Storytelling Radio Program
KSVY-FM 91.3, Sonoma, CA
http://www.ksvy.org
Sundays, 5-6 pm Pacific time (adjust for your time zone)
Live audio streaming: Go to the KSVY website. In the upper
right-hand corner, click on High or Low Speed and find
yourself listening to the program in progress.
Theme music: Special thanks to Petra Koch in Germany (she works with Storyteller Richard Martin), who performed the beautifully haunting alto recorder music of Como Podem from the 13th century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria (copy of Kynsecker, Mollenhauer & Co.). Used on this program with her kind permission.
Engineer: Brodie Giles, KSVY
PROGRAM 17:
Jan. 14 , 2007 - The Adventures of Our Furry and Hairy Friends
Our program today is a celebration of the lives of some of our
co-inhabitants on this Earth...our friends with fur and hair...
who live in the natural world that surrounds us.
Stories about animals have been with us since cavemen first drew on their dark and rocky walls and we still love to tell them. Of course, we all know that even though the stories are about animals, they are also very much about our own human behavior, with us making the same kind of mistakes and strutting around with our own big egos. And at the end the bad guys get what they deserve.
Here are a few of those stories.
Featured storytellers:
Bob Reiser (New York)
Bear and Chipmunk
When you're a little bitty guy, you'd better be careful before you confront
one of the biggest creatures in the woods. And count yourself lucky
if you manage to get away with it...even if it does mark you up!
Megan Hicks (Virginia)
The Three Groundhogs Gruff
The classic tale about billygoats is turned into an encounter
between three groundhogs and the monster under the bridge.
William Thomas, Jr. (California)
The Rabbit on the Moon
Sometimes you can give just a little too much of yourself to others
and you need to learn how to protect yourself. That's the lesson
for Rabbit in this warm and poignant Buddhist story.
(This CD Tell Me a Story was written by Amy Friedman.)
Joe Wos (Pennsylvania)
The Unluckiest Rabbit
When you look for your luck in all the wrong places, don't be
surprised if you never find it. Rabbit learns a bitter lesson too late.
Priscilla Howe (Kansas)
Fox and Hedgehog
Tricky Lisa the Fox entices her reluctant friend, Hedgehog, into a vineyard
where Lisa's 220 ideas for escape fail and Hedgehog
has to try a few tricks of her own.
Grandbear the Storyteller (Colorado)
Coyote Comes to Dinner
As Coyote enjoys his meal, he tells the story of a neighboring
farmer who got his comeuppance after shooting a wolf.
Madeline Brumberg (New York)
Why Cats Wash Their Paws After Eating (European folktale)
A gullible cat learns a hard lesson about manners and priorities
after she is fooled by a little trickster bird.
Johnathan Reed (New York)
Why Dogs Chase Cats (African American folktale)
Sharing a ham proves to be a difficult task for Cat, who
learns what happens when she cheats on her friend Dog.
••••••
Guest tellers...
• Bob Reiser (New York) — Bear and Chipmunk
Bob is an expansive and joyous storyteller, teacher, and an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Accompanying himself with flute and drum, Bob brings warmth and wit to traditional and original stories. Recently his performing has been featured at New York's Clearwater Hudson River Festival, Rhode Island's Johnnycake Festival, and the annual National Storytelling Network Conference. McFarland Press listed him among the "120 best contemporary English-speaking Storytellers." Dr. Morgan Hill (Brother Blue) calls him a "force of nature."
My Story
Grandpa Abe: The First Family Raconteur
Born in April 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, I just missed being a baby-boomer. My parents were radicals while the rest of the country tiptoed through the conservative 1950s; I grew up Jewish while everyone on TV celebrated Christmas. I was too young to be a beatnik and too old to be a hippie. It was my perch from the outside that made the world look like a story.
Born to tell stories.
