taleteller994

Valparaiso’s Gaelic Festival gave me the chance to prove, once and for all, that Storytelling is not just for kids. Irish and Scottish folktales were the order of the day – a little wit, a little wisdom; and I performed, both on the main stage, for the ‘beer-tent’ crowd, and in the children’s tent, for the ‘wee’ ones and their families.

It was a grand day despite the rain … good food, good drink, and a well-tuned Step-dance competition; a good time was had by all. There were pony rides; there were bagpipes, and a hayride and a magician … and there were stories and stories and more stories still.

And Celeste face-painted, and hand-painted, and arm-painted:

Happy Feet

We were both back for the Front Porch Folk Festival on September 4^th. That was at Sunset Hill Farm Park, Highway 6 & Meridian, in Porter IN.

My favorite stories to tell are ethnic stories – folktales born of the cultural diversity we all share. There is a universality to them – an underlying truth they share -- that belies the various nationalities that birthed them and claim them. Native American, Japanese, Russian, Swedish, Chinese, Polish, Scandinavian, Irish, Indian … stories know no national boundaries. Or shouldn’t. And the same should be true of Storytellers. What-ever their origins, tales and tale-telling are meant to be shared.

This does not mean that stories can be excised cleanly from the culture that nourished them; though some stories sound amazingly like other stories from other lands, they are not – necessarily – the same. There are cultural nuances that demand attention, that distinguish one version of a tale from another. And it is the responsibility of the Story-teller to explore those nuances, to try to learn those subtleties; Storytelling is not in-tended to sterilize with clinical precision but to seed and nurture and grow.

Where possible, it is preferable to share the weight of the Storyteller’s responsibility … with teacher or librarian … with someone who can cultivate the story-sown seed. Where impossible, it is preferable to own a ‘workshop’ environs, or an academic milieu wherein the Storyteller carefully tills his own carefully prepared rows.

‘Possible’ is not a festival.

‘Possible’ is not some venue

a Storyteller has been hired to queue into a larger bill of fellow entertainers.

‘Possible’ is not intended to educate or elucidate or illustrate...

“Next!”

To compensate in some small measure for this, Celeste and I have devised a compromise program of sorts that combines a bit of word with a wit of craft. She instructs children in a craft drawn from an-other country; I share a tale drawn from the same source. 'A little bit of this, a little bit of that’ is not the answer, of course, but it’s a start.

We tried it out at Warrenville Folk Festival where it seemed to go over well in the brief time slots we shared. We elaborated on the program at a week-long Lloyd Shaw Dance Camp in Cumberland KY. It went over very well; we ‘taught’ a nature studies class and an international crafts class. Into the latter we also incorporated dance and costume, drawing upon the talents of some of the other ‘campers.’