Travel Stories for Planes,Trains, Automobiles. 

Writers, singers and songwriters capture us, captivate us in ways no one else can.  They offer us illumination for the dark spaces in our souls by baring their own.

Come.  Join us on Tuesday, November 13th as "Opening Chapters, Closing Notes"  brings both to Two Boots Restaurant.  This expansion of the 'Writer's Cafe' features writer/singer/songwriters offering their gift of crafted word through spoken word and song.  The featured artist will Robert Steven Williams, an incredibly talented guitarist, lyricist and author from Westport. In addition, Tom Fiffer, author of the Tom Aplomb blog and a gifted storyteller, will be joining him onstage reading from selected short stories.

In addition to having a great night out, you'll also be helping others.  All proceeds from the $10 cover charge will be donated to the Red Cross for Disaster Relief.

Doors open at 7.  Event runs from 7:30PM -8:30 PM.

Two Boots Restaurant is located in Bridgeport at 281 Fairfield Avenue. Call 203-331-1377 or visit  www.twobootsbridgeport.com.

'Tis a beautiful thing to be Irish or to be in the company of the Irish.

"There by the lake of beer,

We'd be drinking good health forever,

And every drop a prayer."

~from A Lake of Beer for God, by St. Brigid of Kildare

And nothing goes better with good company and good drink than great storytelling.  We're in the process of interviewing storytellers and we have a quite a few names.  The Gaelic Club will be open to the public for this event, which is rare indeed.  The pub bar will be open for those who care to enjoy a wee dram.  Do remember to bring cash as it is a cash bar only.  Located on Beach Road in Fairfield, tucked away just off the Post Road, The Gaelic Club is a hidden bit of heaven.

October 18, 20112 at The Bijou www.thebijoutheatre.com. will be absolutely thrilling for, Joe Limone and Ina opening the evening, onstage for Adam Wade, www.Adamwade.com. Adam is the 18 time StorySLAM winner at the "Moth."  Adam is like the Garrison Keeler of the Northeast. Homey, adorable and humble. He's able to make fun of himself. It's a gift that has landed him nighttime TV gigs in Storytelling. The show will feature Ina doing two 8 minute stories, Joe doing a  "clliff serialized story for 12 minutes, and Adam Wade is his incredibly likable way will make you stop, look, listen and care. He's a rare bird. Vulnerable and funny. Mark your calendars. Adam has never been around these parts. This is big stuff for MouseMuse. Yay!

Dear Writers,
Hope your Summer was filled with experiencing, reading and writing many stories.  We can't wait to hear about them at our first meeting of Writers Artists Collaborative for the 2012 to 2013 season!  Join us for a Writers' Cafe on 9/19/12.Save these dates for our monthly Fall meetings:  Held from 12:30pm to 2pm at Ina Chadwick's house.  The address is: 2 Redcoat Road, Westport, CT  06880 (it's next to Exit 41 on the Merritt, also knows as Route 15, and is the first driveway on the right)
September: Wednesday, 9/19/12 XXXX postponed -9/25

October: Wednesday, 10/24/12

November: : Wednesday, 11/14/1

December: Wednesday, 12/12/12

If you would like to participate in our blind submission process this month, get in touch with Margaret  via email to margaret.mousemuse.com: .We also hope you can join us for a few upcomin events fromMouseMuse Productions -- visit www.MouseMuse.com for more details and the full Fall calendar:

Real People. Real Stories. (First in the Series)    Theme: Under the Covers Where Our Voices Have Been HidingDATE:  Saturday, 9/29/12TIME:  8pm to 9:30pmLOCATION:  The Bijou Theatre, 275 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT  06604 For tickets: http://thebijoutheatre.com/films/real-people-real-stories-series-under-covers/203-332-3228$20 and $25Our own Dee Andrian will be performing!
Fairfield Museum and History Center's Promise of Freedom: 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation ProclamationTheme: Working for the ManDATE:  Thursday, 10/4/12TIME:  7pm to 9:30pmLOCATION:  Fairfield Museum and History Center, 370 Beach Road, Fairfield, CT  06824For tickets: http://mousemuseproductions.com/mouse-events/working-for-the-man/203-247-3346$20
Bring your friends and keep writing!See you at the Writers' Cafe next week,
Margaret and Ina
P.S.  Sophie Barnes' poems was selected to be part of the Westport Arts Center's "foodies!" 2012 Group Members Juried Exhibition.  Catch her at the opening this Friday, 9/14/12, from 6pm to 8pm, 51 Riverside Avenue in Westport, CT.  Congratulations, Sophie!__________________________________________

