Everyone has a story. Everyone deserves to be heard.
During the Creemore Arts Fest, Tracey Erin Smith will attempt to bring as many people together as possible during a storytelling challenge that she hopes will spread across the country.
“The Great Canadian Story Exchange is a joyful public experiment in what happens when strangers stop ignoring each other and begin to listen to one another,” says Smith, an award- winning performer and founder of Toronto’s Soulo Theatre.
It will all start in Creemore on Sunday, Oct. 4.
“Creemore is the first town to set the first record and my vision is for this to go nationwide, from B.C. to Newfoundland, and it starts one person at a time, two people together, sharing one story from their own life,” says Smith.
Smith is the author of the book Flying Soulo, a step-by-step guide to developing one-person shows for the stage. The first line of the book reads, “Stories are the bridge between souls.”
She says, “But I really want the public to know you don’t need to be a performer or a writer. You just need to be a person.”
Smith says she had received permission by the Guinness World Records Company to attempt a new world record but once trade relations with the United States began to sour she decided to keep the endeavour within the borders of Canada. Her hope is that once a benchmark is set, other communities across Canada will try to beat it and help start a new Canadian movement.
She has seen how talking really can help people get things off their chest. “Sometimes I get dramatic, and
I say my work is where confession meets exorcism. When something is heavy in our heart or in our soul, the best thing to do is get it up and out, and the most beautiful thing to do is share it with another human being,” she says. “When we share our own stories, it really helps others feel less alone especially in the age of social media, when we’re watching people’s highlight reels, and we’re thinking, ‘I’m the only one that feels lonely. I’m the only one that feels like an outsider, or like I’m not good enough.’ But my work is about creating a space where people can share that honestly and then everyone exhales, and everyone’s shoulders relax when they realize, oh my God, it’s not just me it’s the human experience, but most people don’t talk about it because it’s too vulnerable.”
Smith, will kick off the event by leading a free interactive workshop on the art of personal storytelling before participants pair up to simultaneously share their stories to set the record.
“It’s not about having the most dramatic story or the most hilarious,” she says. “The Great Canadian Story Exchange begins with a very simple belief, and that is everyone has a story. Everyone deserves to be heard, and our country becomes stronger when its people become curious about one another.”
The Great Canadian Story Exchange workshop and record attempt starts at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4 at Creemore Village Green Stage, 181 Mill St.
