Pause & Expand with hosts Sean Allison (United Solo Theatre Winner, Real People Real Stories) and Simone Stevens (Real People Real Stories and Teaching Artist at The Ancram Center). Bring a story—polished or raw—and they’ll stop you once or twice to PAUSE and EXPAND, pushing you to open it up, go deeper, and perhaps reveal what you didn’t plan to say.

The audience joins in too. They’ll write down their own “pause and expand” suggestions, and after you finish, the hosts will read one or two aloud—adding unexpected twists and fresh angles.

This isn’t a showcase. It’s part open mic, part live workshop, part experiment. You choose how you want to do it: take pauses in the moment, hear suggestions afterward, or tell your story straight through, uninterrupted. And if you’d rather just watch, it’s just as compelling from the audience.

Even if you’ve told your story a hundred times, you’ll walk away having uncovered something new.