Ann Arbor residents will have the opportunity to experience one of humanity’s oldest art forms in one of the city’s newest public spaces when storyteller Steve Daut presents a free outdoor storytelling series at Broadway Park West.
The series is designed to bring people of all ages together through live storytelling while introducing more people to Broadway Park West, the city’s new riverfront gathering space along the Huron River. The informal outdoor setting encourages listeners to stop, settle in, and experience stories in a way that has connected communities for thousands of years.
The free performances will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Saturdays, Aug. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. Audience members are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy a morning of stories in the park.
For Daut, becoming a storyteller began with a suggestion from friends during a visit to Ann Arbor’s own storytelling festival.
“When I attended The Ark Storytelling Festival twelve years ago, many of my friends said, ‘You should try that, you’re always telling stories,'” Daut said. “So I joined the Ann Arbor Storytelling Guild, and it evolved from there. Though I’ve done many things onstage, such as magic, stand-up and sketch comedy, and improv, storytelling feels like home.”
Today, Daut has spent more than a decade sharing stories with audiences throughout Michigan, drawing on folk traditions while adapting every performance to the people gathered before him.
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Every audience creates a different performance
Unlike a theater or library, Broadway Park West offers an unpredictable setting. Visitors may wander through the park, children may join midway through a story, and audiences can vary significantly from week to week.
“An open outdoor venue, with no stage or pavilion, can be one of the most challenging for a storyteller, especially in a multi-use park such as BPW, because people come and go and may not be there for the storytelling,” Daut said. “Also, the makeup of the audience may change from week to week, so you have to be ready for anything.”
That unpredictability is part of what excites him. “I expect that most of the stories will be folk tales from around the world, but once again, the audience makeup will dictate the selection to some extent,” he said. “Perhaps a scary story or two. I will probably build each program roughly around a theme, but you’ll have to come out for the program to see.”
Rather than arriving with a rigid script, Daut allows each audience to influence the morning’s performance. “I watch the audience to see what they respond to, especially in a setting like this one.”
That flexibility reflects one of storytelling’s defining characteristics: every telling is unique. Even when the same story is performed repeatedly, each audience shapes its pacing, energy and emotional impact.
An ancient tradition that still resonates
Storytelling predates books, movies, podcasts and even written language. Long before stories appeared on paper, they were passed from one generation to the next through spoken word, preserving history, teaching lessons, entertaining communities and helping people make sense of the world around them.
Daut believes that history explains why storytelling continues to resonate today.
“We humans are the storytelling animal,” he said. “We have been telling stories in one form or another at least since our ancestors told stories by painting pictures on cave walls 30,000 years ago. There is something universal in a good story that helps us tap into our shared humanity and experiences of what it means to be alive.”
Although many people associate storytelling with children, Daut said its appeal spans generations because the emotions in stories are universal. “I hope they will find that when stories are performed rather than read, even if geared toward children, they can also be very entertaining for adults as well.”
The outdoor series reflects that philosophy by welcoming listeners of all ages. Families may gather together, while adults without children can simply enjoy a morning of live performance in a relaxed riverside setting.
Building community through shared stories
Broadway Park West was created as a community gathering place, making it a fitting location for an art form built on shared experiences.
Daut believes stories have a remarkable ability to unite people despite their different backgrounds and perspectives.
“We may each have different experiences and opinions on what life is about or what is important,” he said. “But each of us understands the chill you can feel when we enter a dark graveyard at night, the fascination of hearing the primordial call of a sandhill crane, or the feel of a big bad wolf huffing, puffing and blowing the straw house down. Even if you can’t define it exactly, there is a shared truth in the experience of live storytelling.”
That shared truth is difficult to replicate through a screen. Like many performing artists, Daut watched live storytelling come to an abrupt halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think the most dramatic change was when COVID sent us inside to our homes, and we lost the ability to experience live events,” he said. “It has taken a while for live storytelling to bounce back from that, but knowing how quickly we can lose it has given a lot of us a real appreciation for the pleasures of live shared events.”
As audiences have gradually returned, Daut has seen renewed appreciation for gathering to experience performances in person.
Why live stories still matter
With endless entertainment available through streaming services, podcasts, social media, and audiobooks, some might question why people would gather in a park simply to hear someone tell stories.
For Daut, the answer is simple. “Live storytelling happens in the ‘now,'” he said. “It’s the same difference that you experience when attending a live concert or sporting event. In person, it becomes a one-time shared experience rather than simply entertainment.”
Each performance exists only in that moment. Listeners react together, laugh together, and sometimes even influence the direction or rhythm of a story simply through their presence.
That sense of connection is exactly what organizers hope the new series will foster as Broadway Park West continues to grow into a destination for recreation, culture, and community life along the Huron River.
Looking beyond this summer, Daut hopes the performances inspire more people to discover storytelling as an art form.
“Storytelling is an important art form, full of craft and technique,” he said. “There is a reason that the old familiar stories continue to be told, and a reason why new stories are created and told every day. If only one person comes to appreciate the value of storytelling through this program, that makes it a success.”
Whether audience members arrive expecting folk tales, a spooky story, or simply a relaxing morning in the park, Daut hopes they leave with a renewed appreciation for an art form that has connected people for millennia—and continues to do so, one story at a time.
For more on Steve Daut:Â www.stevedaut.com
