A Story to Tell

Tony Loyd speaking at an event

Following a career in leadership development, Tony Loyd was comfortable with public speaking. But it was a storytelling class at Park Square Theatre, a Seeding Vitality Arts cohort member, that encouraged next-level creativity for Tony.

Looking for activities to do together, Tony’s wife Lynn suggested the couple sign up for a Vitality Arts storytelling class taught by Dane Stauffer. Using theatre activities to loosen the brain and writing prompts to spark creative thinking, Dane led the creative aging participants through the process of developing and performing stories for peers, friends and family. Tony incorporated concepts he learned into a new personal creative project–a podcast

2019 was a year of change and a year of personal bests. Coming into 2020, he wanted to share his stories and help others do the same. His new podcast, “Thrive. Connect. Contribute,” features short stories of people who thrive in life, connect with others, and contribute to the world in the face of adversity.

Tony and Dane recently collaborated to share the stories of Dane’s storytelling students. Due to COVID-19, Dane’s class met online where they developed narratives with the theme of resilience. Each student had the opportunity to record their stories of resilience in the face of adversity in an episode of “Thrive. Connect. Contribute.”

“Storytelling is a different craft,” Tony shared. “Storytelling feels more ancient, more human-to-human; a way to connect with one another. That is what I love about storytelling. [It] builds bridges to one another. We can find each other in these common stories.”

To learn more about Tony and his podcast, visit https://thriveconnectcontribute.com/about/.