Juniors Phil Hofius and Nick Michal hope to revive the art of storytelling on Whitman’s campus through the creation of Missionary Mainstage, a new venture that is part live performance and part podcast.

Missionary Mainstage is modeled upon “The Moth Mainstage,” a storytelling project that features the live, unscripted stories of ordinary Americans (and occasional famous guests) at events nationwide and “The Moth Radio Hour,” a nationally broadcast radio program of these stories. Hofius was inspired to create the Missionary Mainstage by his own love of The Moth podcasts and by the success of “The Middlebury Moth,” an event started by a close friend at Middlebury College.

“What interests me about the project is getting people to look more closely at their own experiences … to show how everyday experiences can be something that are turned into stories. It’s an experiment on narrative itself,” said Hofius.

“We want it to be a celebration of everyday moments and the lives that we lead and how they’re really interesting although they might seem commonplace or mundane. We want to transform them into something that is meaningful,” Michal added.

Hofius and Michal are currently soliciting storytellers from the student body, faculty and staff for the launch of Missionary Mainstage. In addition to featuring a set list of performers, audience members will also have the opportunity to take the stage and share stories of their own, if time permits.

Hofius and Michal will record the stories and create podcasts of each event, which they plan to link to the KWCW website and air on their weekly radio programs.

Depending on campus interest, they hope to stage monthly Missionary Mainstage events. Each event will revolve around a specific theme, the first of which is “Winter Wonderland.”

“We chose the theme because it can make people very reminiscent of certain, wildly different events in their lives, and at the same time, it’s sort of cliché, so it encourages people to think outside the box,” said Michal.

“We’re really controlling nothing about this except for where it’s happening,” said Hofius. “Most of our job is setting the atmosphere and making people comfortable with what they are doing, but it’s really up to the storytellers and audience to determine the direction of each event.”

They also have considered staging Missionary Mainstage performers in conjunction with the Visiting Writers Series and campus lectures in hope of involving visiting speakers in the events.

The first Missionary Mainstage will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 8:00 p.m. in Kimball Theatre. The event is open to the public. Interested performers can contact Phil Hofius at [email protected] or Nick Michal at [email protected].