by Sven Kelling | Mar 27, 2019
“Storytelling is the coming together of everybody, the first art,” Aoki says. “It’s what shamans did, connecting heaven and Earth, and weaving the collective unconscious into a community.” Combining numerous elements of art into a communicative whole is Brenda Wong Aoki’s gift. Swirling Japanese Noh and Kyogen theater with contemporary stories, adding a healthy helping of commedia dell’arte, and finishing off with American Jazz and modern dance, Aoki serves a sumptuous banquet of storytelling to her audiences. Listening to Brenda is an indulgent and rewarding experience not to be missed.
by Sven Kelling | Mar 27, 2019
There is no one-word description for award-winning singer, songwriter, comedian, author, and storyteller Don White. He has brought audiences to laughter and tears for thirty years, released nine CDs, three live DVDs, and a book, Memoirs of a C Student. White has opened for Arlo Guthrie and shared a bill with Janis Ian and Lyle Lovett. White’s arc as a writer and performer has taken him from his industrial hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts, through Boston’s comedy clubs and coffeehouses, and onto stages around the country. At every point, White has been the ultimate observer, infusing his work with his experiences as a husband, a father, a seeker, and a joker. “White is a riot on stage, a bona fide crowd pleaser. One of the most popular acts on the circuit. He plays an audience the way Leo Kottke plays a 12-string.” – The Boston Globe
Don White is a storyteller-comedian-author-troubadour-folk singer-songwriter, and since it’s his first time performing at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival we thought it would be nice if he could introduce himself to our Festival attendees so we asked him three questions.
1. This is our 30th anniversary and we’re so happy you will be celebrating this milestone with us. As a first-time teller at the festival, what would you like our audience to know about you?
“My performances used to be songs with little stories in between them. Over the past twenty years they became stories with little songs in between them. I like to go back and forth between being funny and being serious. I think humor that is friendly and not mean spirited is a very powerful tool for connecting with an audience. I’m interested in putting stories into the world through as many genres as possible. Whether I am singing or telling, being funny or serious, speaking plainly or poetically, I am always trying to serve the story so that it will find as many ears and hearts as possible.
Old people are hunched over by the weight of their untold stories.
If you encourage an old man to tell you his stories you will see his back straighten and his skin tighten quite discernibly with the telling of each one.
If an old woman could find an attentive ear for the dispensing of only one story each day she would be young again in the span of one year.
An odd world, don’t you think, where billions of stories live for year upon year in search of a place to be told?
Of what earthly good is a story without an ear to receive it, without a mind to be challenged by it, without a sense of wonder to marvel at it and, most importantly, without an open heart to possibly see the world differently after being moved by it?
It is something of a miracle to me that a body of ninety years can summon the strength to move one inch under the weight of ten thousand untold stories.”
2. Our theme this year is Timeless Tales. Would you consider your stories to be more timeless (traditional stories) or timely (personal narrative)?
“My stories and songs are drawn from my life. I’d like to think that the stories I tell from my life focus on universal themes.”
3. How can a new fan hear more from you after the festival? Do you have any published work, a website or other social media sites?
“I have a website: www.donwhite.net – and a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Don-White-62176263069/ – My ten CDS, my two DVDs and my book are available on the website as well as lots of concert video for viewing.
You can see Don and all of the other tellers at the 30th Anniversary of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival September 5-7, 2019 at the Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point by purchasing tickets online or at the gate.
by Sven Kelling | Mar 27, 2019
Anne grew up in a little Pennsylvania town along the Susquehanna River, in a house with a graveyard on one side and a cow pasture on the other. She first took the stage in at age 7, as a singing cow in the Holy Trinity Elementary Christmas pageant. During that debut she tripped over the boy playing the donkey and toppled the Holy Family, making a future on the stage unlikely. But, a few years later, she cracked a joke that made her mother laugh when there wasn’t much else to laugh about— and her joy for entertaining people began to blossom.
After college, Anne moved to Oregon to volunteer in a year-long service program. The year ended, but Anne’s love of the Pacific Northwest had just begun; she’s called Portland, Oregon home ever since.
