Every other month, A Guide To Visitors presents a curated selection of real life stories.
You know those stories you hear at bars or dinner parties, from friends or strangers? The ones that haunt you for days?
We search for the best of those stories and then present them to you. On stage, not by actors, but by the people themselves.
Every other month, you get a half dozen stories served up fresh n’ piping hot!
A Guide to Visitors brings individuals together through their personal histories. By inspiring people to share their stories, we are making narrative accessible again.
A Guide To Visitors is the brain child of Dave Snyder and Jeannie Yandel who met as producers for the once nationally syndicated Rewind from National Public Radio. One night over drinks, Dave told Jeannie about this great television show he saw on some obscure digital cable channel – where people got up on stage and told their own personal stories. No scripts, no actors, no costume design or dramaturgy. Just straight-up, first person narrative. It was a show put on by an NYC outfit called The Moth. Dave lamented that there was nothing that cool in Seattle. Jeannie drank the rest of her beer and said, “Well, why don’t we do a show like that then?” AGTV did its first show, “Rites Of Passage”, at the Rendezvous in February 2002. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Dave has since moved on to Chicago where he makes garden s grow and writes excellent poetry. He is still the spiritual leader of AGTV, however. Jeannie gets tons of help making AGTV happen every time. The other producers of the show, who you’ll read about below, are nothing short of brilliant. It’s a fact.
Phyllis Fletcher is a Reporter and Host with KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio and a long-time amateur story scout and raconteuse. Having found a vocation that requires talking to people and listening to people talk, her life is now complete.
Rebecca Grossman credits her story telling ability to her East Coast family. Consequently she credits her story listening ability to her East Coast family as well since she can never get a word in edgewise. A friend dragged her to the first AGTV story workshop in 2002 and ended up telling for their first show. She got hooked and kept pestering Jeannie and Dave until they finally agreed to make her a co-producer. During the day she works at a nonprofit child advocacy organization as a Trainer.