Tickets:  $10

Steven Maanum (Park Rapids), Carol McCormick-Buchmeier (Plymouth), Emily Mathew (Bemidji), and Jan Smith (Clitherall) are the four finalists in the Second Annual Great American Story competition.  The four will tell their winning stories and the audience will vote for the top two. Those two will be given a prompt and tell an impromptu 10-minute story. The audience votes again, and the winner gets the crown. And the prize money.

Bruce Bolton, founder, owner and artistic/managing director of Long Lake Theater, will emcee the event. Guest storyteller will be Richard W. Rousseau, an active participant in the Midwest performance community for more than 50 years as an actor, director, playwright and storyteller. He is a mainstay of this region's storytelling community and presently serves as the Minnesota liaison to the National Storytelling Network.

Advance tickets at $10 per person will be available at Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery and the Chamber Visitor Center. For more information on the Great American Story, go to thegreatamericanstory.org.

Art Leap 2017 is sponsored by the Park Rapids Lakes Area Arts Council with funding provided, in part, by a Region 2 Arts Council Grant through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund passed by Minnesota voters on Nov. 4, 2008.