Meet Veronica Murphy and Walter Ritter of Write Out Loud in North Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Murphy and Walter Ritter.

Write Out Loud founders, Walter Ritter and Veronica Murphy have a passion for reading and for literature. We spent years reading aloud to each other. In 2005, after learning about “Stories on Stage” in Denver, CO, we decided to start Write Out Loud in order to be able to share with the community the joy of being read to aloud. After much planning and preparation, the first Story Concert was presented in June of 2007. A full season of Story Concerts is still at the core of Write Out Loud programing. In order to inspire a love of literature for all ages, Write Out Loud has established a number of other programs, provided free to the community, including: TwainFest (an annual community-wide literary festival, celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary in August 2019); “StoryBox Theatre” (or “Kamishibai’ – a Japanese form of storytelling for elementary students, performed in classrooms and libraries); “Stories for Seniors” (stories read aloud at senior residences, assisted living facilities and senior centers); “NEA BIG READ – Read Imagine Create” (an NEA funded reading initiative for middle and high school students); “Ripples From Walden Pond” – a one-man play about Henry David Thoreau; PoeFest (a series of performances of literature of the macabre); and Poetry Out Loud (regional coordinator for national poetry recitation competition). This year, with funding from the California Libraries Civil Liberties Program, WOL is creating two original stories about Japanese Internment in the StoryBox format, that will be presented throughout the county.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Write Out Loud has had the support of many organizations and individuals since its inception. We have ongoing partnerships with several theatre companies that have provided free or deeply discounted performance venues. We have long established partnerships with the city and county libraries, city and county schools, a number of museums and other arts organizations. We have a small staff (only one full-time paid employee) and a number of contract employees and we rely heavily on volunteers, particularly for TwainFest. In 2009 we received our first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and we were such a small organization that the gift they gave us was equal to 1/3 of our annual operating budget. That was a big turning point for the growth of the organization. Another boost came in 2016 when the Roald Dahl Estate in England invited us to participate in an international Roald Dahl Centenary Celebration, which we produced with a number of arts partners in Balboa Park. As with most arts non-profits, we typically produce beyond our capacity so we are always running to keep our resources, both time and money, in line with our product. We also find it difficult to say ‘no’ to terrific ideas. Our biggest challenge continues to be marketing and getting the word out about what we do and how terrific our programs are. Our programs are unique – no one else in San Diego does what we do so it’s difficult for people to understand until they experience us. We are thankful that once they see what we do, they almost always come back.

Alright – so let’s talk about Write Out Loud – what should we know?
Write Out Loud is a theatre company that doesn’t produce plays, but rather reads literature aloud. Our mission is to inspire, challenge and entertain by reading literature aloud to all ages and we do this through the eight programs discussed earlier. Stories and storytelling have been part of our culture since the beginning of the world and we believe that stories are the best way to encourage empathy for and understanding of our fellow humans. After several years of reading to adults at our Story Concerts, we developed our Stories for Seniors program because there are so many elderly people without access to the arts, those who can no longer read themselves and those who feel isolated. After discovering Kamishibai, what we call StoryBox Theatre, we were excited to be able to read to children, from toddlers through middle school. We are most proud of TwainFest, a 19th Century Literary Festival and the first free program that we created from nothing but passion and ideas, in 2010. It is filled with performances of literature, unique literary based games that we invented, literary-based activities, period music, giant literary puppets and now, additional historical and cultural experiences of the 19th Century. It has grown from serving 2,000 people in 2010 to over 7,000 people in 2018. In 2010, we also introduced NEA BIG READ – Read Imagine Create that provides books, workshops, and opportunities to conjure a student’s own creativity in any form, inspired by reading a selected book. The first year we served approximately 500 middle and high school students and this year we’re working with 4,700 students. Other than the Story Concerts and our newest, PoeFest, all of our programs are provided through third-party funding, without cost to the participant, the organization or the facility. We believe that we are the only organization in town that uses professional actors to read stories and poetry to thousands of people of all ages, for free.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We are passionate about inspiring a love of literature in people of all ages. We are very discerning about which selections of literature we provide for each specific audience and which performers we hire to bring that literature to life for that very audience, based on age, interest, etc. We have a deep commitment to community service. More than 80% of the programs we provide are for audiences that would otherwise have no exposure to what we bring them. We believe in the power of stories to change people, and through those people, change the world to be a better, more tolerant place for all.

Pricing:

• Typical Story Concerts – $25 with discounts for Seniors, Military and Students
• Voices of Ireland – $40 with discounts for Seniors and Military
• PoeFest – 2019 prices TBD

Contact Info:

• Address: 2358 University Avenue #179
  San Diego, CA 92104
• Website: www.writeoutloudsd.com
• Phone: 619-297-8953
• Email: writeoutloudsd@gmail.com
• Instagram: #letusreadyouastory
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WriteOutLoudSD/
• Twitter: VeronicaReads

Image Credit:
Ron Logan, Rachel Esther Tate, Susan Clausen

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