Mom and dad wanted me to be a doctor. But it was not to be. The world of stories beckoned! An M. A. in theater from NYU Drama School, a stint at Chicago's Second City Improvisational group, and comedy sketches for some forgotten TV shows finished my education. I even toured with my own comedy troupe, The Portable Radio Circus. In 1976, I settled into full-time writing, including collaboration on two books with folk singer and community-organizer Pete Seeger.
The turn to storytelling came in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Wandering around the square, I saw a hand-made "dream catcher" almost ten feet tall standing in front of a shop. Inside, the counter was covered with little clay figures of seated grandfathers and grandmothers with laps full of grandchildren; "storytellers" the proprietor called them. Then she told me how each winter, the elders come into homes with their stories. "Each day they sit with the family, close their eyes and dream the stories of long ago -- Stories of the sky and the earth and the spirits and the animals. The children grow quiet and listen; even the adults who have heard the stories listen." I ran outside and told my wife, "Sandy, when I grow old, I want to be a storyteller!" "Why wait until you are old?" she said - a sensible answer.
I began collecting stories; I began writing them. Finally I got up my courage and I began telling them, and fell in love with audiences as well. That was nine years ago. The love affair continues.
Excerpts from an interview with Bob:
Q. Bob, tell me a little bit about just your storyteller path, how you became a storyteller and what you do now as a storyteller.
A. Oh, great. That’s a question I love to answer because it’s a story. About 12 years ago, my wife and I were out west in Taos, NM, which is really a beautiful, beautiful area, and we were in the town of Taos, which is a traditional Native American place... The Indians live there and they don’t have electricity. They try to keep it very traditional for people who want to live that kind of a life. But they’ve got lots of shops there and boutiques, so I had seen from the sidewalk this enormous dreamcatcher. It must have been about 10 feet across. And it was like a beacon and pulled me into the store.
It was a little shop, it had no lights in it, and it was hard to see. And I started talking to the woman there about her dreamcatcher and she said that her husband had been working on it for years and it wasn’t for sale... I said, don’t worry, I didn’t want to buy it—there would be no way to get it home—and then I noticed that she had these little dolls, little play dolls, men or women seated with little children around them. I had been seeing them all over town, I saw them everywhere. And she said those were storytellers.
Now, I couldn’t imagine how that could be a storyteller because to me storytellers were people who entertained at children’s parties and they wore funny hats, so they just didn’t look like storytellers. But she said, 'No...in the winter, it’s very cold here and you don’t want the grandparents to freeze so we invite them into our houses to spend time with us and they’ll sleep on the sofa or we put out a bed for them in the dining room and they’re safe there, but they don’t want to just stay and do nothing for their keep, so they’ll spend the winter—or as long as they stay there—telling stories. And they’ll tell stories about where we came from, where the animals came from. They’ll tell stories for the children, and every evening the family will sit around as they tell all the old stories, and when they feel they have no more stories to tell, they’ll move on and stay with another family.'
I was so—tears were running down my face by the time she finished, because it was such a beautiful idea of what stories meant, and about a society where nobody was wasted, nobody was thrown away. And I walked out and my wife had been walking on the street. I said, 'You know, when I get old, I’m going to be a storyteller.' She said 'Well, you don’t have to wait until you’re old.' She doesn’t remember saying that, but I’m sure she did. And I said, 'Oh, no, I guess I don’t,' but it took about a year and a half after that that I finally got up the nerve to tell a story.
Q. How did you know what to do?
A Well, I didn’t, actually... I joined a local guild of storytellers—actually, what let me know that there was a whole world of storytellers out there was Storytelling Magazine that was available then at all the big book stores—and I said...there’s a whole lot of people doing this, and I found out there was a guild that met not too far from where we lived. But about a year later I was at an event, and I had still not told a story. Somebody said, 'Well, Bob, you keep telling us you’re a storyteller, so why don’t you tell a story? Well, I had been trying to get up nerve enough to do this for a long time, so I sat there and I...
