name refers not only to the upstairs location but to the idea that the anecdote will hopefully spark a bit of bar talk — the second story — among strangers and friends alike.

Like any other reading series, 2nd Story topics span emotional highs and lows, success and lost dreams, loves gained and lost. Kim Morris told a story about seeing a guy on the El who reminded her of a tragic moment in high school; during the story’s crescendo the Cure’s “Hot Hot Hot” slowly cued up to heighten the drama. Others were on the lighter side: Megan Stielstra (2nd Story’s Director of Story Development) delivered a tale about her undying love for Indiana Jones and Mike Tutaj (an actor and audio/visual guy around town) programmed an old Teddy Ruxpin to co-narrate his story. So what’s the secret ingredient in this recipe? What is it that should make venue coordinators around the city sit up and take notice? Quite simply, 2nd Story is fun. It’s a really good time. Maybe it’s not the deepest, most poetic verse, but it’s solid writing, it’s polished, and at the end of the night, the room is still full and the crowd goes smiling.

Five years in the making, it seems 2nd Story has become downright venerable and their lack of literary pretension and inclusivity becomes of note. After all, what we all set out to do is use the written word to get people off their collective sofa and into our community, right? If 2nd Story creates just a split second of community, if it only nods in the direction of preserving the art of storytelling, and if its accessibility spurs the tiniest bit of…of something in a newly-churned out MFA grad, what could be the harm?

It seems that in our city of big shoulders, we prefer to keep our gems hidden but a formula for success bears repeating and so 2nd Story will be branching out to a Randolph Street location next year.

In addition to being an accomplished poet and writer in her own right, Marci Merola is the advocacy specialist at the American Library Association. She hopes you will check out ilovelibraries.org when it launches on June 21.