Fall Festivities

We can't believe a couple of weeks have gone by since we last blogged. So much has happened. So here goes a quick rundown:
Halloween weekend The Patchwork Players told stories for the last days of Brick or Treat at LEGOLAND California. As always, the audiences, other performers and LEGOLAND staff were great to be with.
Last Wednesday through Friday, James was at the Health Care Service Excellence Conference in Santa Barbara. In the past this conference has hosted many world class motivational and inspirational speakers, and this year was no exception. Attendees came from more than 47 hospitals and health care organizations from all over the U.S and Canada. There, James facilitated two workshops on "Crafting Personal Stories: The Power of Storytelling/Listening in Organizations”. He was well received and has been invited back to bring storytelling to next year's conference in San Diego.
Sunday the sixth, we were back at the J .Paul Getty Museum telling our original tale “A Hero's Journey”. We have only two more days for this round of telling at the Getty; December 4th and January 15th.
Thursday, we were at the San Diego Museum of art for a special Curator tour of a new Indian Art exhibit, Domains of Wonder. We were surprised to learn that they have the world's largest exhibit of miniature prints from India, some thousands of years old. It turns out that most of the art was designed to tell historical and religious stories in a visual medium. A fine collection. We will be telling tales from India at their Family Festival on November the 20th. It is always fun to get a behind-the-scenes look to help us prepare for a show.
The Fourth Annual L.A. Storytelling Festival was Saturday November 12th. The Patchwork Players, volunteered at the event. Both on duty and off, we heard some fantastic tellers: Milbre Birch, Dave Chittenden, Antonio Sacre, Zoot and many more. If you enjoy storytelling, you should put next year's Festival on your calendar.
The next day we divided our forces to better serve storytelling. Patti and Panchita Acevedo did a knockout job telling bi lingual Spanish/English tales such as “La Llarona”, at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Word is, Patti and Panchita will be telling there again in the future.
Meanwhile; James was at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair in La Jolla. James told a tale called “The Only One Club”. The story of the only Jewish girl in her first grade class. Since James was the only professional magician in his first grade class, he shared a few magic tricks with the crowd. After the show, James and a six-year-old boy swapped some of their favorite tricks. The staff proclaimed James' presentation “A Hit” .
At the end of the day...Fandango time with a gathering of musicians and dancers. Patti and James met up for music, friends and fun. Artists sharing together. What a good life.