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by Courtney Burns | Aug 21, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
One reason we love story, whether telling or listening, is that story can send us into the past where we learn about where we came from and about how we arrived where we are today. And if we’re smart, we will let that knowledge guide us to where we want to be tomorrow. This year’s Timpanogos Storytelling Festival features three storytellers who will take us back to the annuls of history, teach us a little about how far we have come, and remind us that the bravery and courage that has brought us this far is still required.
Syd Lieberman, a long-time Festival favorite, returns once again and brings with him a special performance of his piece, “Abraham & Isaac: Sacrifice at Gettysburg.” Created by Syd and his wife Adrienne in honor of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth and recounted this year in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the piece is a recounting of the Battle of Gettysburg as seen through the eyes of Private Isaac Taylor. The performance culminates in the speech given by President Lincoln, called “Father Abraham” by the soldiers, to honor the sacrifice of those who fought on that hallowed ground—“my boys” as they were called by the President. Based largely on the detailed diary kept by Private Taylor, this piece will draw you through the horrors of war and its bloodiest battle with compassion, honor, and courage. The sweeping scope and beauty of this piece will be one of the true must-see hours of our Festival.
Additionally, we are thrilled to introduce two new faces to our Festival: Kim and Reggie Harris, a dynamic husband and wife team. Raised in Philadelphia, PA, Kim and Reggie were each introduced at a young age to diverse genres of music—from Classical to Rock to Jazz. After meeting in college, the two began to polish their talents first at local coffee houses and then in schools and concerts around the country. Now as widely acclaimed musicians and storytellers, they have developed a collection of stories and songs chronicling African-American history from the Underground Railroad through the Civil Rights Era. Drawing on historical figures, such as Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and some lesser-known individuals, Kim and Reggie tell these stories and share songs with wit and infectious laughter as well as profound respect.
We look forward to sharing a tent with you at our Festival as we present these tellers of stories and songs recounting some of the history that dramatically formed and changed our country.
This post was originally published in the Utah Storytelling Guild’s newsletter Taleswapper (July 2013)
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by Courtney Burns | Aug 21, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
Bil Lepp is an amazing storyteller and an even better liar. I have listened to his stories for years, and every single time, he hooks me right from the very beginning. He gets on stage wearing blue jeans, a tucked-in t-shirt, and a ball cap. He’s an average all-American guy that looks like your brother or your next-door neighbor. He puts his hands in his pockets and just starts telling you about something that happened when he was young. Within the first few minutes of one of his stories, I will think to myself, “Well, this is believable. Maybe he’s actually telling a true story this time.” And then, a few more minutes into it, when he tells about he and his friend Skeeter dressing up in their homemade deer costumes during the deer hunt season, you quickly realize he’s tricked you again. And at that point, the lies become more and more outrageous by the minute, and you will find yourself laughing harder than you ever remember laughing.
I would be surprised if there were three people in this world who know Bil Lepp better than my children. They have grown up with him, whether it was listening to him in the shaded tents at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, reading his books as a family, or falling asleep to his recordings. Here’s what they have to say about Bil’s storytelling:
Janessa (17) “Saying that Bil Lepp’s stories are dull and unimaginative would be a big, fat lie… As are most of his stories.”
Harrison (14) “Storytelling is one thing. Sucking the audience into hilarious stories, true or false, and making them roll on the floor laughing like crazy is quite another. That’s the kind of storyteller Bil Lepp is.”
Nathan (11) “I like Bil Lepp for sharing his ingenious ideas, like JELL-O balloons, and teaching us new ways to use the library.”
If you haven’t ever heard Bil Lepp tell his tall tales, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is the best place to see him in action. Our listeners adore him, and he always brings his newest and best stories to share with our audiences, which consist of fans that range from young to old. Make sure you arrive at his tent early because most of his hours are standing room only!
