by Courtney Burns | Aug 22, 2017 | About Storytelling
Bil Lepp is a very candid and soothing storyteller with a desire to instill in all of his listeners the virtues of obedience and honesty. Okay, that wasn’t all true. Bil is a world-renowned liar and a favorite of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and my family. He has captured the minds of kids both young and old with his tall tales inspired by his colorful life. I’ve grown up hearing about Buck, Skeeter and Bil’s adventures in West Virginia and practically run to his tent every year he comes to hear more. We are always happy to have him, and hope that our listeners old and new have the chance to visit Bil’s West Virginia.
- What is the first story you remember hearing and/or the first story you remember telling?
My dad told me messed up fairy tales when I was kid, like Goldie Lox and the Three Pigs. I was the last of five kids, so I think he was bored with the traditional versions, so he mixed them up for his own pleasure.
- How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
I got my start first watching, then participating in the West Virginia Liars’ Contest.
- Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
Hopefully storytelling will continue to grow. It’s a great live event, so I hope more festivals grow, and that more people outside of the storytelling world find their way in. I like doing events at places where folks haven’t ever heard a professional teller so they can find out that it is out there, and that it is a solid, family friendly form of entertainment.
- If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
Boy Boys Boys by Lady Gaga
For more on Bil’s schedule at this year’s Festival, visit: https://timpfest.org/events/28th-annual-timpanogos-storytelling-festival
by Kim McCloskey | Aug 15, 2017 | About Storytelling
Tim Lowry is back with his southern charm, dry wit and hopefully a Gullah story or two. To listen to Tim is to come to an understanding that he really loves people, I mean really loves people with all of their quirks, their frailties, and their strengths. His respect and admiration is juxtaposed with a playful love of the ironic. We’ve asked him a few questions to help you get to know and love him a bit as well.
- What is the first story you remember hearing and/or the first story you remember telling?
I remember my babysitter telling me the Wide Mouth Frog. I still tell that story all the time! The first story that I remember telling is the Twist Mouth Family. We were huddled in a basement with friends in Macon, GA waiting for a tornado threat to pass. I was upset and frightened and my mom suggested I tell that story since we were sitting in candlelight. The storytelling kept me from worrying about the tornado and my audience enjoyed the tale. I think I became a storyteller at the moment! I six years old.
- How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
My mom read books to me, my Sunday school teachers told me bible stories, my first grade teacher told us folk tales and sang folk songs, my fourth grade teacher encouraged me to write stories, my fifth grade teacher was an excellent folk teller and musician, my high school drama teacher ALWAYS had me enter the annual storytelling competitions. It was a team effort. Lots of folks planted storytelling seeds and they all took! I love to read, I tell bible stories, I have over 125 folk tales in my repertoire, I write my own stories, storytelling competitions turned into a storytelling career. I am very blessed to have had such wonderful mentors.
- Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
I would like to see the pendulum swing back toward oral, face-to-face communication. Less electronic telling and more real life and in real time telling. As an American society I think we should encourage and participate in movements that foster the atmosphere required for person-to-person communication. The Slow Food Movement comes to mind.
- If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
We have dance parties at my house all the time! My seven year old and five year old daughters are very into “I Feel Good” by James Brown. Owww!
Storyteller Tim Lowry
timlowry@bellsouth.net
843-324-1366
Business Manager Wes Munn
manager@storytellertimlowry.com
843-642-9510
www.storytellertimlowry.com
![Getting to Know Shonaleigh]()
by Kim McCloskey | Aug 10, 2017 | About Storytelling
Not everyone gets the chance to meet a Drut’syla, let alone hear her stories. What is a Drut’syla? Well, I’m glad you asked. Meet Shonaleigh, a storyteller coming to us from East Sussex, UK who was brought up in the Drut’syla tradition by her Bubbe (Grandmother). She has been a festival favorite and we’re glad to have her back. Recently, we enjoyed a pleasant phone conversation in which she was gracious enough to set aside her cup of tea to answer a few questions and give us more insight into what it means to be a Drut’syla.
