Online stories: StoryNights on Zoom

Hey there! I’m Michelle Darby. ​I’m so glad you found your way here.

If we haven’t met—or you don’t know my work yet—here are a few things about me and the work I love.

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I've been incredibly fortunate. For nearly forty years, I’ve gotten to work with stories—as an actor, director, singer, storytelling teacher and coach.​

 

Over the past thirteen years, true personal narrative storytelling has become the heart of my work. Along the way, I’ve developed my own approach to teaching and coaching it—at Stanford University for seven years, and with storytellers online and in person around the world.

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Here’s what I’ve learned: anyone can learn to tell a story well—from professionals in international organizations to people who’ve never told a story before. I get to help people find the stories they want to tell and teach them how to tell them with structure, presence, vulnerability, and emotional truth.

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Since 2024, I’ve worked as a curator and coach for Stories From the Stage, produced by GBH and WORLD Channel in Boston and broadcast on PBS stations across the country. I’ve also had the chance to coach storytellers and teach at the ZEGFest storytelling festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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After all these years, I’m still amazed by what happens when someone stands in front of an audience and tells a true, personal story. We, the listeners, are living inside the story. We discover things we didn’t know were there. For a few minutes, we get to experience the world from someone else’s life. 

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I love this!

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And the bonus? In telling the story, the storyteller discovers why a moment matters, who they are now and what that moment gave them they never knew they needed. 

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There’s something pretty magical about all of that.