According to Anthony Powell, artistic director for Stories on Stage, Stone Animals is a “haunted house comedy.”
The theater group will bring Miami-based author Kelly Link’s short story of the same name to life on Oct. 15 at the Nomad Playhouse in Boulder.
Link’s story follows a husband, his pregnant wife and their two kids as they move into a new home in the suburbs. However, Link is known for her fantastical, “slipstream” style of writing, so nothing is ever quite what it appears.
In its 22nd season, Stories on Stage takes real stories, often provided by community members, but other times from established authors like Link, and brings them to life in front of a live audience. A typical Stories on Stage performance is three or four shorter pieces around one theme, but Powell says Link’s story is good enough to fill the entire 90-minute time slot, especially when brought to life by two local actors, Chip Persons and Jessica Robblee, who play the husband and wife and the rest of the characters.
“If you were lucky enough to be read to as a kid by a parent or a librarian, and if you love that, we still love it as grownups,” Powell says.
The actors enjoy it as well, because they can bring the emotion and humor to a single piece of writing, according to Powell.
“There’s something about a live audience experiencing a story together as a community that just kind of raises the stakes all around,” he says. “It’s really fun.”
7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, Nomad Playhouse, 1410 Quince Ave., Boulder. Tickets: $24, nomadplayhouse.org
