A collective “oh no!” rose up from the crowd gathered within the Historic Alberta House. They drew out the expression of dread, letting it fall into a murmur. Onstage, Chris Williams, the founder of Front Porch Sessions, joked about people running for the doors.
“That’s usually the response, when an audience first learns that they’re gonna talk to people,” Williams told the Mercury in a later interview. “Most people, someone would have told them what’s up. But some come to what they think is just a regular storytelling show, and they’re surprised.”
Front Porch Sessions is a storytelling night with a community twist, but overall it’s a fairly simple format: Storytellers speak on a topic, and at the end they pose a question to the audience. Attendees form small groups to share their answers or just listen to others. In practice, the groups are around two to four people—anything larger wouldn’t leave time for everyone to talk during the short ten-minute window.
“Usually by the end, people want more time to talk. ‘More time! More time!'” Williams said. “Ten minutes always flies by.”
