Stories on Stage Sacramento - January 2010 to present
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.
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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 CLARA (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.
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 CLARA (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.
Sue Staats, Peggi Wood, Valerie Fiorvanti and Victoria Goldblatt
Sue Staats directed Stories on Stage Sacramento for six transformational seasons, from 2013 to 2019. A 41-year resident of Sacramento, originally from the East coast, Sue lives and writes in the leafy backwater of Curtis Park in a small house with a large cat and a famous guest house. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Los Angeles Review, Graze, Farallon Review, Alimentum, a Journal of Food, and Tule Review. She was a runner-up for the 2011 Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction, and her poem “Late Peaches” was the title poem for the 2012 anthology, Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets. She earned a MFA at Pacific University in 2011, and her stories have been performed numerous times at Stories on Stage Sacramento and Stories on Stage Davis. Sue is currently working on a collection of linked short stories.
Peggi Wood served as casting director seasons 2013 through January 2020. A director and producer on the Sacramento theatre scene, Peggi is also a writer, screenwriter, storyteller, and performer. In 2015, Resurrection Theatre produced Peggi’s first short play, Demerol Dreams, in their 10×10 Original Play Festival, where she also directed two other plays. Her community theatre productions include DOG SEES GOD: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Moving Mountains with EMH Productions and Dan Fagan’s A Tiger Without Mercy. A longtime volunteer for the arts, literacy and community service organizations, Peggi served as social media director and board member for Celebration Arts, a multicultural, multidisciplinary educational and performing arts non-profit organization. Her work with Celebration Arts, where she was involved from the casting process through rehearsal and staging production for more than two dozen shows, as well as being an avid regional theater-goer and spoken-word performer herself, give her access to a wide range of talent and a keen understanding of drama, helping her match the right actor to a writer’s work. Peggi now aims to recapture time to focus on her short story collection, Last Shift.
Valerie Fioravanti founded Stories on Stage Sacramento in 2010 and served as director until 2013. She created the reading series as a way to inspire and connect writers in the Sacramento region.Her linked story collection, Garbage Night at the Opera, won the 2011 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and is available from BkMk Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, and Night Train, among others. In 2004 Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship to work on a novel set in Italy, Bel Casino. Her essays have appeared in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, Puerto del Sol, and others. She teaches writing, works as a writing coach, and coordinates the Master Teacher Weekend Workshops series. A NYC native, Valerie lives contentedly in tree-lined, walkable midtown Sacramento–home to a great restaurant scene; impressive, wide-ranging theatre options; and some very talented and generous writers. Visit her website here.
Victoria Goldblatt was our first casting director. She has performed for over 20 years, in films, commercials, community theater and voice-overs for TV and radio, along with her show, Cabaret Night with Victoria and Friends. She has read many times for Stories on Stage Sacramento and Davis. She's a former member of the Steering Committee for the Playwrights Collaborative. She recently won two awards from Free Fall Stage's play-writers Competition, for Audience Best Choice and Best Director. She owns her own business, OptimumBody, offering health consulting, exercise, and business coaching.
Volunteers are the vital backbone of Stories on Stage Sacramento. Our programming would not be possible without their efforts. Many of our volunteers have been with the series since its inception and have participated in its growth and evolution. We can't thank them enough for their loyalty and dedication to Sacramento's premier literary performance series. Below are a photos of a few of our wonderful volunteers in action.
(Volunteer applications are accepted via the Contact page.)
(Volunteer applications are accepted via the Contact page.)