The only thing I knew about telling stories was what the woman in the store had told me. She said, 'If you’ll notice on the dolls, their eyes are closed. That’s because they’re dreaming the story.' So I said to myself, okay, I’m going to close my eyes and I’m going to dream the story. So I closed my eyes and I started to tell the story of Jumping Mouse. And as I was telling the story, I heard it got very quiet and I still didn’t have the nerve to open my eyes and I kept watching the story with my closed eyes and telling what I saw, and then I opened my eyes about halfway through the story—I finally got my nerve—and people were staring and listening with an intensity... I’d never seen that and nobody ever listens to me that closely. What I was doing was—the main thing a storyteller has to do is to visualize the story, to see the story as you’re telling it. So I didn’t know any better, but I did the right thing.
Q. The story you’re going to tell us today is one you wrote yourself, so tell us about that. It’s called The Pumpkin’s Tale.
A. I had gotten a little program I was reviewing for a local newspaper, a little computer program for writing... to teach children how to write, creative writing, and so in this program there would be pictures instead of words. So instead of spelling out "apple" and typing it out, there would be a picture of an apple and they could just plug it into their story. So I started typing and I typed out, "There once was an…" and I looked over all the different pictures and saw a pumpkin and I plugged in the pumpkin and I kept writing... "who was in love with a…" and I looked over there and saw a carrot, so I plugged that in, "a pumpkin in love with a carrot" and from there on, I just let my imagination go and the story came out. It took about a year and several retellings of it and fooling around with it to polish it enough. You never know where you a story is going to come from….#####
•••••
Bob's CDs and Books:
Foibles and Fiddlesticks
Whimsy and fun are not just for the under-nine-year-old set; oldsters over eleven years have a right to giggle too. The seven stories include Bob's signature pieces like The Pumpkin's Tale and The Swan Tenor as well as new stories like Petey and Delilah (told with Andrea Lovett). It is dedicated to Storytelling's Prince of Fables, Brother Blue.
Chopped Herring and Other Brooklyn Tales
A storytelling version of an old photo album, includes six stories that conjure up the smells, sounds and indigestible foods of growing up in 1940s Brooklyn . Bob invites listeners to join Captain Midnight, Superman and Izzie the appetizing king to share his Child's Garden of Flatbush .
Children's Books
David Get His Drum
Published by Marshall Cavendish Co. Co-written with Jazz Great, the late Panama Francis and illustrated by award-winning artist, Eric Velasquez. This is a story about a child learning to understand the magic that flows from his heart and hands - The magic of music.
As Panama Francis said, "I am a drummer man. For seventy years I have beat out that dancing sound for people to hear... Every time I see folks smile and tap their feet to the rhythm, I feel as happy as I did on the day I first beat a pair of sticks on an old tin can."
http://bobtales.com/catalog/
Contact:
http://bobtales.com/
bob@bobtales.com
Phone: 914-422-1156
Bob Reiser
15 Oak Ave.
Tarrytown, NY 10591
You may also reach Bob via:
The Westchester Arts Council
914-428-4220 (ask for Jonatha Mann or Ayeshah Wiltshire)
New York Arts Connection
Joanna Hefferen - 212-302-7433 x 486
•••••
•••••
• Megan Hicks (Virginia) — The Three Groundhogs Gruff
Megan Hicks is a survivor of the Baby Boom and the Bible Belt. She lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she writes, tells stories, folds paper, and makes (mostly wearable) art.
Megan, who is a direct descendant of Scotch-Irish peasants, tells original & traditional stories, folk & fairy tales (intact & fractured), historical fiction, literary tales, family stories, and ghost stories ranging from pleasantly shivery to truly grisly.
Exposed at a tender age to oilfield humor, tv evangelists and fairy tales, she brings this quirky legacy to storytelling audiences of all ages.
Origami Swami workshops:
These workshops teach stories whose plots hold the folding patterns for simple origami models.
No experience - telling or folding - is required.
