A! Magazine for the Arts

June Storytelling Live! begins in Jonesborough

May 27, 2015

Storytelling Live!, the International Storytelling Center's renowned teller-in-residence series, continues its second month with a diverse line-up.

Each teller appears in matinee and special performances Tuesday through Saturday at 2 p.m., at the Mary B. Martin Storytelling Hall.

Storyteller Pipp Gillette of Texas appears June 2-6. With a lifelong interest in the history of the west and its music, Gillette plays traditional cowboy music on guitar, banjo, harmonica and bones. He has performed across the U.S. and abroad, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and tours in England and Japan. As the Gillette Brothers, Pipp and his late brother Guy were recipients of the Western Heritage Wrangler Award for Best Traditional Album of 2010 as well as the 2012 Wrangler Award for Outstanding Original Western Composition.

Ed Stivender of Pennsylvania appears June 9-13. Stivender has toured the world presenting his one-man shows in Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, Indonesia and in festivals across the U.S. Best known for his witty improvisations and original interpretations of classic material, he engages his audience in a participatory dance of wisdom, whimsy and surprise. The author of two books of coming-of-age stories, his writing has appeared in Reader's Digest, Catholic Digest and Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul.

Kate Campbell from Tennessee performs June 16-20. As the daughter of a Mississippi Baptist preacher, Campbell's formative years were spent in the core of the civil rights movement of the "60s, and the indelible experiences of those years shaped her heart, character and convictions. Her clear-water vocal delivery and easy command of a full range of American music styles have earned her critical acclaim, and her gift for storytelling has drawn repeated comparison to such bastions of the Southern writing tradition as Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty. Her appearances span the U.S. and abroad, including the Cambridge Folk Festival, and she's been featured on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Teller Beth Horner appears June 23-27. Noted for her spirited stage presence, comic sensibility and warm, energetic style, Horner's stories are renowned for their high comedy and stunning drama: from her hysterical, childhood farmyard escapades to eerie folktales of her native Missouri, side-splitting spoofs of romance novels and hysterical epics of life's escapades. An NSN ORACLE Circle of Excellence award recipient, Horner has performed in venues across the U.S. including on Live from National Geographic. She most recently worked with NASA where she collected the stories of scientists behind the Apollo Space Missions.

Spanning the months of June and July is Shonaleigh, June 30-July 4. Shonaleigh is a drut'syla (storyteller) from the Yiddish oral tradition. She has shared her work for the past 17 years across the United Kingdom, Europe and the U.S. She was the UK's Deputy National Storytelling Laureate from 2010-12, has completed commissions for the British Library, the British Museum and Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival, and is a contributor to BBC arts programs.

For more information about Storytelling Live! visit www.storytellingcenter.net, or to purchase tickets call 800-952-8392 ext. 222 or 423-913-1276.

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