Earlier this semester, 12 students from David Grozinsky’s First Year Seminar: The Language of Film went to Burlington’s Flynn Theater to see The Moth, an event sponsored by Vermont Public Television and part of a series regularly aired on National Public Radio as well as Public Radio International.

The Moth, which is dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, started in 1997 and presents shows, such as the one in Burlington, where individuals tell unscripted stories from their lives.

The Moth won the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2012.

This program consisted of five separate performers, each from entirely different backgrounds.

On the drive to the Moth I was, to put it lightly, on the edge of my seat. I listen to the Moth regularly, doing homework, walking around, driving, everywhere I can. It’s the art of the story that attracts me most about it.

When listening to people describe their lives, I’m taken in, put into their shoes and living in their lives for the brief time they tell their story. As an art form it’s incredible, and one of the oldest ones around. The art of storytelling brings humans together and is the basis of every form of human communication.

One of the most moving pieces I’ve heard from the Moth is a story by Kemp Powers, who accidentally shot and killed his best friend as a young man. From him I experienced the heartache of an incident that another individual can never fully heal from.

The evening began with Mark Redmond’s tale of working as the director of Spectrum Youth and Family services, and his connection to a Vermont Church. Next was Holly Hughes, who told of winning a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case about the funding that went to the arts.

But the evening stopped when Shannon Cason walked on stage. He began by telling us about being a professional, and how going to work at a bank made him feel like a professional. However, his gambling addiction got in the way, and after embezzling $50,000 and losing it in one day, he ended up losing his job and almost landed in jail. The room was gripped. As a collective we hung on to every crippling detail, every turn where it got worse. Hearing Cason succumb to addiction made the audience feel it as well, made us, for a momen,t share his pain.

Then came Josh Broder. From the moment he began, he was clearly an actor; every movement and his performance represented it. He described a lucky break that led to his working on what would become one of the most popular horror movies ever made. In his performance we felt his slip-ups and crushing defeats only to share in his ultimate victory working with Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs.”

The evening ended with Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, and her captivating story of youthful innocence with an extremely complex father. She described growing up with her father and having to come to terms eventually with Lindbergh’s at one time pro Nazi sympathies.

I left the Moth that evening with an experience unlike any other. Being able to find that connection is different for everyone, but I found it in storytelling and I believe other people did as well.

After the program Grozinsky’s students had the opportunity to meet with the performers and the heads of Vermont Public Radio and Vermont Public Television.

For Grozinsky, the Moth show at the Flynn was a perfect fit for his class. “The history of cinema is in some way storytelling,” he says. “To bring [students] to the Moth where there’s people telling true stories on stage without a script and hear some really amazing stories allows us to focus on not only the stories being told, but how they’re being told.”

The class also talked at the end of the program with JSC alumnus John King, the CEO and President of Vermont Public Television, as well as with Robin Turnau, the head of Vermont Public Radio.

This event was made possible for the class through Elizabeth Metreaux, head of Communications at Vermont Public Television, who offered the class 10 free tickets.