In 1999, Anne had an idea for a three-part storytelling program for adults. She wrote the stories, rented the hall, sold tickets — and enough people came that parking became a problem. That led to another idea for a program, and another and another…
Realizing all she wanted to do was tell stories, Anne volunteered as a storyteller at a local school to learn the craft of spinning a tale for kids. She learned to play the mandolin and took improv classes to spice up her performances, and volunteered as a storyteller at a senior center to develop programs for older audiences, including those with memory loss.
To her delight, she was eventually able to quit her day job as a fiscal manager and become a full-time storyteller. In any given week, Anne can be found be teaching a storytelling residency in the morning, performing at a senior living facility in the afternoon, and leading a workshop or performing on-stage for adults in the evening.
Her repertoire includes original fictional tales, ghost stories, tall tales, personal stories, Pacific Northwest Folklore, and the occasional knock-knock joke. She’s done many recordings, and her 2016 CD “The Habit of Joy” was a Storytelling World Award Winner.
Despite — or perhaps because of — her Catholic upbringing, Anne’s become an award-winning liar. She is a four-time 1st-place winner at the Northwest Folklife Festival Liar’s Contest in Seattle and took the grand prize in the NW Tall Tale Challenge in 2016. (Ask her how big her trophies are.)
Anne performs and leads workshops across the country as a solo performer and as a duo with her husband, storyteller Norm Brecke. She is grateful to everyone who is part of the community of storytelling, especially those who are its audience, because, as she says “Without you— I’d be talking to myself.”
by Sven Kelling | Mar 27, 2019
Sheila Starks Phillips now resides in Sugar Land, Texas. Her career has ranged from first grade teacher to zookeeper at the Houston Zoo. Since 1990, she has mesmerized audiences as a master storyteller, weaving tales of wit and wisdom to all types of audiences, young and old. Often combining music with her stories, Sheila draws on her wide repertoire to make each performance customized, keeping the audience members’ ages and interests in mind. Sheila’s first children’s book, entitled “The Eggstra-Ordinary Surprise,” was published in 2001. Sheila often uses her guitar and other instruments with her stories. Her goal is to teach, in an entertaining manner, morals, problem solving, and life lessons and to also motivate children to read. Having worked as a zookeeper at the Houston Zoo, her hands-on knowledge of animals contributes an interesting element to Sheila’s stories. Sheila is on the Traveling Artists Roster of TEXAS COMMISSION ON THE ARTS and a past recipient of the John Henry Faulk Award. She has performed at festivals and venues around the country including being featured in the Exchange Place program at the National storytelling Festival as well as performing as the Teller in Residence at the International storytelling Center. A past President of the Tejas storytelling Association, Sheila lives in Sugar Land with her cat Florence Nightengale.
by Sven Kelling | Mar 27, 2019
The recipient of the National Storytelling Network’s 2017 Circle of Excellence Award, Motoko has enchanted audiences of every age since 1993. She trained with master mime Tony Montanaro (1927-2002) and renowned Appalachian storyteller Elizabeth Ellis. Motoko’s repertoire includes Asian folktales, Rakugo and Zen tales, ghost stories, mime vignettes, as well as oral memoirs from her childhood in Osaka and her life as an immigrant in the U.S.
Motoko has appeared on PBS’ Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and toured Miyazaki, Japan, as part of CarnegieKids in Miyazaki Project, sponsored by Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in festivals and theaters across the U.S., most notably, the National Storytelling Festival, Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, Bay Area Storytelling Festival, and the Provincetown Playhouse at NYU. (See the list of her credits.)
As a teaching artist, Motoko has been awarded numerous grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New York State BOCES. Her story CDs have won a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award, a Storytelling World Award, and a National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA). She is the author of A Year in Japan: Folktales, Songs and Art for the Classroom.
2015 saw the premiere of her storytelling concert, “Rakugo: Comical Tales from Japan” (featuring Masayo Ishigure on koto and shamisen) at the University of Massachusetts. In 2016 Motoko made her fourth featured appearance at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, where she premiered “RADIANT: Stories from Fukushima,” an original one-woman multimedia performance on Japan’s 2011 nuclear power plant meltdown.
The combination of skill, talent and ability to translate emotion to motion created entertaining and exciting imagery. Motoko puts the audience on an emotional roller coaster. She takes you up, down, upside down and lets you off feeling exhilarated and charged up…Her show was a winner.
Massachusetts Daily COLLEGIAN