1. What is the first story you remember hearing and/or the first story you remember telling?
I was five years old when my Bubbe told me the Yiddish version of “The First Tears” which is about Adam’s first tear. I remember being surprised that adults cried. In an odd way, I thought that adults just had it all sorted out and didn’t cry like children did.
2. How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
“You hear people talking about the storytelling revival, but in Jewish culture it never died. From the age of four I lived and breathed the tales of my childhood, unaware that there was anything unusual. I thought this was quite normal and that all storytellers had this background … It was quite routine for me to fall asleep at night listening to songs and stories in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Dutch and Turkish – a wonderful colourful mix,” she says.
Shonaleigh is a drut’syla, a storyteller in a Jewish tradition inherited from her late grandmother, Edith Marks (d.1988), by whom she was trained from childhood onwards. You’ll find some fascinating details about this tradition on her website
www.shonaleigh.uk3. Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
I hope that storytelling can help people be less selfish, more empathetic, more tolerant of fellow humans. Stories teach us that there are many narratives and that it is important to listen. Storytelling creates community, cohesion, common sense and wisdom. If people could stop dismissing traditional stories as cute child’s fare and look for the complexity and richness of the meaning, they might find that there is wisdom there, lessons that can enrich their lives.
4. If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
(With a chuckle) Hava Nagila, or Above the Clouds of Pompeii, or maybe even some kind of 50’s Rock and Roll song.
Shonaleigh, a drut’syla, a storyteller in the Jewish tradition
by Courtney Burns | Aug 7, 2017 | About Storytelling
Don’t let the sweet picture fool you, Barbara McBride-Smith is a firecracker of a woman with stories just bursting out of her. From Greek myths, to Bible stories (told with delightful twists), and personal stories that are both knee-slapping and heartwarming, Barbara is sure to entertain you with a wonderful blend of wit and wisdom. We recently reached out to Barbara to get a little insight into her storytelling past and future as we eagerly anticipate welcoming her to this year’s Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.
- What is the first story you remember hearing and/or the first story you remember telling?
First story I heard: I was about 3 or 4 years old … I remember hearing my Mother tell the story of how my Dad went to Panama to do construction work on the Panamanian Road. I had no idea where that was, of course, but it seemed exotic, especially when she described how bananas grew on trees there. The most exciting part of the story was how he landed in Panama City on Dec. 7, 1941, which my mother said was a very important date. “And that’s when we went to war,” she said. It was a cliffhanger of a story. All of this was background to the story of my birth, which occurred the year my Dad came home from Panama.
First story I told: I told many stories to students during my years as a school librarian, mostly folktales and myths. But the first story I ever told as a performance piece was
“Orpheus & Eurydice,” which I debuted at a fundraiser event for a community theatre in Oklahoma. I had been part of the cast and/or crew for numerous productions there, and one of my directors thought I’d be good at performing a one-woman show. Together, we wrote 3 stories for that evening; then we went on to collaborate on a repertoire of Greek myths told western style — my first body of work as a freelance storyteller.
- How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
I grew up in a family that talked in stories. I learned family history, American history, and world history through stories. I was taught and disciplined with stories. As a child, I played with my mother’s button box. My mother had a story to tell me about every single button she had saved in that old metal cake tin.
- Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
I don’t have any wise theories about the future of storytelling. But I do believe that human beings are born hard-wired for stories. We are, as a species, addicted to stories. Some neuroscientists conclude that the human mind was shaped FOR story so that it could be shaped BY story. Storytelling helps us discover the universals that bind us to everything around us. That belief, in itself, gives me hope for the future.
- If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
Ha! Me, start a dance party? Never gonna happen.
