The Storyteller's Apprentice

Stone Soup Theatre is bringing The Storyteller's Apprentice to Delilah's Front Porch on Thursday, October 22. It's a live staged reading of a Convergent Arts production, which means you'll hear the script read aloud with the actors on stage rather than a fully blocked and costumed production. This is also the first production Stone Soup Theatre is putting on, so it's their debut as a company.

The Storyteller's Apprentice is an original fantasy about the power of storytelling and what happens when the stories that sustain and shape societies become the forces that fracture them. It's a Convergent Arts production written and created by Ashley Hammonds and Zachary Carlisle, and this reading is the first time it's being brought to a live audience. The whole thing is built around that central idea—how the stories a community tells about itself can hold it together or tear it apart—and since it's a staged reading, the focus stays on the writing and the voices.

If you're not familiar with the format, a staged reading is a bit different from a traditional play. The actors are on stage and performing the roles, but they're working from the script in hand rather than having it memorized, and there's no set or costume change to distract from the text. It's a good way to catch a new piece of writing in its early stages, and it puts the storytelling front and center.

Delilah's Front Porch is at 830 Airport Blvd., Ste. A, in Austin. Doors open at 7 PM and the reading starts at 8 PM. Entry is free, and it's BYOB, so you can bring whatever you'd like to drink along with you.