"Storytelling in Creases"
A performance/workshop for kids that hits many curriculum high points:
Math - Geometry - Language Arts - Multiculturalism - Art - Conservation and Recycling
"Folding Under Pressure"
This professional development seminar is a happy marriage of storytelling and origami. Simple stories provide cues to the folding sequences of equally simple origami models. What's that you say? You have no eye/hand coordination? No patience? No problem! Self-avowed klutzes have amazed themselves in this workshop.
Program Length:
Storytelling -- 30-60 minutes;
Origami workshops -- 1-4 hours.
Writing workshops -- 1-4 hours
Residencies -- We'll talk.
Multiple booking discounts available.
Travel expenses from Fredericksburg, Virginia
Special needs:
Storytelling - electrical outlet for audiences larger than 100
Origami - paper squares of various sizes; flat folding surface for each participant.
Awards
2005 Parent's Choice Award -- Silver
Finalist, The Audies 2005
2003 Storytelling World Honor Award
2003 Parents' Guide to Children's Media Award
2000 Storyteller of the Year
Affiliations
Audio Publishers Association
CAPs (Creative Arts Program of Fairfax County, VA) Performers Roster
Howard County, MD Arts Council
L.A.N.E.S. - League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling
National Storytelling Network
Origami USA
Virginia Storytelling Alliance
Voices in the Glen
Washington Storytellers Theatre
Northlands Storytelling Network
Festivals
Australian National Storytelling Festival
Columbia Maryland Festival of the Arts
Fredrick (MD) Festival of the Arts
L.A.U.G.H.S. (Loudon County, VA) showcase
Groundhog Day Storytelling Festival, Punxsutawney (PA)
Voices in the Glen Storytelling Festivals
Connecticut Storytelling Festival
Virginia Annual Gathering
Southern Maryland Celtic Festival
M.A.S.T. (Mid-Atlantic Storytellers) Gathering
Newport News Festival of the Book
Wake County (NC) Storytelling Festival
Residencies
Hammond Elementary School - Laurel, MD
Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) Family Camp
Jacob's Ladder Summer Enrichment Program
Odyssey of the Mind World Finals
St. Catherine's School (Upper School) - Richmond, VA
Workshops
Australian National Storytelling Festival, Perth, W.A. -- "Folding Under Pressure with the Origami Swami"
L.A.N.E.S. (League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling -- "Your Life as History/Your History as Legacy"
American Humane Association National Conference, Crystal City, VA (2001) and Denver, CO (2002) -- "Storytelling in Humane Education"
Northlands StorytellingNetwork -- "Folding Under Pressure"
National Storytelling Conference -- "Giggles & Grimms..."
Library of Virginia -- "More Bang for Your Programming Buck"
Virginia Annual Gathering -- "Giggles & Grimms…."
Mary Washington College Elder Study -- "Your Life as History, Your History as Legacy"
Origami USA National Convention -- "Folding Under Pressure"
Stafford County School Board -- "Folding Under Pressure"
•••••
Contact:
Megan Hicks
storiesunfolding@yahoo.com
http://www.meganhicks.com/
slowboat:
p.o. box 7994
fredricksburg, va
22404
•••••
•••••
• William Thomas, Jr. (California) — The Rabbit on the Moon
William's story, The Rabbit on the Moon, is included in a CD written by Amy Friedman, with music by Laura Hall, and titled Tell Me a Story. William is a well-known stage and screen actor and starred in the original companies of such Broadway shows as Godspell and La Cage Aux Folles. He was also a television series regular on The Cosby Show.
• Amy Friedman (California)
Biographical information on Amy Friedman
Tell Me a Story writer and co-producer Amy Friedman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Barnard College and received an MA in Creative Writing from City College, New York, having had the great good fortune of studying with Donald Barthelme and Manuel Puig.
Amy worked in film production in New York and LA before moving to a sheep farm outside Kingston, Ontario where, for eight years, she wrote a weekly newspaper column, "Hard Lines," in addition to serving as "The Bedtime Story" writer and editor for The Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada’s oldest daily newspaper. Her memoirs, Kick the Dog and Shoot the Cat, and Nothing Sacred: a Conversation with Feminism were published by Oberon Press in Canada. In addition Amy writes fiction and personal essays and has won several writing awards and published stories and articles in magazines, newspapers and journals across the US and Canada.
