UPDATED: November 11, 2014. 4:25pm. Seats for our Grand Slam have sold out. Thank you. We will offer limited Standing Room Only tickets ($10) starting at 7:45 pm.
On Tuesday, November 11th, the winning storytellers of the 2014 season will go head-to-head in the 2014 West Chester Story Slam Grand Slam! The theme of the night is "Fine Line." Join us at 8pm at the Chester County Historical Society for a night of excellent stories. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by clicking HERE.
For the Grand Slam, we will be strictly enforcing the 5 minute rule. Each Storyteller will be signaled at 4 minutes and 30 seconds and then again at 5 minutes. Any story over 5 minutes and 30 seconds will not be counted in the final scores.
Scheduled to compete in the 2014 Grand Slam are:
Luanne Fox Sims left a career in higher education in 2005 to raise her kids full-time and pursue her creative interests. She paints a little, draws a little, writes a little, and is becoming a regular at story slam events near her home in West Chester, PA. Luanne is a co-winner of the 2013 West Chester Grand Slam and the Delco Story Slam.
Steve Clark is a two-time First Person Arts Grand Slam winner and has been called "Best Storyteller in Philadelphia" by Philadelphia Magazine. This fall, he is competing in four Grand Slams - West Chester, Delco, First Person Arts, and the Moth. He lives in Philadelphia.
Terry Heyman is a wife, mother, and former lawyer. Currently writer, frequent story slammer, and a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. She was featured in the 2013 Wilmington production “Listen To Your Mother” and recently performed at the 2014 Women in Comedy Festival in Boston. You can follow her blog Greetings from Insanity.
Jane Paffenbarger Butler was raised with over 70,000 acres of trees out her back door in the Hudson Valley of New York. She has been inspired to write the stories of her unique childhood in a memoir, excerpted in the anthology Unclaimed Baggage: Voices of the Main Line Writer’s Group, and to find opportunities to speak out about what she is learning while growing up, as sometimes heard at the West Chester Story Slam, or as detailed in her blog, myownpersonalsky.wordpress.com.
Mike Mauger, A West Chester resident and Chester County native, Mike Mauger has two degrees in the English language and utilizes neither one of them as the Business Development Manager for a local family business and a freelance writer and photographer in the Philadelphia music scene. He attends the Story Slam because his friends have already heard his stories and they can't take it anymore.
Chris Rich is an award-winning comedian, comedy writer, author and keynote speaker. She has been featured on Comedy Central and shared the stage with comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne and Sherman Helmsley. She is currently working on her one woman show in which she captures her family stories on stage. Learn more at Chris Rich.
Tim Megaw is a local author and former television writer, producer, director and TV executive. He is host of the Stottsville Story. UK born and grown up in Canada, he currently resides in Chester County, PA, with wife Erica and three children.
Diane Yannick, Diane Yannick enjoyed teaching kids to read and write for 35 years in area public schools. Her life is now governed by whims instead of rules. She lives with her talkative husband who lives in fear of what story she might tell next.
Marty Hoban teaches video production and media arts at The Hun School in Princeton, NJ. He lives in West Chester, PA with his wife Angela and daughter Anna.
Kevin Ginsberg, Kevin Ginsberg is a 6th grade teacher in the Lower Merion School District. He began telling stories long before anyone was listening.
Jeff Hazelwood started frequenting West Chester Story Slam in early 2014 and wowed the crowd with his candid, raucous stories. He works in the finance industry.
Jill Salkin is a singer/songwriter who performs in the Philadelphia area and has three CDs out. Learn more at Jill Salkin.
Justin Daniel has told stories at both West Chester and Delco Story Slams.
The feeling of freedom can take many forms. A person may feel free when they retire or quit job they've endured for too many years. Perhaps you took a sabbatical and explored the world. Janis Joplin sang "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." Maybe you experienced a physical feeling of freedom - by hang-gliding or skydiving or kayaking or snowboarding. To some, freedom may come from moving out of their parents' house or getting divorced. Many people immigrate to the USA to experience freedom from hardships caused by war, racial intolerance, or an abusive government. What does freedom mean to you?
