NASHVILLE, TENN. – September 30, 2019 – OZ Arts Nashville brings back The Moth, an unforgettable experience where entertainment and enlightenment merge on stage with live storytelling. This visit to Nashville’s nonprofit contemporary arts center will be extra special for The Moth and its audiences as the event is The Moth’s Nashville GrandSLAM, and will feature local winners from its popular StorySLAM series.
Participating storytellers will compete live for the title of Nashville’s GrandSlam champion with brand-new tales. The lineup includes Pete Dunlap, Steve Ettinger, Bill Hall, Randy Horick, Jackie Monroe, Rashad Rayford, Corey Rice, Beth Simpson, and Melissa Thornton. The event will be guest-hosted by poet, author, and playwright Jon Goode, who is the regular host of The Moth StorySLAM in Atlanta, GA.
The Moth events are comprised of true stories, told live and without notes. The Moth celebrates the ability of stories to honor both the diversity and commonality of human experience and to satisfy a vital human need for connection. It seeks to present recognized storytellers among established and emerging writers, performers, and artists, and to encourage storytelling among communities whose stories often go unheard.
The Moth Mainstage was a very popular, sold-out event at OZ Arts Nashville in May 2016, so fans are encouraged to purchase tickets early to this year’s event.
This ultimate battle of wits and words will take place at OZ Arts on Thursday, October 10, 2019, at 8pm. Tickets are on sale now at www.ozartsnashville.org.
The Moth Radio Hour airs weekly on Nashville Public Radio/WPLN, Monday nights at 7pm, and on 500 radio stations around the world, reaching over 1 million listeners every week.
About The Moth
Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories told live and without notes. Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human experience they showcase featuring true stories from authentic voices, creating a dance between documentary and theater.
The Moth began on a back porch in small-town Georgia, where its founder – poet and best-selling author George Dawes Green – would spend sultry summer evenings swapping spellbinding tales with a small circle of friends. There was a hole in the screen, which let in moths that were attracted to the light, and the group started calling themselves “The Moths.” When he moved to New York City, George wanted to recreate the feeling of those nights in his adopted city. The first New York Moth event was held in George’s living room. But word spread fast, and the events soon moved to cafes and clubs throughout the city – and soon to popular venues throughout the country and beyond. Since its founding, The Moth has presented more than fifteen thousand stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide.
About Host Jon Goode
Jon Goode is an author, poet, and playwright who hails from Richmond, VA and currently resides in Atlanta, GA. He has been a featured performer on HBO’s Def Poetry, TVOne’s Verses & Flow and BET’s Lyric Café. His stage play Khalas was showcased in the 2013 International Festival of Arts and Ideas. In 2006, Jon’s work with Nick at Nite earned him an Emmy nomination alongside the Promax Gold for best copyright North America. Jon’s debut collection of poems and short stories, Conduit, was published in 2015; has received to date 45 five star reviews; spent 12 weeks as the #1 title in its category on Amazon.com and is the best-reviewed book of poetry on Amazon.com for 2015/16. He is the host of The Moth StorySLAM in Atlanta, GA.
Audience and Age
The Moth has no age minimum, though some of its venues do. If you are thinking of bringing a young person to one of our events, you are encouraged to first consider the following:
- StorySLAMs and GrandSLAMs are open mic; The Moth does not control the content or know what story is about to be told on stage.
- Some of the tellers share raw and explicit stories that are very much meant for an audience aged 16 years and older.
- Some of the tellers share raw and explicit stories that are meant for mature audiences and might include the use of profanity.
About OZ Arts Nashville’s 2019-2020 Season
The 2019-2020 season is the 7th season for OZ Arts and the first under its new Artistic Director Mark Murphy’s direction. This dynamic season of its signature “Brave New Art” features a unique blend of influential contemporary artists and ensembles from around the world, as well as groundbreaking Nashville-based artists, with a special emphasis on multidisciplinary performances, and work that highlights unique new uses of visual and audio technology. The season is made possible with generous support from season sponsor Advance Financial.
Murphy describes the new season as “a celebration of ingenuity and artistic vitality, highlighting artistic voices from around the world – and right here in Nashville – who are blazing the trail for contemporary culture. I am particularly excited that we are expanding OZ Arts’ international offerings, while also deepening the commitment to a wide range of diverse local artists in a variety of disciplines and forms – including some progressive and edgy collaborations that will ‘shake things up’ and engage a young and diverse audience.”
The number of performances at OZ Arts is increased by more than double in this new season, while the average ticket price is considerably lower to help make the work more accessible to a wide range of Nashville audiences.
Remaining Season Presentations Include:
- The Moth – Nashville GrandSLAM (Oct. 10, 2019)
- Frankenstein by Manual Cinema (Oct. 24-26, 2019)
- Festival of Ghouls by Fable Cry (Nov. 2, 2019)
- Na Pista and a US Premiere by Companhia Urbana de Dança – Brazil (Nov. 14 – 17, 2019)
- Mellotron Variations featuring Medeski/Sansone/Kirkscey/Grant (Dec. 7, 2019)
- The Longest Night by Portara Ensemble, Jeff Coffin, and Ciona Rouse (Dec. 20-21, 2019)
- The Day featuring Wendy Whelan and Maya Beiser (Jan. 18, 2020)
- Notes of a Native Song by Stew & Heidi with The Negro Problem (Jan. 31 – Feb. 1, 2020)
- The Triangle by New Dialect (Feb. 20-22, 2020)
- Plata Quemada (Burnt Money) by TeatroCinema – Chile (March 5-7, 2020)
- Steal Away by Dave Ragland with Inversion Vocal Ensemble (April 17-18, 2020)
- Grace and Mercy by Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE (May 8-10, 2020)
- This Holding by Jana Harper (May 29-30, 2020)
- Grand Magnolia by Jessika Malone and Collaborators (June 10-21, 2020)
One-minute highlight reel of 2019-2020 Season: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k9iy37fsze3tm77/2019-2020%20Season%20Sizzle-1.mp4?dl=0
About OZ Arts Nashville
Since opening in 2014, OZ Arts Nashville, a 501(c)(3) contemporary arts center, has changed the cultural landscape of the city. Housed in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family, OZ Arts, under the artistic leadership of Mark Murphy, brings world-class performances and art installations to the city, and gives ambitious local artists opportunities to work on a grand scale. The flexible 10,000 square-foot, column-free venue, nestled amidst five acres of artfully landscaped grounds, is continually reconfigured to serve artists’ imaginations, and to challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences.
OZ Arts regularly engages the community for participation with visiting artists and artworks – either directly, through school visits, workshops, master classes, school performances and/or curated programs led by local teaching artists. In addition, OZ Arts founded a program called OZ School Days, a daylong, multi-arts program presented in partnership with Centennial Performing Arts Studios that aims to engage students aged 5 – 15 years old on days when Metro Nashville Public Schools are out of session (ex: Columbus Day, Presidents Day).
For more information, please visit http://www.ozartsnashville.org/.
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