Once Upon A Story

The 15th annual storytelling festival in San Juan Capistrano happened this last weekend. Just like the Swallows, it felt like old home week for us. This storytelling festival,held within a stone's throw of the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, was the very first storytelling event that Patti attended after moving to California in Labor Day 1997. She has attended every year since, with James and his wife Sia joining Patti and her husband Dick now the past 6 years. What is so nice about this festival?

First: top level storytellers from around the country are brought in to tell in this intimate setting. The quality of storytelling is always very high. They also showcase some regional tellers. This year San Diego teller, Sarah Saulter, and Orange County's Dave Chittenden were on the bill. We were proud to see them shine, sharing the stage with tellers who travel the country sharing their tales.

Patti and James are proud to help staff the resource booth sharing information about the South Coast Storyteller's guild (http://www.storyguild.com/), of which we are both members. Many people stopped by to get information about where to hear more stories, or tools to work on their own storytelling skills. Opportunities abound, wherever you are. If you are in Orange County or San Diego County, one of the places to go is the South Coast guild. One of the only storytelling guild's in the country with its own Guild house, the South Coast folks are talented, welcoming and provide so much goo to the community and to storytellers. It is great to have the Guild working in support of the Festival.

Workshops, storytelling concerts, and good ol' fashioned gabbing with folks rounded out this festival. After a great workshop with Antonio Rocha, we are now percolating on how to expand the mime that we use in our storytelling, After listening to Baba Jamal Koran, we are thinking about how to keep the audience engaged, and how to get more still and quiet ourselves so that we might be clearer vessels for the stories to come through. Tellers Jim Cogan and Laura Pershin Raynor were very entertaining, and were great examples of what top-notch storytelling is all about.

We are so grateful for the people who spend so much time working to plan and promote storytelling events. Come join us next year in beautiful San Juan Capistrano for this great storytelling festival ( http://www.storyfestival.com ). You'll be glad to did.