Amy also is a longtime teacher. She currently teaches writing the personal essay and creative nonfiction at UCLA Extension and The Memoir at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After writing for and performing at several spoken word venues, Amy designed and teaches a course on how to write and perform spoken word. More about Amy’s From Page to Stage can be found at http://www.frompagetostage.com
Amy lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the writer Dennis Danziger.
•••••
An interview with Amy at:
http://www.bookpleasures.com/
•••••
Tell Me A Story — CD
Winner of a 2006 Parents' Choice Silver Honors Award and NAPPA 2006 Gold Medal, not your standard schmaltzy kids' stuff. These are classic multicultural tales accompanied by music ranging from jazz to classical and read by hard-hitting talent.
Amy Friedman (author) and Laura Hall (music)
Buy at:
http://www.mythsandtales.com/
http://cdbaby.com/cd/friedmanhall
Tell Me a Story
by Amy Friedman
From Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review
A wide range of listeners of all ages will relish TELL ME A STORY: TIMELESS FOLKTALES FROM AROUND THE WORLD, read by eight talented actors and covering tales from Africa to Scotland. From an African Anansi story ANANSI AND THE TURTLE'S FEAST to the frightening THE BOATMAN'S HOWLING DAUGHTER, over seventy minutes of vivid description pack a fine gathering which will be a ‘must' for folktale collections for any age group.
Diane Donovan, Editor & Sr. Reviewer
Bookwatch/California Bookwatch
•••••
Contact Amy at:
kellsmom@ca.rr.com
•••••
•••••
• Joe Wos (Pennsylvania) — The Unluckiest Rabbit
ONCE UPON A TOON®
Joe Wos is a freelance cartoonist and storyteller from Pittsburgh. Who has been sharing his talents with audiences across the nation for the past 12 years. His one-man show, "Once Upon a Toon,"combines his passion for storytelling and drawing cartoons. Joe, with his quick wit and lightning-speed drawings of original stories, classic fables and folk tales, never fails to amaze and entertain during "Once Upon a Toon." A single presentation yields an average of 20 original drawings, which are given to the audience at the end of each show. His rapid drawing skills have earned Joe the reputation as "Fastest Draw in the East!" And his tours of Texas, California and Arizona have extended this reputation to "Fastest Draw in the West." Joe has performed at many festivals, museums, libraries, and schools nationwide. His favorite original story, "The Smartest Dragon," is a delightful tale for children and the young at heart. His imaginative spin on classic stories and folk tales, such as "The True Story of Johnny Appleseed," tickles the funnybone every time! The pun-filled adventures of "Don the Duck" leave audiences of all ages groaning and grinning with laughter.
Joe has worked as a freelance cartoonist since the age of 14. Clients have included the late presidential candidate and comedian Pat Paulsen and a goat cheese farm in Slovenia. His mazes, dubbed "The World's Most Difficult" by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, are on exhibit at museums worldwide. His parodys of famous artists and their works, "Great Art Belongs on Refrigerator Doors," remains one of his favorite exhibits. He also created a Toon Studio for the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, loaning his collection of original cartoon by cartoon legends from the past 100 years. Joe, a cartooning instructor since age 18, Joe continues to spread his love of cartooning and share his skills and techniques as a cartoonist with students of all ages. He had the great honor of being the first resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa Calif. When not performing , Joe spends his time writing stories for his program and practicing them on his family. He is working on several comic books based on original stories performed during "Once Upon a Toon."
Amazing Joe Wos Facts!
Joe is known as the fastest draw in the east.
Each year, Joe goes through 150 markers and gives away thousands of drawings.
Joe is left-handed.
Joe has performed at festivals and other venues since the age of 15.
