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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Barbara McBride Smith’s life tapestry sparkles with more variety than Grandma’s button box. From Texas to Boston, Massachusetts, from the New Jersey shore, through Oklahoma, and back to Texas again, she has picked up wit, wonder, and wisdom from the most unlikely places and strings those gems of life together into a diadem of diversity. […]
Tim’s love for show business began when he was six years old, watching a thrilling performance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus. Waiting for his big break Tim filled his childhood with performance opportunities. He was cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a second-grade production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and a few […]
Bil Lepp is an award-winning storyteller, author, and recording artist. He’s the host of the History Channel’s Man vs History series, the occasional host of NPR’s internationally syndicated Mountain Stage, and a contributing columnist to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail. Bil’s humorous, family friendly tall-tales and stories have earned the appreciation of listeners of all ages […]
No one plays with an audience like Carmen Deedy. Regardless of the number of people in the venue, Carmen shares every story from her heart to your heart, individually and personally. She possesses the unique gift of not only speaking to all people, but to each person, simultaneously. She once said, “Great story is the […]
Donald was born in a Southern Appalachian mountain world rich in stories. While he heard many traditional stories about Jack and other heroic characters, he was most attracted to the stories of his own family and places of origin. Donald begin retelling the stories he heard and then adding his own new stories to them […]
Enter the world of Simon Brooks’ folk and fairy tales, myths and legends where adults huddle around the fireside to hear of strange folk, long journeys, and surprising rewards, and where children peer down from their sleeping loft to listen to tale after tale. “Stories keep us human,” Simon tells us. Come share with him […]
Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of a schoolteacher and a rodeo cowboy turned preacher, Andy was born in Lubbock, Texas. He grew up in the small community of Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a […]
Adam Booth is the 2022 West Virginia Folk Artist of the Year, awarded at the Governor’s Arts Awards. Adam blends traditional mountain folklore, music, and an awareness of contemporary Appalachia to create original, forward-thinking story artistry. Adam’s new multidisciplinary program The Heron’s Journey has been selected for the 2024-2025 Mid Atlantic Arts Touring Roster. As […]
Antonio Rocha, a native of Brazil, began his career in the performing arts in 1985. In 1988 he received a Partners of the Americas grant to come to the USA to perform and deepen his mime skills with Master Tony Montanaro. Since then he has earned a Summa Cum Laude Theater BA from USM (University […]
From East to West, Anne Shimojima has scattered storytelling sunshine in every corner of our country. Shining her light on difficult subjects, “Hidden Memory: An American Story,” Anne illustrates the history of her Japanese American family as they were imprisoned in the incarceration camps of World War II. Anne excels at helping others gather, shape, […]
Some people have inner-kids. Andy Offutt Irwin has an outer-kid. With a manic Silly Putty voice, astonishing mouth noises, and hilarious stories, he is equal parts mischievous schoolboy and the Marx Brothers, peppered with a touch of the Southern balladeer. People are drawn to him like magnets to a refrigerator. And inside, it’s all Mountain […]
Amber is a relatively new teller, but the way she tells feels quite old. Her favorite sorts of stories to share reside at the intersection of real life and fairy tale, because she believes that real life can be both.
