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Share Story Arts Inc. is a not-for-profit cultural arts organization devoted to the fine art of storytelling and to its educational applications.
Description
Join five remarkable tellers as they share radient tales of love from antiquity. Let your heart be filled as Charlotte Blake Alston tells “Chura and Marwe" an indigenous tale from precolonial Kenya, Megan Wells tells “Savitri and Satyavan” from the Mahabharata, Heather Forest tells “Penelope’s Test” from the Odyssey, Milbre Burch tells “Iphis and Ianthe” from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and Laura Simms tells “Isis and Osiris” from the Pyramid Texts.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Heather Forest, is a modern day bard who has appeared in theatres, schools, literature conferences, and storytelling festivals throughout the United States and abroad. Her dynamic fusion of original music, poetry, and the sung and spoken word brings multicultural folktales to life in the imagination of her listeners. She has shared her unique storytelling works at The National Storytelling Festival, TN, the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., the Discovery Theatre at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., and at international festivals including the Sidmouth Folk Festival, England, Tales of Graz, Austria, and at the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand. She has published eighteen folktale recordings and books and has won an American Library Association Notable Record Award, two Parent’s Choice Gold Awards, and three Storytelling World Honor Awards. A pioneer in the American storytelling renaissance, Heather Forest is a recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award presented by the National Storytelling Network, U.S.A. for performance skill and the 2021 Talking Leaves Award for her contributions to storytelling literature.
Milbre Burch is a GRAMMY-nominated spoken word recording artist, an internationally known Oracle-Award-winning storyteller, and a sought-after teaching artist. The preeminent interpreter of Jane Yolen stories, she has performed and taught across the US, Europe and Asia since 1978. She has created nationally recognized residencies, workshops and pre-conferences, as well as locally lauded community outreach events. A produced and published playwright, Milbre holds a PhD in theatre and performance studies from the University of Missouri. She is dedicated to addressing issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, to working for peace and justice and reconciliation, and to speaking the truth of women’s experiences.
Laura Simms is internationally acclaimed as a storytelling artist, writer, and humanitarian. She combines traditional stories with personal narrative. For Laura storytelling is an act of compassion, spiritual and ecological restoration, and social justice. She is artistic Director of the Hans Christian Andersen Storytelling Center, served as a Senior Research Fellow for Rutgers University Peace Center under the auspices of UNESCO, and saved a zoo in Romania. Laura won the Sesame Street SUNNY DAYS AWARD for work with children worldwide, received the Hasbro September 11 Grant, and other awards. Presently Laura is a storytelling Consultant for a Shared Sacred Story Project sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, and is writing a new book. Rejoice, Regardless was performed recently in Tampa, Florida, and the Blue Coat Theater in Liverpool, UK. For more information visit: www.laurasimms.com
Megan Wells is a storyteller whose telling is time travel at its best. With exquisite language she takes listeners into deep-mind cinema, bringing worlds alive with passion, Soul and warm humor. A master of the literary tale, as well as long-form myth, Wells is known for her delicious timing, character portrayals and the theatrical sensitivity she brings to her work. She holds four national awards, three Chicago theatre awards and tours nationally as a storyteller, historical impersonator and actress. After six years of creating new works with the Chicago Symphony, Yo Yo Ma said of Megan Wells, "You Rock!"
Charlotte Blake Alston breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions. She has graced stages for over 30 years in venues throughout North America and abroad. Venues are wide and include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Symphony Orchestra Narrations and at regional, national and international Storytelling Festivals. She is a frequent guest artist in universities, grade schools, museums and cultural arts institutions around the country but this former elementary school teacher also presents in Day Care Centers, for Special Needs populations as well as prisons and youth detention centers. Her many awards include the Circle of Excellence Award, PA Artist of the Year, Zora Neale Hurston Award (NABS). In 2021 she was named The Philadelphia Orchestra's Official Storyteller, Narrator and Host.
Date & Time
Feb 13, 2023 8:00 PM - Feb 13, 2025 10:00 PM