Have you ever come across a diary you kept as a teenager, taken a quick peek inside, then slammed it shut in disgust?

Just about everyone has some kind of embarrassing personal record of their teenage years, but when you confront your own, it’s hard to remember that you’re not alone.  When Dave Nadelberg came across a nauseating love letter he wrote to a girl as a young adult, he was so sickened by his angst-ridden prose that he shared it with friends, in the hopes that they would have some to share with him.  What began as therapy soon evolved into a social experiment, then a website, two books, and, most recently, a traveling stage show.

Mortified was officially launched in 2002, and Dave and his crew soon found themselves knee-deep in bad poetry, love letters, forgotten journal entries, and photos.  Their mission in publishing these online and in two print volumes (Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic and Mortified 2: Love Is a Battlefield) is “to crack the lid off our cultural shoebox and expose our inner geek.” The website gained almost immediate attention from the likes of Newsweek, This American Life, The Today Show, The Onion AV Club, and Entertainment Weekly, and the books, once hard to find, are now available in any bookstore.  Through word-of-mouth and an intensely devoted fan base, there was eventually enough absolute dreck uncovered to take Mortified on the road.  They now operate in several cities, where a “chapter” of horrible writings are showcased every few months.  Each piece is presented by its author, and nothing, nothing, is changed to protect said author’s reputation.  It’s an all-out airing of your dirty teenage laundry.  At Mortified, they like to call it “woe and tell.”

There’s a show coming up at the Green Mill in Chicago this March.  The Mortified crew holds open casting in the weeks leading up to the event, so visit their website to sign up for an audition slot.  While you’re there, check out the web series they recently uploaded and read some excerpts from the books to get an idea of what they’re looking for.

Come on.  You know you’ve got some embarrassing crap to share...we’ve all been there.