During 2003 Joe had over 300 performances, visiting over 30,000 children, telling 700 stories, and drawing over 5000 pictures!
If you were to stretch out the lines in all those drawings, one years worth would stretch over 6 miles!
Joe started working as a freelance cartoonist at the age of 14, when he obtained his first copyright for one of his cartoon characters "JJ Bear".
Joe is a master maze-maker and has created mazes dubbed "The World's Most Difficult" — one of which is in the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum collection.
Joe has created an award winning ballet dancing chicken screen saver.
Joe was the very first resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Some of Joe's cartooning credits include designing a map for Presidential Canidate/Comedian Pat Paulsen and, designing a logo for a Goat Farm in Slovenia.
Joe's comic strip "Aesop's Foibles" appears worldwide in Storytelling Magazine.
Joe released a CD titled Top Drawer Tales in 2004.
•••••
Contact Joe at:
You can get in touch with Joe by email, phone or mail. Kids who want to say hi should email or send letters only. Please do not call. Phone number is for grown ups only. Send email to Joewos@onceuponatoon.com
For info on booking Once Upon a Toon or other Joe Wos programs, call Joe at
(412) 760-1896
Joe Wos
Once Upon a Toon
235 Garlow Drive
Penn Hills PA 15235
http://www.onceuponatoon.com/
•••••
•••••
• Priscilla Howe (Kansas) — Fox and Hedgehog
Here's what Priscilla has to say on her website at
http://www.priscillahowe.com/index.htm
I love telling stories. I love it so much that I became a full-time storyteller in 1993.
What do I tell? Funny, scary, serious, goofy and sophisticated stories, tailored to the audience in front of me. You’ll find me at festivals, school assemblies and residencies, juvenile detention centers, libraries, house concerts, colleges and coffeehouses. I perform in English, French and occasionally Bulgarian. When I'm with young children, my hand puppets come along for the ride. When I’m performing for older kids and adults, I may bring out stories for more refined sensibilities.
I travel around the US and to Europe, telling stories. When I’m at home in my little brick house in Lawrence, KS I tell stories to my cat, Joe Fish.
My recordings, "The Bully Billy Goat and Other Stories" (DVD), "The Best (and Worst) of Beasts" (CD), "The Ghost With the One Black Eye" (CD), and "Chickens!" (CD) are available on storyteller.net and at a few local outlets. Wonder what I sound like? Go to my listening page.
Want to read my ramblings? Here’s my blog.
I’m also looking for the best restaurant pie on earth.
•••••
Here's Priscilla's blog:
http://storytellingnotes.blogspot.com/
•••••
Priscilla's story Fox and Hedgehog is found on this CD:
Chickens! And Other Stories for Young Children
Hear the story "The Gunniwolf" when you click on this web page. We use Windows Media.
http://shop.1asecure.com/prod.cfm?ProdID=251843&StID=5957
About this CD:
Some favorite funny and a few slightly scary folktales for kids age 4 and up, with plenty of audience commentary.
"Hey! I know you! You came to my school and told that story! Remember me?" Kids say this to Priscilla all the time (and she loves it). When she tells stories, kids remember for years to come. This CD was recorded live at an elementary school, so you’ll hear comments, cheers and giggles in the background.
"Chickens!" is almost an hour of ridiculous (and a few very slightly scary) stories, some of Priscilla’s faves. Her first CD, "The Ghost With the One Black Eye" is just as ridiculous, and has even more stories. Both are great for kids age 4-10 (yup, it’s a wide age range, but it works).
Her background? Priscilla has been telling stories all her life, and has called herself a storyteller since 1988. In 1993, she quit her job as a children’s librarian and became a full-time storyteller in Lawrence,Kansas.
She travels all over the country and has performed in Europe as well--in French and Bulgarian as well as in English.
She tells at schools, libraries, festivals and coffeehouses (also juvenile detention halls, house concerts, conferences, you name it).
