GREENFIELD — A shadow that disappears around a corner, ghosts of passed loved ones and things that go bump in the night will be the subjects of “Unexplained! Spooky concert and story swap.” Eight story tellers will weave tales of their own experiences with things that left them asking questions, on topics like Big Foot, Ouija boards and haunted camping trips.
The event will be Thursday, Oct. 18, at Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center, 289 Main St. in Greenfield. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.
Story tellers include Anna Bowen, David Bulley, Andrea Cohen-Kiener, Marian Kelner, Kerrita Mayfield, Julie Rosier, Corwin Ericson, Susanne Schmidt and Janice Sorensen.
Cohen-Kiener, of Greenfield, said she is going to be telling a tale about an experience with a Ouija board.
“The story is about my first time using a Ouija board as a teenager, it’s demonstrably true. It’s literally inexplicable by both rational thought and physical action,” Cohen-Kiener said.
She said she began telling stories after taking a class on the subject.
“When I took the course, I realized that when I tell true stories, it helps me make sense out of life,” Cohen-Kiener said. “Many art forms are helpful to organize and understand experiences developing at that point.”
She said one of the elements she likes about the event is that people will get the opportunity to share their stories, as well.
“I have yet to tell a story where someone hasn’t said, ‘Well, this happened to me.’ I like stories, and I like to collect them and tell them to other people, so hopefully people will feel like sharing,” Cohen-Kiener said.
Another storyteller, Bulley of Montague, is going to be telling a “truly frightening story about an encounter in the wilderness with what may well have been Bigfoot!”
He said even after many years since the experience, “I’m spooked by the memory.”
Bulley said he was asked to participate and agreed to because of his love for oral storytelling.
“There is a moment, when telling a good story, when you look into the eyes of the listener, whether that’s one person or 50, and they seem to be leaning in, rapt, as if willing the next word out of your mouth,” Bulley said. “When that moment hits, I’m reminded again why I like to tell and listen to stories. This is how people have communicated ever since language, really, ever since people. Engaging in a ritual as old as your species has a sort of sacredness.”
Following the story concert, the evening will continue with the opportunity for audience members to haunt each other with stories of their own in a spooky story swap. All are welcome to share and listen in.
Hawks and Reed will serve up an array of autumnal cocktails and sweets, and Tara Kurland will set the mood with her violin.
The event is presented by Local Dirt Productions, and proceeds will benefit The Literacy Project in Greenfield.
Local Dirt Productions was founded earlier this year by Cohen-Kiener (CK) and Vanessa Cerillo, two Greenfield residents with a passion for storytelling, and an interest in adding to Greenfield’s unique cultural scene. This will be the collective’s first event.
Cerillo, who is co-producing the show with storyteller CK, said the group came together telling “odd wild stories” that they wanted to share with others.
“We wanted to try something for October, and the stories shaped to the event, which is just in time for Halloween,” Cerillo said. “A couple stories are creepy, but all of them pose questions like: ‘I wonder what that was?’ or ‘I wonder what that feeling was?’ — ‘What happened to me?’”