Carol Moore, left, and M.J. Kang will present “All Kinds of Love,” a storytelling event offering a variety of personal stories featuring ways we give, receive, take, find, and surround ourselves with people, places, and things we love. “All Kinds of Love” will be presented Saturday at the Indiana History Center.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
At the heart of it all was love.
Storytellers Carol Moore and M.J. Kang found the commonality in every story they told. Both performers regale audiences with personal accounts from their own lives, running the gamut from joyful to bittersweet to compassionate.
Though each story was completely different, they discovered how one theme conquered all others.
“No matter who you are or what you’re experiencing, some kind of love is always within your reach,” Moore said. “Though you may not feel that way, or the one receiving it, there are plenty of opportunities to create and share love. It’s not always big and grand, and it’s not always happy or fun. But it is there.”
Moore and Kang explores the different angles of love in an upcoming performance they’re bringing to Indianapolis. “All Kinds of Love,” presented Saturday at the Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, is collection of personal stories featuring ways people give, receive, take, find and surround themselves with people, places, and things they love.
The show is presented by Storytelling Arts of Indiana, an organization bringing a variety of storytelling performances to the central Indiana area.
With both Kang and Moore making their first appearance in Indianapolis, they are excited to share their experiences and insights with audience members.
“It’s fascinating how love can impact you and make you see the world in different ways, and also see yourself in different ways, because of the way people react to being in love or the idea of love or having love — it changes how you see yourself,” Kang said.
“All Kinds of Love” was born when the two storytellers crossed paths. Moore and Kang are both part of The Moth, a storytelling organization aimed at using personal storytelling to illuminate the diversity and commonality of human experience.
They had also been part of the 50th anniversary of the National Storytelling Festival in 2023.
Moore discovered storytelling by mistake. A friend of hers was interested in attending one of The Moth’s competitions in 2019, but she was nervous. So Moore volunteered to tag along and do it with her.
“We got down there, and saw all of the people, and then she got really excited. And I got really nervous,” she said. “But they called my name third out of the 10 people they chose, and I won. It was my first time on stage, and I realized it was something I could do. I’ve been performing ever since.”
With over 15 years of experience in both personal and professional communications consultation, she has served on the speaker coaching team for TEDxTysons, presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and is a member of both the National Storytelling Network and the National Communication Association.
Throughout her career, Moore has has performed with organizations such as the Story District, Better Said Than Done, Tales and Ales, Six Feet Apart Productions and more.
The joy of storytelling is that she does it for listening public, not necessarily for herself.
“It’s not really for me. I’ve found that it’s for the people in the audience. After almost every show, at least one person comes to me and tells me the impact the story had on them,” Moore said. “I like to make people smile and laugh, but I like watching their light bulbs come on.”
Kang was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Toronto and is currently based in Los Angeles. She is a playwright, actor and storyteller with a wealth of experience, from performing all over the world with her former improv troupe, Killer Kimchi, to acting off Broadway and in regional theater, to playing roles on television.
Her first storytelling experience came during a break in acting and writing, when she read about an StorySlam event in Los Angeles aimed at Korean-Americans. The more she looked at it, the more she thought she could do it.
Kang entered and was a finalist, starting her on a journey to explore more storytelling opportunities.
“It was a sold-out crowd in Los Angeles, and I felt like I was heard. It was really fun, so I thought, ‘Let’s see,’” she said.
As a storyteller, Kang has been featured as part of the Women’s Storytelling Festival, NPR, PBS’s “Stories from the Stage,” New Voices for the Forest Storytelling Festival and more. She has won five of The Moth StorySLAMS and performed stand-up comedy at Westside Comedy Theater and Second City in Hollywood.
Through the variety of experiences, Kang has discovered the joy of storytelling.
“You’re taking an audience on a journey, and I love taking audiences on an emotional journey, where they’re laughing hysterically and also crying,” she said. “My goal is to have them feel every emotion possible during my storytelling. If you’re not impacting the audience, what are you doing onstage?”
Together, they developed “All Kinds of Love” after their experience at the National Storytelling Festival. Representatives from Storytelling Arts of Indiana had been in attendance and witnessed Moore and Kang perform. They asked the two storytellers if they would come to Indianapolis for a show.
Moore and Kang were able to pick the theme of the event, and decided to focus on love.
“We found a theme in the types of stories that we tell — we both tell true first-person narratives, and we saw in all of them, there’s this thread of love,” Moore said. “It’s at the center of almost any story, at least some kind of it. So instead of looking at one kind of love, let’s explore all kinds.”
Both performers have their own portion of the show and tell stories independently of the other.
“We both live very different lives. But the thing we have in common is, we are both very deeply empathetic, and deeply authentic. It’s going to be a joy that we’ll be able to experience each other’s stories in the moment,” Moore said.
Tickets to the event are $20 for general admission, either online or in person. People can also pay $25 per household to watch the livestream.
“We want to take them on an emotional journey, and have that sense that they spent their time well — that it was very important for them to be there in the audience that night, that they were affected,” Kang said.
IF YOU GO
“All Kinds of Love”
What: A storytelling event presenting a variety of personal stories featuring ways we give, receive, take, find, and surround ourselves with people, places, and things we love.
Who: Storytellers Carol Moore and M.J. Kang
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 W Ohio Street, Indianapolis or virtually via Zoom.
Cost: Tickets are $20 for general admission, online or in person, $25 for a household to watch the livestream
Information: storytellingarts.org