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by Courtney Burns | Aug 21, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
It was a lovely October day in Jonesborough, Tennessee, several years ago when my Timpanogos Storytelling friends and I attended the National Storytelling Festival. We wandered into a tent where Andy Offutt Irwin was making his debut on the national storytelling scene. There he stood—a tallish, youngish, lanky fellow with straw-colored hair spinning stories about the crazy antics of his elderly, southern Aunt Marguerite, who also just happened to be a doctor. We were charmed as we sat through story after story, one more impossibly funny than the next. We watched as crowds followed him from one performance tent to another throughout the festival. He made a big hit with the Jonesborough storytelling audiences who had come to appreciate and understand good storytelling through the years. And Andy, we concurred, would be a big hit with the well-seasoned storytelling audiences of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. So we invited him to be one of our feature tellers at the next Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. That year a new favorite teller was born at Timpanogos!
Andy evokes a sort of Robin Williams’ flair for the spontaneous and outrageous, taking a seemingly simple story to a most unexpected outcome. He surprised all of us in one of his storytelling sets by bringing a group of children on stage and working them into his act by using his remarkable whistling ability while bonking them on the head with a toy mallet. Surprises? Andy is full of them!
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by Courtney Burns | Aug 20, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
Ed Stivender was no newcomer to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival when I first had the opportunity of hearing him tell a story. But prior to actually seeing him in person, I had checked out several of his storytelling cassettes and CDs from the Orem Public Library just to be a bit familiar with his stories as I was set to be an emcee that year. I discovered that Ed Stivender was cut from a whole different cloth, both as a man and a storyteller.
A devout Catholic, Ed had a rigorous Jesuit parochial school education, which afforded him the opportunity to add some levity to many things Catholic. A “Catholic Garrison Keillor” is what some have called him. Gifted with a razor sharp wit and more than a fair amount of musical talent on the banjo, his stories delighted me with their fresh approach to the familiar old stories, such a Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk. Having heard him on cassette, I anxiously awaited the opportunity to hear him in person. I was not disappointed!
Delighted by the two days of stories at Mt. Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon, I eagerly looked forward to just what he’d pull out of his hat at the Saturday evening SCERA Shell “Laughin’ Night” performance where a jam-packed crowd of several thousand would be primed for the lineup of storytellers that evening. Ed was slated to be one of the last storytellers that evening, and the preceding tellers had so heightened the laughter and enjoyment of that evening’s stories that when Ed came to the stage we were ready for something extraordinary. Ed turned improv storyteller par excellence as he wove audience participation into a story that took more hilarious twists and turns than an old moonshiner’s still. The unbridled laughter was infectious. We all caught the storytelling bug that night!
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by Courtney Burns | Aug 19, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
If you have never heard Donald Davis tell his stories, then you’ve missed one of the great pleasures of life. His stories of deep curiosity and humor captivate audiences. They are not for children. Nor are they for adults. They are for everyone! No matter the age span in your family (or number of generations), Donald’s stories are an experience that brings recognition, smiles and laughter to all.
But they are more than entertaining. Donald’s stories satisfy. They fulfill our need to connect life’s experiences; to connect us to our own memories; to recognize our similarities with others and thereby connect us to our families, to our neighbors, and to our communities. He does this by using his stories as a mirror for us to explore and analyze our own lives. He does this by understanding how the brain works.
The brain has capabilities far beyond the one-track mode we usually operate in and I don’t need elaborate scientific studies to prove it. When listening to Donald’s stories I clearly see the antics of Donald convincing his little brother to try walking on the “hard shell” of cow pies; the trying-hard-to-keep-from-smiling face of his father as he assigns proper punishment to Donald for cutting his brother’s curly locks; his mother’s scream as a snake crawls across the dashboard of the car she’s driving, or her stance as she says for the millionth time, “That’s just what mothers do;” or Uncle Frank in his Sunday suit after he’s saved the proceedings of a funeral by removing a skunk from the open grave.