For more on Barbara’s schedule at this year’s Festival, visit: https://timpfest.org/events/28th-annual-timpanogos-storytelling-festival
by Courtney Burns | Aug 4, 2017 | About Storytelling, Timpanogos
One would be hard-pressed to find someone connected to the festival who has not heard Donald Davis. He is a stalwart, veteran teller and integral part of the festival. I distinctly remember listening to and loving his stories during my first years at the festival as a child and continuing to enjoy his storytelling throughout my life. Now that I am grown with a young family of my own I am excited to share his stories with my own children. He truly is the king of storytelling today and we are happy to share a bit more about him with you today.
- What is the first story you remember hearing and/or the first story you remember telling?
There were so many stories in the family in my childhood, I can’t figure out what was first. I think the first story I ever told was the family story about my Uncle Frank’s foxhound. It ran away from home and they found it two months in Baltimore, MD. It was in a used clothing store barking at an old fox-fur coat…but the story took thirty minutes to tell.
- How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
When we went visiting the relatives, there was no television or anything else to do, so, the adults visited and the children listened. I loved it! I didn’t know it was called “storytelling.”
- Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
I hope families will incorporate their own stories more fully into their family lives. When we know our stories, we know who we are, what we want to preserve, and where we want to go forward with our lives based on our own past.
- If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
I would start a dance party with The Twist. It is joyful and so easy that no one needs to know anything at all to join. Just get up and twist!
For more on Donald’s schedule at this year’s Festival, visit: https://timpfest.org/events/28th-annual-timpanogos-storytelling-festival.
![Getting to Know Shonaleigh]()
by Courtney Burns | May 22, 2017 | About Storytelling, Concerts
To see Kevin Kling perform once is to love him for a lifetime. Kevin is perhaps best known for his commentaries on NPR’s All Things Considered as well as storytelling events around the globe—he is a favorite at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival—but is also an accomplished author and playwright. Growing up in the Minneapolis suburbs of Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove provided fertile ground for a special blend of autobiographical stories rooted in the unique culture of Minnesota (If you have heard Kevin tell his stories, you had better be pronouncing that with the proper Minnesotan accent). But Kevin can just a quickly take you on a whirlwind tour through the Mediterranean and Texas. Whether you are in need of a powerful story that touches the heart or a bit of humor that splits that side, Kevin is the storyteller for you. Kevin recently agreed to answer a few questions for us to help us get to know him just a little bit better.
1.What book are you currently reading?
Six Memos for the Next Millennium
By Italy Calvino
2a. What is the first story you remember hearing?
My mom reading bible stories, Moses
My dad would just make up stories, if it was called ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, there would probably be no Bears and as good a chance Snow White would be in it as Goldilocks. I took a little from each style.
2b. What is the first story you remember telling?
As a kid in French class I told ‘Le Petite Chapeau Rouge’
As an adult ‘Lightning’
3. How was the seed of storytelling planted in your life?
My grandmother. She would visit me in Shiners hospital when I was three years old and bring stories from home. The power and need of a story was planted.
4. Where does storytelling grow from here? How do you want see storytelling influencing society?
I ask that question every day and everyday get a new answer.
I think society should influence stories, we need to be responsive to our communities. Stories are at different times medicine, a meal, a desert, a tonic … what is needed at the tip top of “once upon a time…” Whether we influence or not can be argued all day. We can hold up a mirror, a roadmap or a recipe and hope folks take it from there.
5. If you needed to start a dance party, what song would you lead with?
Burning down the House…
Talking Heads
Aloha Steve and Danno
Radio Birdman
Jimi Hendrix Polka (Purple Haze)
Brace Combo
Don’t miss Kevin at our special free storytelling performance during this year’s Orem Summerfest on Monday, June 5th at 7 pm. The event will be held at The Orchard at University Place, the large outdoor gathering space to the north of H&M. The stage will be located in front of a large grass park. Attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket or chairs.
This special free Orem Summerfest event is brought to you by DoTerra, Timpanogos Storytelling Institute, University Place, and Orem City. Timpanogos Storytelling is supported by the Utah Division of Arts and Museums and the National Endowment for the Arts.
