Season six of Juneau’s live storytelling forum is starting next month without one of its original creators. Amanda Compton stepped down from the Mudrooms organizational board.
“There comes a time when something close to your heart can’t become itself when it’s being too closely attended. It was a lot of work for me and I think that community and other board members involved will make it sustainable,” Compton said on the phone Wednesday.
“I’m happy with the way it’s gone and would prefer to leave feeling satisfied with the work I’ve contributed and with its current reception,” she continued.
Mudrooms usually fills up Northern Light United Church with about 300 people. The monthly event between September and May showcases seven people telling seven-minute personal stories on a certain theme.
Compton modeled Mudrooms after Arctic Entries, a storytelling forum from her hometown of Anchorage.
“I felt such a magnetizing vulnerability from hearing stories of strangers’ lives. It was an emotional high,” she said. “I believe there’s an inherent risk and sacrifice and benefit that can be obtained through exposing vulnerability. Whether that’s asking someone out, falling in love or having a child — I think all of those intimate veins and threads of life require vulnerability and I think that’s how we grow.”
When Compton moved to Juneau in spring 2011, she enlisted friend Alida Bus to help start Mudrooms. Initially, it was just Compton and Bus working on the event, but it quickly spread to a community effort.
“The evolution was fantastic from Alida and I just together running around town texting Travis Smith who owns The Rookery if we could host it there; texting each other back and forth, ‘I got a third storyteller;’ I took an html course to learn about websites; creating the website and finding someone, Pat Race, to help us host it,” she said.
Soon, Marc Wheeler joined to help with audio recording, KTOO volunteered to host the recordings and let Mudrooms use its equipment to edit it, and Steve SueWing stepped in to help with the Facebook page.
“All these people just naturally stepped into various positions that facilitated the growth of the program,” Compton said.
“I do think that a lot of the pain that can be associated with just sheer time working in volunteer organizations was completely mitigated by the wholesome embrace of the community, as if they were waiting for something like this,” she added.
[Video: Gov. Bill Walker at Mudrooms]
Besides feeding the soul and building connections, Mudrooms also raises money for local causes. Since its first Mudrooms in November 2011, the event has raised over $60,000. This season’s proceeds are going to the Zach Gordon Youth Center and the Polaris House. Funds raised from one event will go to sponsoring a year of This American Life on KTOO.
Season six themes are Cheechako, Skeletons in the Closet, Family Matters, What’s Cooking, Letting Go, Up in the Air, Rude Awakenings, Smokin’, and Subsistence and Survival. The first event is Sept. 14.
Besides being co-founder and co-host, Compton has taken the Mudrooms stage to share a story on her fear of earthworms. She wants to do another one, “a more meaningful piece,” she said.
Compton encourages others to tell their stories.
“I think it’s been pretty clear that it’s an accepting environment. I don’t think you’re going to lose any street cred if you have a hard time or you’re struggling on stage,” she said.
Compton now looks forward to being an audience member of Mudrooms, but she will miss “being an organizational member of something that was part of the pulse of our community.”
And, of course, she’ll miss the connections she made volunteering for Mudrooms on a regular basis.
“To be coordinating that event, you can’t help but be involved with a lot of great people.”
• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 and lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.
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