She has given workshops at the National Storytelling Conference (1997, 2001, 2003) and performed at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN, at the Exchange Place in October 2001.Here are some of the comments on her performances:
"...When you told stories there was this feeling inside of me that made me feel like I was having a great dream." --student at Grant School, Lawrence KS
"Tell it again!"--countless students over the years
"Encore une histoire!"--countless Belgian students
Priscilla is also searching for the best restaurant pie on earth.
•••••
Playlist:
1. Chickens!
2. At Midnight
3. Poule and Blatte
4. Fox and Hedgehog
5. Cheep and Cackle
6. Cat and Mouse
7. The Lazy Young Woman
8. Ti Jean and the Donkey’s Egg
9. The Gunniwolf
Shipping and Handling costs: We have a flat-rate shipping cost for 1-10 items from our store. Please see store front for current charge. This item normally ships via the United States Postal Service. Please allow 10 working days for product to reach you. Items may arrive in separate packages. No refunds but we will offer an exchange if CD Disk or Book is damaged. This item is dropped shipped and the vendor will be given your mailing address, phone number and Email address to facilitate the shipping process. Your credit card information is not shared.
http://shop.1asecure.com/index.cfm?DeptNo=14&StID=5957&afid=99
Priscilla has two other CDs and a DVD at the same site.
•••••
Contact:
Priscilla Howe
347 Elm Street
Lawrence, KS 66044
priscilla@priscillahowe.com
(785) 832-1294
•••••
•••••
• Grandbear the Storyteller (Colorado) — Coyote Comes to Dinner
Grandbear (also known as Lev Ropes) began his storytelling career at age 65. He has had many occupations, ranging from automobile mechanic to groundwater hydrologist to computer graphic artist. Now retired, he is a Jeffco Spellbinder, serving as a volunteer storyteller in the public schools of Jefferson County, Colorado. Currently, he is the resident storyteller for third, fourth and fifth grades at Shelton Elementary and third grade at Mitchell Elementary schools in Golden, Colorado.
Grandbear's stories center on the animals that live in and around the Blue Heron Ranch in northern Montana, which is owned by Grandbear's cousin, Chris Kolstad. It is a cattle and dry-land wheat operation covering more than ten square miles. Many of the stories are based on actual events that took place on or near the ranch.
They offer both a CD and a book of Grandbear's stories. The 70-minute CD has nine stories and three songs narrated and sung by Grandbear. The book contains 16 stories with 87 wonderful pen-and-ink illustrations by Dale Crawford, a lifetime artist living in Fort Collins, Colorado. The book also contains a section of natural history and other information related to the animals and events in the stories.
You can listen to Grandbear's CD at:
http://www.grandbearthestoryteller.com/64/cd.html
1. Grandbear's Song
2. Blue Heron Ranch
3. Martha and Grasshopper
4. Martha and Meadowhawk
5. Tough, Smart and a Water Jug
6. Coyote Comes to Dinner
7. Coyote and a Wheel of Cheese
8. Tricksters Tricking Tricksters
9. Coyotes' Winter Solstice
10. Coyote's Dream (with song)
11. Western Coyote Song
•••••
You can read about Grandbear's book at:
http://www.grandbearthestoryteller.com/64/book.html
Table of Contents
1. The Blue Heron Ranch
The amazingly true story of how the ranch go its name.
2. The Ranch Rabbits
We learn why the cottontails choose to live inside the shelter belt.
3. Who Got the Grapes?
Chris and Jim get into trouble for something that they didn't do.
4. Martha and Grasshopper
Martha warns Grasshopper, but he just won't listen.
5. Martha and Meadowlark
Martha is saved by Meadowlark and does her a favor in turn.
6. Tough, Smart, and the Water Jug
The drought is here, they are thirsty, and it takes some doing to get water.
7. Coyote and Tough
A fool and his cheese are soon parted.
8. Coyote Comes to Dinner
We learn about the fate of the wolf and the coyotes' trick in his honor.
9. Coyote and a Wheel of Cheese
A gift for Coyote so that he can play the finest kind of trick on his buddy, Badger.
