Covid Can't Even Delay Storytelling!

As we were being locked down across the country, many storytellers were asking:

What Now?

In that simple question, there were lots of other questions.

How will we make a living?

How will we do this art form at all?

How long will the world be unsafe?

There was a certain amount of despair and a large amount of panic.

Our next question was:

What's Next?

We embraced that question all over the place.

Online performances went live!

Priscilla Howe

Liz Weir

Laura Packer

MyLinda Butterworth

Bill Harley

There are too many to count! Follow this link to the NEST calendar for a great list of all of the online storytelling!

Storytellers are learning how to make art, share our work, and find audiences that are just as hungry for us as we are for them.

Artists Standing Strong Together and other online groups found their feet and started connecting people from various parts of the storytelling world with each other.

What did all of this wild change mean?

We suddenly had access to international performers we could never see live!

 https://worldstorytellingcafe.com/performances/live-stories-with-colin-urwin/

Some of us have been lamenting the lack of being able to have our big festivals. 

Well, there is no need to lament! The Big Festivals Are Still Happening! 

Timpanogos goes up this weekend!

You can buy tickets, and you get access to all of it! No longer do you have to agonize and choose which sets to watch...WATCH THEM ALL!

Guess how much all of that will cost you? Guess!

Not even close.

$25

Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it.

The National Storytelling Festival is happening on the first weekend in October like always. You can go from anywhere in the world and it is affordable!

Who is going to be telling this year? EVERYBODY!

This can easily become a $1,500 dollar weekend. How much will it cost this year? 

$50

Not only that, but you can also do the whole thing from your living room, your kitchen, heck, you could watch it from bed!

You no longer have to choose which Donald Davis set to catch, or whether or not you can see both Ed Stivender and/or Adam Booth. Want to catch every single Josh Goforth set? Not a problem. See EVERYTHING! 

=Hit this link to see more online treasure throughout the storytelling virtual world on The NEST Calendar if you didn't do it already!

On to other matters.....

I know I have not done much blogging during these crazy times, but I have been trying to reform my own business model. Now that I have a little more knowledge in me about how to make this work, I have some information to offer.

I will be blogging more about the business of storytelling in the time of COVID. In fact, that is what my next series is going to be dedicated to doing.

I am going to answer the questions I have been fielding, explain how I transformed residencies into online products, and go into detail about how we marketed this product, how we figured out what we wanted to do, and offer as much information as I can about this new world of work.

I am of the opinion it will be at least 2 years before we are back up to capacity in a safe way. Even after that, I don't think virtual telling will ever go away.

Let us march forward with both of these great skills under our belt.

You can't stop storytellers when stories are on the line.

Heck, you can't even delay us! 

Happy Virtual Telling!

I Blame Susan O'halloran: Great Gifts From Friends

Back in my tender years of storytelling, I met a fabulous teller who works with cultural diversity.  Susan O'halloran, who I first knew as 'Soup', is brilliant, beautiful, wicked smart and extremely talented.  She currently facilitates an amazing online storytelling festival called Stories Connect Us All.  Head over to this page and watch some of the wonderful work she has collected.  She continues to be both an inspiration and mentor for me as well as many, many others.  Happily, she is also a friend.




A couple of years ago we were at the Timpanogos Storytelling Conference together.  We were staying with the Folkmans.

One morning, Sue asked me if I blogged.  I told her I did not.  She began explaining how it was not such a difficult thing and I should do it.  I countered that I doubted I could keep a blog going, and besides, what did I have to write about anyway?

Thus began my descent into madness.

I didn't find out this could become a part time job until I was too far committed to turn back!

Not long ago, this blog recorded its 10,000th individual hit.  For blogs which get thousands of folks everyday, I know that isn't much, but it blew my mind.

I try to get something out at least once a week, but when my travel schedule gets hectic...forget it!  I can't write about much of anything and my brain is decidedly numb.

So, to prevent this space going dark for a few months, as it did last summer, and partially has over the last month, I contacted a number of excellent storytellers and authors and asked if they would be willing to do some guest blogging entries for me.


The response I got was great!  The guest entries will start appearing as early as the first week of June.

I don't know what each entry will be about as I wanted each person to write about something important to them.


As soon as I work out who is going to be featured and when, I will put out a schedule.  Thanks to everyone who has stopped by the blog, and thanks to all the performers and writers who have agreed to write a piece for this space!

I hope you enjoy the summer series.

So, thank you, Sue O'halloran, for beginning the conversation that led me to this place.  I do enjoy the work, and I enjoy being able to share and correspond with performers, teachers and parents all across the globe.  Despite the fact that I can't always get to this space in a timely manner, it was worth doing, and worth continuing!


Happy Telling!