SINGER/SONG/WRITER (Words and Tunes)
Tuesday: 11/13/2012
7pm-9:00 pm

Introducing one of our Writer's Café members;

Robert Steven Williams is very talented local lyricist and guitarist, who is about to publish his first novel will sing original stories, plus read for 10 minutes from his amazing work of fiction, "My Year as a Clown."

Songsters and Writers onstage together for an evening that mixes words and songs.

TWO BOOTS, Bridgeport CT
281 Fairfield Avenue
203-331-1377

The Bijou Announces the SERIES Launch of “Real Stories, Real People”

Westport, CT - Ina Chadwick’s MouseMuse Productions (http://mousemuseproductions.com) announces its alliance with The Bijou Theatre (http://www.thebijoutheatre.com) located at 275 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport. The Bijou Theatre is rapidly building its reputation as one of the hottest arts and entertainment venues in Connecticut. By aligning with well-known production entities such as MouseMuse Productions, The Bijou Theatre is enhancing its entertainment agenda. Maintaining its 100-year old history, the management of The Bijou Theatre invested in a complete renovation as a 202-seat multipurpose movie house and concert hall, presenting live theater and all varieties of entertainment. Amenities inside The Bijou Theatre include a top shelf bar with glass barware, table service for tapas, and a cabaret-style atmosphere.

MouseMuse Productions has been producing live storytelling events in many venues in Fairfield County for the past three years. Now, the alliance with The Bijou Theatre further enhances the power of the personal narrative as entertainment. The series entitled “Real People. Real Stories,” encompasses ensemble shows, both written and performed by the authors, (the owners of their own stories) as well as one-person shows that are inspirational and transformational in their truth telling. They are at all times riveting, poignant, often humorous, but always entertaining and provocative for further community conversation.

Christine Donahue Brown, Esq., and Kathleen Reynolds, who run The Bijou Theatre and are co-producers of this unique series, both agreed, “The inspirational and motivational aspect of personal storytelling highlight how humanity can be shared with heart, soul and humor.” Chadwick said, “When The Bijou first reopened, both Brown and Reynolds knew that innovation in entertainment had to include an element of intimacy, yet also incorporate the searing reality of this era, but it had to be both moving, insightful and always in good taste. Come early to our shows, have a drink, meet your friends, socialize and even have a lite bite tableside, if you wish.” Brown added, “Our neighborhood is full of young artists and students, new condos, restaurants, art galleries, and there is street parking in addition to a well-lit parking garage across the street.”

The first show being presented at The Bijou Theatre by MouseMuse Productions will be on September 29, “Under the Covers, Where Our Voices Have Been Hiding.” This is a one-time exclusive performance by a talented ensemble cast of mostly Fairfield County women who range in age from 30 to 81. The show was first produced by Jill Jaysen at the Seabury Center in Westport, CT last year and played to rave reviews and sell-out crowds two nights in a row. Each of the cast members has written their own story as if they were sharing in their diaries.

“Under the Covers provides a window into the heart of the human experience and is performed with passion, authenticity and a gritty dose of reality that offers perspective, hope and restoration to performers and audience members alike,” said Jaysen who conceived and edited the work. Jaysen directed much of this same cast two years in a row for The Vagina Monologues.

Second in the series on Thursday October 18 is a show called “The Untouchables.” No one has blown away the highly discerning Moth judges as many times as Adam Wade. Eighteen-time Moth slam winner,

Adam Wade has gone on to be a Storyteller on late night TV and has been featured in TED videos as a motivational speaker who “tells” from the heart. Join a riveting round-robin of Storytellers who will try to keep up with Adam Wade in ten minute tales told from the heart: Joe Limone, Bill Bosch, and MouseMuse’s very own Ina Chadwick.