10. Roscoe Breaks His Leg
Wherein Roscoe tips his tractor over and is rescued in an amazing manner.
11. Tricksters Tricking Tricksters
Coyotes polish their skills by playing tricks on each other.
12. Coyote Takes Me to the Circle
I am honored with an invitation to the coyotes' storytelling circle to tell a story to them. A magic night.
13. Coyote Brags a Bit
We learn some more of the marvelous things that coyotes can do from Coyote himself.
14. Winter Solstice Celebrations
Each kind of critter at the ranch has their own traditions of solstice celebration.
15. Coyote Winter Solstice
A trucker gives the coyotes a new tradition.
16. Coyote's Dream
Maybe some dreams do come true, after all.
Natural history, references, comments
...and all that stuff that goes in the back, where you'll find material that I just had to tell you but that didn't fit in the story.
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You can buy either or both at:
http://www.grandbearthestoryteller.com/64/how_to_buy.html
Contact:
Grandbear
500 Creekside Court
Golden, CO 80403
303-278-0177
levropes@comcast.ne
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• Madeline Brumberg (New York) — Why Cats Wash Their Paws After Eating
• Johnathan Reed (New York) — Why Dogs Chase Cats
Both Madeline and Johnathan have been students of Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss in New York and have become master storytellers. Listen and be thankful that Martha and Mitch are encouraging young people like these two to enter the storytelling world and helping them gain the skills necessary to be successful in this art form.
• Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss (New York) —
Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss work together as tandem storytellers under the name Beauty and the Beast Storytellers.
Who's the Beauty and who's the Beast?
We never tell - You decide!
'Beauty and the Beast' tell stories for all ages, and in settings ranging from elementary school assemblies to theaters, college coffeehouses, and senior citizen centers. They bring to life traditional folktales from around the world, works by contemporary authors, stories from their own experiences, and tales based on historical people and events. Drawing from their large and varied repertoire, they tailor each performance to suit the specific audience. In their performances, Mitch and Martha use gesture, song, mime, and audience participation. Their specialty is tandem storytelling where they combine their contrasting styles, swapping lines and impersonating characters.
Mitch and Martha have traveled as far as Taiwan and Hong Kong to perform and teach others to tell. All of their books have been published in Taiwan because it is such a priority to learn English on the island, and teachers of English have found that storytelling is one of the best ways to get students excited about a new language. "Beauty and the Beast" have also completed numerous tours of European International Schools. Among the places they have told stories are Prague, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Milan, Genoa, Madrid, Moscow, London, and Budapest.
For more information on their performances, go to:
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/performances.html
New Books Just Out and More on the Way!
If we ruled the world, children would be encouraged and given numerous opportunities to tell stories - folktales from various cultures, stories written by their favorite authors, and, of course, their own stories. This would be done formally and informally, to one person and in front of a group, in school and at home. Teaching children to tell stories helps them to find their own voices. It also creates excitement about reading and writing their own stories. When we work in classrooms teaching students to tell, teachers note that students are really excited about reading and telling more tales from our books. They love all kinds of stories - from silly to serious, from pourquoi tales that explain something peculiar about an animal or natural phenomenon to "noodlehead" stories about fools from which children, surprisingly, learn a great deal. But if we had to choose their most beloved genre of stories for telling, it would undoubtedly be scary tales. Stories such as "Tilly," "The Golden Arm," and "On a Dark and Stormy Night" from Stories in My Pocket: Tales Kids Can Tell have always been huge favorites in every classroom where we've taught student tellers.
For a full listing of books and recordings by the Beauty & the Beast Storytellers, go to:
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/whatsnew.html
or
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/booksrecordings.html
Contact:
Beauty & the Beast Storytellers
Mitch Weiss and Martha Hamilton
954 Coddington Road Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: (607) 277-0016 Fax: (607) 277-0968
info@beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com
http://www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com/
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(Page created 1/14/07)