But simultaneously I am also seeing my brother and I as six- and seven-year-olds convincing a younger brother to walk under a peach tree with rotten fruit hiding in the tall grass beneath it; my brother not speaking to me all summer after I gave him what most would have thought was a great haircut (I’d been to college and didn’t know he had developed a sensitivity about showing the tops of his ears); my mother cleaning the shower and finding the missing-for-six-months garter snake a brother had brought home from scout camp, and words from my mother I had disliked hearing as a child pass through my lips to my own children; and me in my Sunday clothes running round and round an old Volkswagen van trying to shake a large, smelly, amorous goat until being saved by a neighbor, the goat’s loving owner. I am fully participating in both stories at the same time (Donald’s and mine) while creating a third story, that of the reality of me sitting with family and friends in a performance tent, listening to Donald, and the additional stories we generate as we share that experience.
Like his stories, Donald’s storytelling retreats are also about people. And, not surprisingly, it is people who make stories. As Donald puts it, “Stories are the trouble people have and then how they resolve that trouble through their own devices or through the help of others.” Folks just need a bit of help untangling the strands of life to find the beginnings and endings so they can share their stories with their families, their children, and their grandchildren. Then, after a story has been told and told again and you know just what has to be included for listeners to understand it, the story is ready to be written. What a fun way to share and bequeath personal and family history!
Grab the opportunity this summer and run, don’t walk, to Donald’s performances at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Or, begin your family history by participating in one of his storytelling retreats. See you there!
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by Courtney Burns | Aug 19, 2013 | Festival, Scheduled
Ten Things About Carmen Deedy You Might Not Have Known
As one of our favorite tellers, Carmen Deedy is pretty well known. You’re probably familiar with the fact her family left Castro’s Cuba and were refugees when she was just a very little girl. You probably know she’s an award-winning author and successful editor. You most likely know she’s got a wit so sharp you can shave with it. Here are a few things you might not know:
1. Carmen is married to folk-singer, songwriter, storyteller John McCutcheon, another Timpanogos Storytelling favorite. They live near Atlanta, Georgia, and Carmen’s amazing parents live with them.
2. Bil Lepp performed the wedding ceremony for Carmen and John McCutcheon. He was not wearing his baseball cap at the time.
3. Carmen and John have a saltwater swimming pool and each of them have a separate studio at home for working on their individual projects.
4. Carmen knits! In fact, she’s very accomplished in many styles of needlework, including needlepoint, knitting, and smocking. She has an artist’s eye for color and design. It might be hard to imagine but she really does love to sit and knit. For a Cuban Firecracker, she’s also very homey and calm.
5. One of the most important individuals in Carmen’s life is George Bailey. He is an intimate confidant, insightful advisor, and humble companion. But John isn’t even jealous! Ask her about George. He’s really quite remarkable.
6. Carmen loves Jell-O; pudding or gelatin, especially sugar free. She also would like to know where they keep it at Harmon’s on 800 North in Orem. Bring her a box of Jell-O while she’s here—she’ll love it!
7. Carmen is an anglophile and bibliophile. If you don’t know what those are, look ‘em up.
8. Carmen will slay you in Scrabble or Words With Friends. Unless you are fellow author Rick Walton.
9. If you really want to see Carmen light up like a fiesta, ask her about Ruby. Carmen’s big brown eyes will sparkle like the gem itself, and she is likely to whip out her phone and show you pictures. (Hint: Ruby is her granddaughter!)
10. Carmen will wear herself out quickly for others, and when she is here, it is a full-time job to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t do too much and exhaust herself. You see, there is only one of her, which will never be enough for all of us who love her!
Syd Lieberman, a long-time Festival favorite, returns once again and brings with him a special performance of his piece, “Abraham & Isaac: Sacrifice at Gettysburg.” Created by Syd and his wife Adrienne in honor of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth and recounted this year in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the piece is a recounting of the Battle of Gettysburg as seen through the eyes of Private Isaac Taylor. The performance culminates in the speech given by President Lincoln, called “Father Abraham” by the soldiers, to honor the sacrifice of those who fought on that hallowed ground—“my boys” as they were called by the President. Based largely on the detailed diary kept by Private Taylor, this piece will draw you through the horrors of war and its bloodiest battle with compassion, honor, and courage. The sweeping scope and beauty of this piece will be one of the true must-see hours of our Festival. 