The final show in this series is a powerful one-hour theater piece called “Totally Kimleigh.” Kimleigh Smith takes the audience through a journey that is totally uplifting, totally heartbreaking, and totally powerful. The date of this performance is Saturday December 8, 2012.

To follow developments at The Bijou Theatre and MouseMuse Productions, visit both websites frequently for news and updates.  Call 203-247-3346 for further information.

To all MouseMuseians (a new term I’ve conjured up for all followers of things MouseMuse and lovers of the well told tale) - We are about to embark on a new season of Storytelling that should bring our audiences to the floor, either with tears or laughter.  Three evenings of entertainment at the Fairfield Museum and Historic Center.  Three additional evenings at the Gaelic Club in Fairfield.  Shows, produced by MouseMuse, of a slightly different tale, at the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport.  Over 50 storytellers will grace the stages in the coming months and weave their tales of love or lust, travail and travel, work, non-work, mistakes, blunders, histories, comedic encounters and, who knows, perhaps alien adventures.  Like a story strapped to the hood of an Indy race car, we fine tune the engine, coach the driver, check the oil, fill the tank and set them loose.  We never know exactly who’s coming in first, who might have a technical problem, or even bump into the guardrail along the telling. 10 minute bursts of insight, passion, escape, and hilarity.  Join us as we set forth on six months in a row of storytelling extravaganza!

"Real Stories. Real People," Theatrical Programs Chosen by MouseMuse

The Bijou Theatre has maintained its history on the outside, but oh wow on the inside, it's tricked out to deliver entertainment, libations and a wowie experience from cabaret table or theater seats. You decide where you sit.

"I  was born in a trunk/In the Princess Theatre in Pocatella, Idaho/It was during a matinee." That's Judy Garland's story in "A Star is Born." We are giving birth to stars and a start in Bridgeport, Ct. For the Bijou Theatre.

MouseMuse is proud to announce is official alliance with The Bijou Theatre www. thebijoutheatre.com We will be producing three shows in 2012 at that wonderful venue starting on September  29, with Jill Jaysen's spectacular ensemble, mostly local cast, from  her exclusive, "Under the Covers, Where our Voices Have Been  Hiding." That show premiered in Westport to sell-out crowds last year.

The shows that MouseMuse and The Bijou Theatre conceptualized  could be called "spoken word," but in an effort to let the audience know that these shows are all true stories, riveting because they're from real life, hilarious because they're human, and poignant because they touch the core of truth in all of us, we called it something other than STORYTELLING—our flagship shows are more like the "Moth." People get up and they tell it like it is. Yes, we do make sure the telling is not offensive, takes ten minutes or less, but those shows are never repeated nor can they really travel. They're in the moment. They're reality TV in a refined form, for your life. Certainly not the Karsdashians, (unless you want to fess up?).

These shows are entities that we bring in from outside, that have been constructed from reality and had proven stage-worthy.

The shows are, at this point, performed and acted by the authors themselves.  Some have required inspired direction, such as Jill Jaysen's "Under the Covers Where Our Voices Have Been Hiding,"

It is a highwire act of innovative entertainment that's very different from our flagship unrehearsed but Ina and Bill vetted for excitement and entertainment programs.

Our first three shows are fully fleshed out pieces that you might see at a fringe festival or at other classical stage venues that handle more than conventional  on-script performances.

Keep looking for what's coming up on our partners page and events pages. Summer ends tomorrow and welcome to the next season of expanding programming for MouseMuse Productions.

We finished up our Summer StoryMasters Jam at TWO BOOTS with a smash hit from 4 very different storytellers, plus 3 from the audience who wowed us ---prizes were awarded to Miguel Villanueva, 3 place, (dinner at TWO BOOTS-- Harry Gambardella, a bottle of red wine, and Liz Wachsler, a gift basket with tickets to the Bijou Theater.

TWO BOOTS a perfect place to let lose, throw down a beer, or a club soda if you want, and then kvell from the pizza which is rated best in the state.

We loved it there and will be back next summer with storytelling. Meanwhile we will be working to plan some small scale writer and singer/songwriter solo acts for emerging artists at TWO BOOTS in the winter when we are in Fairfield. See our events.
www.mousemuse.com