Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Long story festival

Hmm, I think all I needed to do was write that post yesterday to get myself back to work. That, and talking on the phone with Liz Warren about our upcoming project, "Going Deep: The Long Traditional Story Festival."

We're really going to do it. We've talked and dreamed about this for years.

Here are some details: March 16-19, 2006 at Cynthia Changaris' Storyteller's Riverhouse in Bethlehem, Indiana (not far from Louisville, KY). Three long stories in the evenings, three long workshops the next morning, three afternoons to stroll by the Ohio River or nap or chat quietly. We have space for 15 participants to stay for the entire festival, though of course the public is invited to attend the evening events for a small fee.

What stories? Liz Warren will start us off in style with her elegant telling of "The Grail," the quintessential hero's journey. The next night Olga Loya will captivate us with an Aztec creation myth. We'll save romance for the last night, when I tell "Tristan and Iseult."

Who might come to this? Storytellers, storylisteners, librarians, academics, anybody who says, "Hey, cool! Count me in!"

Whaddya think?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds VERY cool!

Hope

PriscillaHowe said...

Thanks! I forwarded that post on to Olga and Liz just after I wrote it, and Olga's response was "I'd go!"

Anonymous said...

Hey, what a great blog site! I have a Fill In The Blank commercial site you really should check out!

Sheesh. How obnoxious to see this commercial nonsense on your delightful website. Can you remove these icky things?

A REAL Fan

Tim said...

This is a brilliant idea. And, for me, living two thousand miles away, an expensive one.

Let me know how this turns out, because I suspect, for the amount of money it would cost for me to take off work and fly out to Bethlehem.... I could just as well spend on flying out you and Liz and re-do the Festival in California (Olga's already here).

Anonymous said...

Cool on the idea you are working on wtih Liz. She has a good CD of the Grail story, she gave it to me when I saw her last at the Mesa Storytelling Festival.

BTW- you have sold your first CD in our store. "Ghost" is such a good CD. Good for you.

Commercial nonsense? "Buzz. Thanks for playing our game." Priscilla, you are working teller who makes her living telling stories. Sorry, but I support you 100% in talking about your work, your conferences, your recordings. You are no less a quality teller or is your website less valuable because you share your gifts. As they young ones say, "You go, girl!"

PriscillaHowe said...

Whew, I go away for a few days and everybody speaks up!

Tim--I bet Liz would be up for a trip to your coast to do this! Really, we have dreams of taking this show on the road, adding other storytellers who tell this kind of story. It might be in your backyard some day.

Sean--thanks for your kind words. I always keep Elizabeth Ellis' words in mind when others ask if they should start storytelling professionally: "If anything can keep you from being a full-time storyteller, let it." I guess nothing can keep me from it.

I didn't even know I could get spam on a blog. Bizarre.

Tim said...

And just in case storytelling isn't enough incentive to come to California, I have two words for you:

Ollalieberry pie.

PriscillaHowe said...

I've never had ollalieberry pie--what a mellifluous name! I'll definitely have to try it sometime.

I'm pretty sure we'd all come out to California if the stars lined up nicely.