Everyone loves to hear a good story.
But have you ever heard a story told by a
professional storyteller?
They have the funny voices, animated faces, and wild antics that can make any story come to life.
And you can check it out for yourself this weekend at the Texas Storytelling Festival.
She Is Dallas info: The 26th Annual Texas Storytelling Festival will take place March 10 – 13, 2011 at the Denton Civic Center in Denton, Texas.
Ticket prices: One day ticket (either Fri. or Sat.) $40, Individual Concerts $10, Individual Workshops $15, Master Class with Donald Davis $50, or get tickets for the entire event for $130 (only $95 if you are a member of the Tejas Storytelling Association). Youth activities are free for children and the attending adult.
The Texas Storytelling Festival website has more information on registration and a complete schedule of storytellers and workshops,
Our outing to the Texas Storytelling Festival fits in perfectly with all of the storytelling that Nicholas and I have been doing lately. We take turns making up stories to tell each other. Sometimes we set some
guidelines for the story before we start such as who the main character should be or what kind of suspenseful event happens in the story. Other times we just ramble on freely and make it all up as we go along. I love that we spend our drive time in the car this way instead of just putting in a movie on a DVD player to keep him quietly mesmerized. It’s a great way to encourage creativity and imagination.
We saw the first storyteller. She was great but Nicholas got bored and wanted a “kid story”. So we slipped out the door and went into the next room where there were stories presented by and about Native Americans. Yes, there were multiple storytellers to choose from at any time. Just pick your story and find a comfy spot to sit.
Then it was time for the storyteller that I really wanted Nicholas to see. His name was Alex and he was about 10 years old. He got up on stage in front of our large group of people, mostly adults, and told a wonderful story about a ‘snot-nosed kid’.
He was a great storyteller and his story was really cute. But most importantly, I wanted Nicholas to see that little kids can be great storytellers and they can entertain kids and adults alike. Nicholas was impressed seeing the little boy on stage and he was excited that we got to meet him after the show.
The next storyteller was Michael Parent. He started off playing his guitar while singing a song about a rhinoceros, complete with audience participation. Then he told a cute story called, “Josephine and the King”. He made it extra fun by adding juggling tricks throughout the story.
Juggling is definitely lacking in my storytelling abilities. I hope Nicholas doesn’t get any ideas to raise the bar on my storytelling performances after seeing this!
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