“The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through vast forests, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all , to make the world a more human dwelling place.” - James Baldwin
It’s said that storytelling emerged as a way for our prehistoric selves to stave off the darkness outside of caves or beyond campfires, a way for us to understand our world and ourselves a little better so we’d feel less frightened and alone. Whatever the darkness, whatever the fear, storytelling has that same strength today.
My passion for storytelling started in Buffalo, New York, infamous for blizzards and enormous snow drifts, but I, for one, associate the city with marionettes. As an African American child in such a depressed economy, I was raised in the glow of television; during evenings, though, I was warmed by our own family stories. When her daytime schedule permitted, my mother would take me to the symphony’s children’s programming, where marionettes danced to the classical music I’d only heard previously on PBS. Our discount seats weren’t always the best, and I didn’t understand the stories fully, but through movement and music a story was there, beyond any familiar language, and I have been pursuing stories, in one form or another, ever since.
Through education and applied practice, I learned how to build tension beyond exposition, how to drive a narrative through dialogue, and to how “show” rather than “tell.” Throughout my travels as an adult I have been fortunate enough to hear the stories of people around the world — from Panama to Portugal, from the Philippines to France, from Jamaica to Japan, from Mallorca to Seoul. The similarities and struggles surmount languages, and the stories unveil the heart of who we, as a species, are. The storytelling magic is in the minds of those after experiencing it — the laugh once the joke ends, the gasp after the killer is revealed, the sigh after the lovers kiss, the discussion after the book is closed — the conversation, after the play’s curtain falls, over who was right, who was wrong, and what it all meant in the end. The spark and the aftermath once the last page has been turned, and the evening’s candle extinguished.
“Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night,” and it is that search which defines us, wherever that darkness may linger. And while it is the big events that leave us stunned, breathless, and motionless, it is the small episodes — the little scenes and tiny smiles, the nuances of a fallen leaf or a favorite song, a moment in our thoughts that we can’t forget, or an old memory or Frank Sinatra quote — that either drive us further, or from which we grow. So if one were to track the direction of my writing it has been an attempt to capture humanity not in the shouts, but through the whispers, glances, and half conversations that reach us every day — that candlelight rather than the sun — and how that impacts us more often, and affects us more deeply, than we would imagine. Sometimes we squint, blink quickly, and are left with perfect little gems and glimpses, shards and slivers, which comprise a fantastic artistic experience.
Snow still falls. Nights can sometimes be coldest. But people and marionettes still dance and relate to each other in the shadows. And my goal, ultimately, is to bring a little more light to warm us all, to counteract the darkness a little longer while we dream into the space between stars. As Meek Mill attests: “And the story goes on. If you make it you’re amazing.”
“Sometimes good art is simply creating an honest mess,” - from the Starbucks “The Way I See It” Campaign
The author of The Salt Fields (Lanternfish Press), Stacy D. Flood’s work has also appeared at ACT, Ghost Light Theatricals, Theatre Battery, and Theater Schmeater in Seattle, as well as in SOMA Magazine, Seattle Weekly, three Seattle Fringe productions, the Akropolis Performance Lab’s New Year/New Play salon, Playlist Seattle, the Adaptive Arts Theatre Company’s Night of New Works, Macha Theatre Works’ Distillery series, Mirror Stage’s ‘Expand Upon’ readings, The Hansberry Project’s REPRESENT festival, Infinity Box’s Centrifuge, FUSION Theatre Company’s ‘The Seven’ Short Works Festival, and in Starbucks' The Way I See It campaign. He has served as an instructor at Seattle’s Hugo House and Portland’s Literary Arts as well as a lecturer at San Francisco State University — from which he holds an MA in English, an MFA in Creative Writing, and a Clark/Gross Novel Writing Award — and he has additionally been awarded both a Getty Fellowship to the Community of Writers and a Gregory Capasso Award in Fiction from the University at Buffalo. Furthermore, he has been a finalist in the Forward Flux ‘Three New American Plays’ competition as well as the Ashland New Play and Playwrights Foundation Bay Area festivals, and in addition, an artist-in-residence at the Haut de Fee Centre in France, La Serrania in Mallorca, DISQUIET in Lisbon, Djerassi in California, and Millay Arts in New York. Lastly, his play entitled The Optimist, or What Space Travel Means to Me will be featured as part of ACTLocal in 2024.
CV
“The greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music the words make.” - Truman Capote
PRODUCTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
“The Optimist, or What Space Travel Means to Me,” ACT, Trial and error (Upcoming)
“The beautiful selves we always are,” frye art museum, MOVED BY WORDS: WRITERS REFLECT ON FORMATIONS
“giving prominence,” poetry northwest
“it’s never the same war twice,” Infinity Box Centrifuge
“The Salt Fields,” Lanternfish Press
“The Last Poet to See the Face of The Earth,” Infinity Box Centrifuge
“Morning in America (Excerpt),” Hansberry Project REPRESENT! Festival
“The Pleaides at Midnight”/”Normal Cardiac Rhythms”/”Los Angeles By Dawn”/”Mid-Flight,” Playlist Seattle
“The Swimming Pool,” Mirror Stage
“The Law of Universal Gravitation, as Deduced from Observation,” Macha Monkey
“Between Earth and Water and Sky,” Theatre Battery
“Everyone Wants to Love Your Beating Heart,” Playlist SeattlE
“From Kings to Controllers,” Ghost Light Theatricals
“The Practice of Silence,” Adaptive Arts Theatre Company
“All of This Would Be Easier with Flying Cars,” FUSION Theatre Company
“The Pleasure and Sorrow of Your Company,” Akropolis Performance Lab
“What You Think You Know,” Seattle Fringe Festival
“Kids in Snow,” Theater Schmeater
ACT One-Minute Play Festival
“Fair Fighting and Parting Ways,” Seattle Fringe Festival
“Connecticut,” Seattle Fringe Festival
EDUCATION
SPARK Playwriting Lab, Led by Stephanie Timm
ACT Intermediate Playwriting CLASS
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, San Francisco State University
M.A. in English, San Francisco State University
B.A. in Media Study (Film), State University of New York at Buffalo
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, & RESIDENCIES
Artist-In-Residence (Fiction), DjeraSsi artist program
Finalist, Foreword indies awards
Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival
Finalist, Playwrights Foundation Bay Area Festival
Artist-In-Residence in Playwriting, DISQUIET Lisbon
Winner, Akropolis New Year/New Play Salon
Artist-In-Residence in Playwriting, Millay Colony of the Arts
Winner, Adaptive Arts Monologue Competition
Finalist, FUSION Theatre Company “The Seven” Competition
Artist-In-Residence, La Serrania (Mallorca, Spain)
Winner, Starbucks “The Way I See It” Contest
Winner, Seattle Weekly Fiction Contest
Winner, Clark/Gross Novel Writing Award, San Francisco State University
Winner, Getty Fellowship, Community of Writers
Winner, Gregory Capasso Fiction Award, State University of New York at Buffalo
TEACHING & EDITORIAL
instructor, “the art of the novella,” literary arts
instructor, “the art of the novella,” hugo house
instructor, “HEMINGWAY AND the art of DIALOGUE,” hugo house
instructor, “the art of dialogue,” hugo house
visiting writer, writers on writing, san francisco state University
visiting writer, “Vision and Revision,” Playwrighting, Brown University
Lecturer, Creative Writing, San Francisco State University
Managing Editor, Fourteen Hills Literary Magazine
Contributing Editor, SOMA Magazine
COMMUNITY ARTS LEADERSHIP