Speak Story Series announces 2025 Story Commission
Speak has offered an annual story commission since 2023. For each cycle, we received dozens of proposals from across the United States. A panel of West Virginia artists and arts presenters used a multi-round process to select each recipient. Congratulations to our previous recipients!
Our 2023 Commission recipient was Diane Macklin, who debuted her story Zora Unveiled: Echoes of a Cultural Muse on Tuesday September 12, 2023.
Our 2024 Commission recipient was Dart, who debuted their program Queerified Love Like Salt Tales on Tuesday November 12, 2024.
2025 Story Commission Details
Speak is proud to announce we will commission a third story in 2025. Details follow.
For twelve years Speak Story Series has been committed to presenting world-class storytellers and culture bearers in concert, both in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and online. Visit our current season and history to meet the nearly 100 storytellers we’ve worked with so far. For our 2025 season we will commission a storyteller (or team of storytellers working together on the same project) to create a new storytelling artwork of their choice and contract them to appear on our season lineup to premiere the work. Challenge us! Impress us! Give us reason to want to support your work. Don’t play it safe if you don’t have to: we want to promote new ideas, cutting-edge artistry, and/or mastery of important traditions.
The commission can support the creation of an original story (personal or fictional), an historical story, or development of a traditional or traditionally-learned story. While the story is not limited to the English language, the bulk of it should be in English so as to be able to reach our core audience. The exception would be a story told using American Sign Language, for which we can provide an English-language interpreter.
The new story must be a minimum of twenty minutes but may run as long as sixty minutes. The new story will consist primarily of spoken storytelling (literature read aloud is ineligible), but may also incorporate singing, musical instruments, puppetry, shadow puppets, crankies, kamishibai, origami, projections, dance, or other world traditions or innovations that accompany spoken storytelling.
All story proposals will be considered from any genre and style of storytelling. Story proposals may come from storytellers at any stage of accomplishment. Proposals will be accepted from any storyteller or storytelling team eligible both to work and be paid in the United States. A social security number is required.
Timeline:
December 29, 2024 - January 24, 2025
Speak will accept story proposals. Click here to submit.
by February 7, 2025
Review panel will contact shortlisted artists to schedule a video meeting during the early part of February.
by February 21, 2024
Selected artist or team announced.
Restrictions:
Artists who are already contracted to appear on the 2025 season of Speak are ineligible for consideration. Other storytellers who have appeared on seasons 1 - 12 are eligible to apply, as are storytellers who have never appeared on the Speak Story Series.
Stipulations:
The commissioned storyteller will receive $2,000 to focus on the creation of the new story and will be hired to appear on the 2025 Speak Story Series lineup for the date of November 11, 2025 at our 2025 artist rate plus lodging for two nights beginning November 10. These dates are inflexible; if you are not available to appear in person on those dates then please do not apply. The selected artist or team will give a 60-minute concert on Tuesday November 11 featuring the premiere of the commissioned story (plus additional stories if the new work runs fewer than 60 minutes), as well as a yet-to-be-determined outreach program on Tuesday during the day. Note that our Tuesday night program will also be live-streamed.
Determination:
Our review panel may include members of the Speak operational team, our storytelling community, and contemporary artists outside the field of spoken storytelling. The chosen project will be one that is of interest to the Speak community and aligns with its mission, and one that will be deemed a valuable contribution to the greater storytelling community and have a life of presentation beyond the Speak premiere. The chosen project will also be one for which the artist has a clear conception and vision and is achievable within the artist’s ability and given timeline.
After receiving submissions, the panel will review proposals and determine which entries they might like to know more about. Rationale will be whether the proposal fits the mission of Speak, ideas that have been thought through (while not necessarily fully formed, they need to be more than scattered ideas or initial thoughts), feasibility, and general interest of the panel.
From that selection, the panel will look at the artists' history and determine if they will be able to complete the project, and if their skill level/experiences/ambition will likely lead to a good finished product. The panel will select a shortlist of artists for further discussion.
After conversing with those artists about their projects, the committee will discuss the merits, comforts, and concerns of each and make a selection.
Questions?
Please email Adam Booth, Founding Artistic Director at director@speakstoryseries.com and be sure to visit www.speakstoryseries.com/2025commission for updates and responses to community questions.