November is a great time for stories, who am I kidding, I love stories in every season. This month I produced a show with seven tellers who are members of the Saskatoon Storytellers’ Guild and also the Storytellers of Canada-Conteurs du Canada.
Here is a link to an interview my good friend Jerry Haigh did about the concert.
Story consumes me. My memory and imagination never stop and as I continue this journey as a teller and listener, I can’t help but share my art form.
This summer I spent two weekends with new Canadians talking about story, and poetry, and remembering. It was an honour to listen as their stories began to unravel.
I am getting ready to head out to schools again at the end of the month. Over five weeks I will travel throughout the province visiting schools and engaging with more than seventy classrooms. I’ll be with other artists, we’ll share the driving, bedrooms, and our own tales. I’ll grow as an artist and I will return with even more stories.
It was the longest day, 3 performance, many kilometres and the late afternoon show took me further away from home than I’d be all summer. I love the variety of the venues on the Summer Reading Tour. The library in Gravelbourg is in what was once a chapel in an old convent school, the acoustics in the huge room are amazing. Wood Mountain, my last stop of the day has hosted me before in the park near the concession. A tiny stream flows through the little clearing surrounded by gnarled trees just down a hill and slightly hidden. If fairies live in Saskatchewan and listen to stories they would have been at this performance listening to my voice accompanied by the water and the rustling leaves.
Does a storytelling performance in Climax mean I’ve reached the peak of my career? They’ve heard every joke but the folks in climax were a highlight of the week. They had a great, well-cared for 1970’s era swimming pool and we had the weather to enjoy it!
How can a person not feel like an explorer when they reach Frontier? This is one of the furthest points in the south west corner of Saskatchewan I’ve ever been. My four corners of performing in Saskatchewan are now La Loche, Sandy bay, Frontier and Oxbow.
Sunny days and time on the road. It doesn’t get any better than this. The stories lead me down the highway and along the way I discover more. Leader gave me the story of a friendly but hard of hearing hotel operator and the smallest room I’ve ever stayed in with both children.
http://culturedays.ca/blog/2013/07/23/saskatchewan-artist/
Here is a link to a Culture Days blog featuring some of the work I did last year as an animateur. It was a great gig!
Sometimes I’m nervous about performing in my own town. The old ‘prophet in his own land’ thing. I had a chance to tell stories in my new community, a bedroom community, a place where it seems people come and go too quickly and don’t sit often to listen and share. The library space was filled with families and the stories and I think the stories brought us together and will help me build friendships. That can be their magic!
Young, I loved standing under the sign. I still do feel young most days. I don’t want to let that slip away. I think of the organizations I belong to where I am one of the young ones. Young was true to its name, it was the youngest audience I ever told to. There was one four-year old, one three-year old and a half a dozen children two and under. It was a challenge that required more singing than usual but it was fun.
The road was rough but the journey was a good one.
My mother grew up in Kenaston, it holds some of my favourite memories. I was so happy to visit the library there. I met two new babies, daughters of my cousins who came to listen. There were only a few children in the crowd who were not relatives the rest were children of cousins. I am so grateful for a large family and the chance to share the stories with them.
The theme for the summer reading program in Canada is GO this year. In my storytelling presentation I am offering the audience an experience of travel to places they know, those they’ve imagined and those long ago. In Eatonia the library is in the old train station and there were maps and pictures of trains and ships all over the walls . What a fun place to jam out “I’ve been Working on the Railroad” with the children.
I believe in the story. I believe in the story’s power and the connections it can make. After telling The Fishing Story in a small community in Saskatchewan this week a little 8-year boy, wide eyes shining, piped up “Hey, I was there last week, I caught a fish, too!” Such power in the imagination, such power in the connections made. I love this gift I have been granted as a teller and the opportunities to share. it isn’t always easy to be a living, working artist but I wouldn’t trade it for a million bucks.
This week started with the plane journey home from Ottawa where I spent a week with the dear ones who are involved with the Storytellers of Canada – Conteurs du Canada. I flew home on Monday and on Tuesday had storytelling gigs in Wilkie and Unity. I love every little library in the province, each has its own charm, its own personality.
