Tellabration returns to central New Jersey for 11th year
By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
Tellabration is celebrating its 11th year in central New Jersey, and founders of the annual event encourage teachers, students and the community to come and listen to the art of “telling a story.”
The event, which will be held at the Hamilton Township Public Library on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 1 p.m. will feature several storytellers including Doreen Shepard of Columbus, and a few musicians who all share a passion for the spoken word.
It will be held simultaneously across the country and internationally as part of an effort to support the art form.
The first Tellabration concert took place in 1988 in Connecticut, and the event is now produced by storytelling centers and organizations, schools, libraries, colleges and universities, museums, performing-arts centers, and story-swap groups around the world.
This year will feature four storytellers, including central New Jersey residents Stephen Coar, Patricia Flores, Mark Schlawin, and Ms. Shepard. Each storyteller will tell a unique story that he or she has selected.
Tellabration will also feature a storytelling workshop that is not necessarily for teachers, but rather for “anyone who is interested in storytelling.”
This year’s theme for the workshop is “S. P .S, Did you hear that?” which features Ruth Blake, a storyteller, actor, and speech therapist who will talk about setting, problem and solutions in storytelling, with attention to sound and voicing.
Ms. Jones noted that any New Jersey teacher who attends the workshop can receive credit for four professional developmental hours.
In addition to the workshop will be a concert, which features Spook Handy, who is a folk artist.
Part of the appeal of the event, said Mistress of Ceremonies Gwendolyn Jones, is that the art of storytelling is universal, “whether it be how grandmother developed her secret-recipe blueberry pie or the account of the myth of Perseus.”
Ms. Jones explained that Tellabration always tries to have a folk artist come to the storytelling event because they “have a particularly good way of telling a tale.”
The NSN and the Garden State Storytellers’ League are the sponsors for Tellabration 2007. The Garden State Storytellers’ League is an affiliate of the National Story League (NSL), founded in 1982 by Ms. Jones.
For Ms. Shepard, storytelling is something that she has been involved in for a few years, but this will be her first time at Tellabration.
Ms. Shepard will be telling a story called “The Little Old Woman Who Hated Housework,” by Margaret McDonald. With the help of magical fairies the little old woman comes to the realization that the housework isn’t all that bad.
”The story itself is pretty old,” said Ms. Shepard.
She also said that it relates to subject matter that everyone can relate to, no matter where she tells it, although she does prefer to tell stories to children.
Ms. Shepard said that in addition to the Tellabration ceremony, she also has told stories at an Earth Day Fair, as well as Burlington County’s Arts in the Park festival.
Her goal is to eventually get involved in telling stories that have to do with getting both children and adults enthusiastic about gardening, since she currently helps her husband with his nursery sales business.
Ms. Shepard is looking forward to attending the Tellabration workshop, because, “I always look for new ways of telling,” she said.
Tickets for the concert are $10, and tickets for both the educators’ workshop and concert can be purchased for $20. The Hamilton Public Library is located on 1 Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. Way, Hamilton, NJ 08619.
For more information, contact Gwendolyn Jones at 609-499-0107, or by e-mail at [email protected], or contact Carol Satz at 890-3378.