Dear Steve, [Gilbar]
Thanks for putting me in touch with [Director] Karin delaPena -- she got me
off my posterior and into Victoria Hall last night for your
superb show. ... I am impressed. Not only is the theater
wonderfully amenable, but your actors are flat-out terrific.
-- T.C. Boyle
I'm a fiend for being read to, and what with the availability of
recorded books it's much easier than it used to be to find
opportunities for this great pleasure. When I worked in
Manhattan, I'd often go to Selected Shorts, ...but nothing
compares to Speaking of Stories. When I found myself in Santa
Barbara for the first six months of 1998, I was amazed at my
luck in discovering this series. My first exposure to it
thrilled me so much that I attended every following performance.
More than in any other setting I've been in, these stories sank
into my very being. I find that even a year later, there are
several stories I can still feel, still hear. After Amy Bloom's
"Silver Water," I was nearly in tears, and laughter had me
melting out of my seat by the end of Richard Bausch's "Aren't
You Happy for Me?" Or maybe I laughed much harder for Blanche
McCrary Boyd's "Black Hand Girl." I was so touched by John
Updike's "Deaths of Distant Friends." This year I made a special
trip back to Santa Barbara to hear Speaking of Stories once
again, and am so envious of all the residents who get to hear
the performances regularly. I hope it continues to flourish.
-- Rebecca Passonneau, linguist
"After attending Speaking of Stories, I went to the
library and checked out the short stories . . . which
was a lot of fun. I found the stories an absolute
delight, especially under the guidance of having
heard them."
--Harriet Miller, Mayor of Santa Barbara, as quoted
in the Santa Barbara News-Press
One of the highlights of my days in grade school was the weekly sessions
where the teacher would read out loud. . . . Not since then have I so
enjoyed being read to. I liked all the actors, they're excellent. The
stories were very intense.
-- Stan Harpole, ecobiologist
It's a very vivid experience. The story comes to life in quite a different
way then reading it off the page. It's much more intense. The skilled
acting accentuates what's important about the stories, and the stories are
well chosen. One of the great things about it is I'd hear stories by
writers I hadn't heard of....Sometimes there'd be a story by someone I did
know of, Walter Mosely comes to mind, but it cast the story in a whole new
light....The intensity of the language came through in a way I hadn't
perceived when I read it....It's very close to theater, with a lot of the
wonderful things about reading thrown in....You hear four different stories
in one evening, and get thrown into four different worlds.
-- Steve Shenker, physicist
