Stories on Stage Sacramento - January 2010 to December 2022
Stories on Stage was founded in January 2010 by writer Valerie Fioravanti as a way to inspire and connect with fellow writers in the Sacramento area. Using the NPR series “Selected Shorts,” which originated in her native New York, as a model, Fioravanti set out to create a reading series that combined storytelling with theatre. The monthly gathering offered two fiction writers, one an established, often widely published author, and one selected from submitted manuscripts by the many emerging writers in Sacramento’s burgeoning literary scene. Each piece was performed by a local actor, with casting originally handled by Fioravanti and later turned over to local actress Victoria Goldblatt. In 2012, Sacramento playwright, promoter and producer Peggi Wood assumed the role of Casting Director.
During its first few years, Stories on Stage hosted such acclaimed authors as Andrew Foster Altschul, Angie Chau, Christian Kiefer, Peter Orner, Lynn Freed, and Melinda Moustakis. Recognized in several Sacramento publications as a haven for local writers and fans of the written word, Stories on Stage gained traction and received funding through a grant from Sacramento Region Community Foundation in 2013.
During its first few years, Stories on Stage hosted such acclaimed authors as Andrew Foster Altschul, Angie Chau, Christian Kiefer, Peter Orner, Lynn Freed, and Melinda Moustakis. Recognized in several Sacramento publications as a haven for local writers and fans of the written word, Stories on Stage gained traction and received funding through a grant from Sacramento Region Community Foundation in 2013.
Sue Staats in conversation with Tobias Wolff
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In the fall of 2013, Fioravanti stepped down as director and writer Sue Staats took over as the new coordinator for Stories on Stage. Under Staats’ leadership, 2014 and 2015 were banner years for Stories on Stage, with literary giants such as Tobias Wolff, Anthony Marra, Ann Packer, and Pulitzer Prize winner/National Book Award winner Adam Johnson garnering record-breaking audiences. In addition, Staats forged a partnership with Verge Center for the Arts, which was the setting for several widely attended events, including the first-ever multiple actor dramatic reading from T. Geronimo Johnson’s Welcome to Braggsville.
2015 also saw the addition of short play previews for local theatre companies, such as KOLT Run and Celebration Arts, and The Avid Reader was welcomed as the event bookseller, ensuring that audiences would be able to obtain copies of a featured author’s books on the spot. |
Stories on Stage Sacramento continued to attract top writing talent in 2016: such nationally known writers as Anthony Marra (back for a second visit), science fiction great Kim Stanley Robinson, and National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell were among the featured writers, a stellar list which also included Vendela Vida, Lori Ostlund, and Jodi Angel. In an effort to promote and foster local writing programs, Staats created an annual event featuring the best writing from the four literary journals produced by the creative writing departments of the Los Rios Community College campuses. In 2016 it became apparent that Stories on Stage Sacramento had outgrown its original home, the Sacramento Poetry Center. After “test runs” in several venues, including Verge Center for the Arts, Stories on Stage Sacramento selected the auditorium at The Clara Auditorium (The E Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts) as its new home beginning in January 2017. With a homey-yet-capacious feel, seating for 200, and excellent acoustics, this venue accommodates an audience that has grown from an average of 40 in the early years to between eighty and a hundred-twenty people at each event.
For three seasons—2020 through 2022--Shelley Blanton-Stroud and Dorothy Rice co-directed SOSS, with Jessica Laskey as Casting Director. During their tenure, the literary series attained state and federal nonprofit status (many thanks owed to Shelley's husband Andy Stroud for legal assistance throughout this cumbersome process), which means that the organization is now eligible for a wider range of grants and assistance. As a nonprofit, they were required to form a Board, which consisted of the two co-directors, Jessica Laskey and Sue Staats, who remained an invaluable member of the SOSS team.
Blanton-Stroud and Rice were responsible for a major upgrade of the SOSS website, increasing its user friendliness and accessibility, along with the creation of a SOSS logo. A high priority for the team was bringing a diversity of authors and actors to the stage, in a range of genres with appeal to new audiences, while maintaining the high quality for the series by previous directors Sue Staats and Valorie Fioravanti. They also published the series' first anthology--Twenty Twenty: 46 Stories from a Year Like No Other—featuring the work of area writers, alongside authors featured on the program over the years. all of whom generously donated their work (sales from the anthology help fund SOSS programming). There is also now SOSS swag—tote bags and t-shirts, with sales going towards payment of authors and actors.
As has been the case since its inception, Blanton-Stroud and Rice relied on a loyal cadre of volunteers to bring authors and actors to the CLARA stage in midtown Sacramento. They would especially like to thank Ana Cotham, Joella Aragon, Bob Boughton, Michael DeWitt, Anita Scharf, Laurie Rivlin Heller and Jan Haag. They would also like to give special thanks to Amanda Prince-Lubawy, Rental & Events Coordinator at the CLARA theater and to Heidi and Ross Rojek of Capital Books for showing up with our author's books, even when they weren't easy to come by and there was little in it for them as business owners—we have particularly enjoyed their enthusiastic, smiling staff members. Last but by no means least, Sue Staats was a valued team member in every way, a stellar baker, and a friend.
Blanton-Stroud and Rice were responsible for a major upgrade of the SOSS website, increasing its user friendliness and accessibility, along with the creation of a SOSS logo. A high priority for the team was bringing a diversity of authors and actors to the stage, in a range of genres with appeal to new audiences, while maintaining the high quality for the series by previous directors Sue Staats and Valorie Fioravanti. They also published the series' first anthology--Twenty Twenty: 46 Stories from a Year Like No Other—featuring the work of area writers, alongside authors featured on the program over the years. all of whom generously donated their work (sales from the anthology help fund SOSS programming). There is also now SOSS swag—tote bags and t-shirts, with sales going towards payment of authors and actors.
As has been the case since its inception, Blanton-Stroud and Rice relied on a loyal cadre of volunteers to bring authors and actors to the CLARA stage in midtown Sacramento. They would especially like to thank Ana Cotham, Joella Aragon, Bob Boughton, Michael DeWitt, Anita Scharf, Laurie Rivlin Heller and Jan Haag. They would also like to give special thanks to Amanda Prince-Lubawy, Rental & Events Coordinator at the CLARA theater and to Heidi and Ross Rojek of Capital Books for showing up with our author's books, even when they weren't easy to come by and there was little in it for them as business owners—we have particularly enjoyed their enthusiastic, smiling staff members. Last but by no means least, Sue Staats was a valued team member in every way, a stellar baker, and a friend.
