By Naomi Gish
The annual Forest Storytelling Festival at Peninsula College over the weekend featured professional storytellers from all over.
Festival director Chris Wright says that one of the most important objectives of the storytelling com- munity is to remind people that “Stories aren’t just for kids. They’re for everyone. Adults.” She pleads that in the generation of tech and gadgets we forget to em- brace where we came from and listening to stories is a way to get back to what is important.
To get young people involved is another mission of the Port Angeles storytelling community. Upcoming story slam sessions geared to- wards the next generation are an endeavor of the association.
Began in 1995 by Olympic Peninsula Native Josephine Ped- erson, who believed in the beauty and power of the effect that stories can have on people.
Featured tellers this year in- clude award winners Judith Black, Michael Parent and Jim May. Ingrid Nixon, a well-trav- eled story-gatherer who works for the National Park Service and Anne Penfound, of the United Kingdom who has founded a sto- rytelling troupe and narrates for Mythobolus Mask Theater
Along with themed story concerts, featured storytellers facilitated workshops for those interested in becoming tellers themselves. Becoming skilled at creating stories, getting over stage fright and working on story slam skills were some of the dis- cussed topics.
“It was not my sister on a train zooming past and me talking to her on the side. We all live life between the rails.” A powerful recounting of his sister’s battle with cancer left the audience thoughtful of those last moments with loved ones. Storyteller Jim May at the Forest Storytelling Festival at the Little Theater uses his story to remind of how impor- tant are those moments between life and death.
Local story people Rebecca Hom, Dennis Duncan, Erran Sharpe and Joy Beaver shared stories at the Studium Generale Oct.15.
The teaser program featured stories both true and fictional, originals of the respective tellers. A fairy-tale,a haunting ghost story, a children’s allegory and a story of life’s sweet blessings were told by the Port Angeles native story-tellers.
Ingrid Nixon of Olympia Washington, who Wright calls “the pride and joy of the lo- cal storytelling community,” says before telling a story of a half-boy-half-hedgehog who outsmarts the kings of the land that “Fantasy stories—of all the elements of story that could get passed down—it’s these ones.”
Local amateur storyteller Joy Beaver says of her craft, “story- telling has some kind of magic to it.” She also admits that when she first started to tell stories she was very fearful of others judgment. “I think every human alive expe- riences that kind of fear.”
Ingrid Nixon of Olympia Washington, who Wright calls “the pride and joy of the local storytelling community,” says before telling a story of a half-boy-half-hedgehog who outsmarts the kings of the land that “Fantasy stories—of all the elements of story that could get passed down—it’s these ones.”
Local amateur storyteller Joy Beaver says of her craft, “story- telling has some kind of magic to it.” She also admits that when she first started to tell stories she was very fearful of others judgment. “I think every human alive experiences that kind of fear.”