'Cocoon' Amazes, MothUP Plans Expansion

Two leather chairs and an array of lamps sat atop a faded, ornate rug on stage at the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts (MCA) Concert Hall. Concert Hall Technical Director Mark Christensen played his guitar quietly, contributing ethereal and jazzy music to start off the event. This set-up, a warm display reminiscent of a cozy, family living room, was a warm welcome for an audience that packed the seats of the Concert Hall for Cocoon, a night of story-telling hosted by the creators of MothUP and sponsored by the MCA and the Committee for the Arts.

Cocoon brought six storytellers on stage, three students, two community members and a professor, to tell stories all centered around the loose topic of metamorphosis, stories of growth and change that ranged from a humorous story about first jobs to a heartwarming story of love and loss.

“Change is one of the only true constants in life,” said Luke Greenway ’14.5, one of the three students in charge of the event and MC for the evening, during his introduction.

The first storyteller was Doug Anderson, the director of Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater. “I think we’re wrong about miracles,” he said as he walked up to the microphone.

Anderson’s story talked about his time teaching at Amherst College. With an extensive history in theater, he was brought on to teach in both the theatre and English literature departments. With a hint of bitterness in his voice, Anderson pointed out to the audience that he had never taken an English class in his life, a fact that Amherst College somehow overlooked.

The story proved to be a strong start for the evening. Anderson’s experience in theater definitely showed through and his style of storytelling quickly caught the attention of the audience.

However, though there were probably just as many non-students as students in the audience, it seemed a bit odd to lead with this story. Anderson’s story was far beyond my experience as a student and, after the show, I heard complaints about his comment that teaching at community college was the “worst thing that could happen to someone in academia.”

The second storyteller was Mariam Khan ’16. Khan spoke about her experiences during her year abroad, during which she spent time working at a hospital in Indian slums and DJ-ing at a night club in Thailand. Khan’s story spanned four countries and raised interesting questions about identity, specifically about Muslim identity in America. Her experiences were incredibly fascinating and the wide range of her story was captivating, though her delivery was quite fast, making her hard to understand at parts. Also, because there was so much going on, sometimes the separate parts felt disjointed.

“Though it may not look like it,” Khan started her story, wearing a headscarf and traditional Pakistani clothing, “I’m as American as they come.”

It was at this point in the show, after the first two stories, when I found myself starting to wish that the organizers had better utilized — or used at all — the set-up on stage. The chairs and lamps created an interesting scene and I feel that the relaxed atmosphere of the event could have taken something from having two other speakers sit in the chairs while the stories were being told.

For me, the strongest speaker of the night was the third speaker, Emily Jacke ’12.5, who was the last speaker before the intermission. Jacke told a story about her relationship with her close high school friend Jesse, who struggled — and eventually lost the battle with — leukemia. The story was, naturally, incredibly emotional and Jacke had an incredibly powerful and distinctive method of conveying her story. Her sentences had an almost sing-song tone to them, coming to quiet stops at just the right moments.

And while the story was incredibly emotional, it was also funny. Jacke seemed to know exactly when to add a joke or light detail. When she said, “Then, Jesse stopped coming to school,” my heart dropped and then — seemingly moments later — I was laughing at the image of Jacke unable to cross the bridge at prom in her 108-inch circumference skirt.

During the intermission, the hosts of the event asked audience members to fill out slips of paper answering the question “What are you becoming?” Between each of the acts after the intermission, Greenway read some of the responses, which ranged from “A freshman of life — I’m graduating,” to “A big gay rainbow butterfly” to “I’m only 65. It’s too early to tell.”

Throughout the show, Greenway contributed an array of one-liners and jokes and, in the second half of the show after Emily Bogin ’17 story about finding secret places around campus — a story, she said, that was “not a love story, but [was] a story about love” — he shared his own story about storing his possessions in an air duct over the summer. While his jokes were certainly cheesy, his persona worked well on stage facilitating the transitions between stories.

The highlight of the second half of the show was a story by Associate Professor of English & American Literatures Daniel Brayton. Brayton told the audience about his experience as a graduate student flying back home from visiting his sister outside Paris. High above the Atlantic Ocean, a Moroccan man sitting next to Brayton on the plane was attacked — first verbally, then physically — by two drunk Frenchmen. Brayton, who had some experience wrestling and boxing, got involved with the dispute happening at the back of the plane, helping his new friend.

Brayton’s story felt almost like a change in genre, from the more heart-warming stories before to one with a bit more tension. And while two French drunks and a Moroccan man getting into a fight over the Atlantic sounds a bit outlandish, his story was incredibly real, vividly told and very human.

Near the end of the show, Greenway announced that, in January, MothUP will be expanding.

The hosts of that event received an offer to become part of the official Moth with NPR. NPR and students at the College will be working to start the Vermont Story Slam which will feature stories both here in Middlebury and in Burlington.

All in all, the event was a huge success. A wonderfully curated group of stories provided for a night of strong emotions. Each storyteller brought an interesting perspective and a wide range of experiences that captivated the audience.

“We were very proud of all the storytellers,” Greenway wrote, in an email. “It’s a tribute to the strength of our storytellers that in our conversations with audience members, every single storyteller has been cited as a personal favorite.”