Old-world art of storytelling makes comeback in Qns.
BY TAMMY SCILEPPI
Storytelling may have been
a lost art, but one Astoria resident
is bringing it back with
a vengeance!
Who doesn’t like listening
to a good story, no matter the
topic? As kids, most people
enjoyed being read to, and it
seems that feeling of wonder
never really goes away, no
matter how old you are.
Performing one-man shows
for over a decade, while constantly
honing his unique
craft, David Lawson has been
busy keeping his audiences
throughout New York City and
across the country, captivated,
as he gets folks re-acquainted
with an ancient art form.
One day, the talented
creative had an
“aha!” moment.
“About five years ago, I discovered
that a lot of places typically
associated with standup
comedy had storytelling
shows with performers doing
5- to 10-minute sets that looked
and sounded a lot like the
work I had been doing in the
one-person show world,” said
the story wizard, who is excited
about hosting an intriguing
new show called “Queens Storytellers”
at Queens Theatre
on Sept. 28.
Part of a series of free programs
through the theater’s
new Community Engagement
Department, it’s an evening
of multi-cultural storytelling
about the borough told by
locals, who will be sharing
interesting narratives about
their personal experiences,
adventures and more with the
audience. This fascinating
event will feature performers
from varying backgrounds
who were born and raised in
Queens or longtime residents.
There will also be an open
mic portion of the show where
members of the audience can
perform. RSVP at: http://
queenstheatre.org/queensstorytellers.
“My goal with Queens
Storytellers is to have a storytelling
show equivalent of
overhearing a really great conversation
on the No. 7 train
with the opportunity for audience
members to join in on the
conversation themselves. The
Queens Theatre gives me the
chance to do exactly that …
David Lawson Photo: Cait Reilly Goat Rodeo
but just off the 7 train instead
of on it,” Lawson noted.
While there are many
storytelling styles and techniques,
great tellers of tales,
like Lawson, know how to
bring them to life in a compelling
way, thus creating images
in his listeners’ brains and
grabbing their attention.
He got the “World’s Borough”
interested and folks
here were getting curious.
“Two huge events for me
personally, in terms of storytelling
in Queens, were when
The Astoria Bookshop opened
in the summer of 2013 and
when the performing space,
Q.E.D., opened off the Ditmars
stop in the fall of 2014,” he
said, recalling a Valentine’s
Day event at the bookshop
that year, where he asked Lexi
Beach, the owner, if he could
run a monthly storytelling
open mic there. “March 2014
was the first installment of
The Astoria Bookshop Storytelling
Show and in the fiveplus
years since, the show has
been profiled in The New York
Times and has had performances
from authors with big
book deals, standup comics
with national TV credits, and
complete and total strangers
who had a story to tell,” Lawson
explained. The show goes
up the first Thursday of every
month at 7 p.m., and anybody
can drop their name in the
basket and tell whatever true,
no theme, 5-minute story they
want, and it’s always free.
Q.E.D. provided a real
destination for comedy and
storytelling shows featuring
bigger name talent, such as
performers who have been on
Comedy Central’s storytelling
show “This Is Not Happening”
and “The Moth Radio Hour,”
according to the popular storyteller,
who added, “Q.E.D. is
one of my favorite places in the
city to perform.”
Read more at QNS.com.
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Served with Corn on the Cob
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with Purchase of 2 Cocktails,
2 Wines or 2 Beers
32 TIMESLEDGER, SEPT. 13-19, 2019 BT QNS.COM
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