Mesa Storytelling Festival

The Valley’s largest storytelling event celebrates the art of storytelling, a love of reading, and the power of the imagination!  Arizona, Youth, and Featured talent gather to share a wide array of stories from folk tales to tall tales, to tales from all over the globe. Following last year's record attendance and sold out concerts, the Storytelling Festival has been extended to three days.  The FREE festival on Saturday includes food and vendor booths, live music and stories from Arizona and Youth tellers.  The Featured tellers will all appear indoors on the beautiful stages at Mesa Arts Center.

STORYTELLERS INCLUDE:
Sheila Kay Adams
Charlotte Blake-Alston
Donald Davis

Olga Loya
Sandy Oglesby
Antonio Sacre
Willy Claflin
Kala Jojo

THE MESA STORYTELLING FESTIVAL IS GROWING!
The three-day festival will feature five storytelling concerts, including a new late-night concert for adults.  For the first time, featured tellers will be offering workshops on Thursday and Friday afternoon.

PRICES:

All workshops are free when you present a ticket for that evening's story concert.  Otherwise, workshops are $5.
All of the concerts are $11 per person.

Festival is FREE on Saturday from 10am-6pm.

SCHEDULE:

Thursday, October23
Wells Fargo Garden:

12:30     Out to Lunch with Storyteller Sheila Kay Adams

Drama Studio: Workshops

3:15        Charlotte Blake Alston presents Rhythm This and Melody That

4:15        Donald Davis Presents If You Can Talk, You Can Write

Acting Studio: Workshops

3:15        Sandy Oglesby presents Storytelling for the Wee Ones

4:30        Kala Jojo presents Let’s Move to Words, Music, and Song

Virginia G. Piper Theater: Storytelling Concert

7:00        Best of the West Storytelling Concert featuring Sean Buvala, Willy Claflin, Dustin Loehr, Olga Loya, Marilyn Omifunke Torres, and LynnAnn Wojciechowicz, with emcee Doug Bland.

Friday, October24
Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse: Tell a Story!

3:00        Join emcee Dustin Loehr for the festival’s annual story swap. Sign up at the Storytelling Institute table in the Lobby.

Drama Studio: Workshop

4:45        Sheila Kay Adams and Willy Claflin present Sing Me a Story.

Acting Studio: Workshop

4:45        Antonio Sacre presents Adult Stories – Where and When?

Virginia G. Piper Theater: Storytelling Concerts

3:00        Tried and True: Stories by and for those with plenty of life experience. Featuring Sheila Kay Adams, Charlotte Blake Alston, and Donald Davis, with emcee Marilyn Omifunke Torres.

7:00        Tellers’ Treasures Storytelling Concert featuring Willy Claflin, Kala Jojo, Olga Loya and Sandy Oglesby, with emcee Liz Warren.

9:30        Stories from the Edge: Late night stories for adults, featuring Antonio Sacre, with Harriet Cole and Kindra Gayle and emcee Sean Buvala.

Saturday, October 25
Virginia G. Piper Theater: Featured Tellers

9:30        Olga Loya: Love and Ghost Stories from South of the Border

10:45     Charlotte Blake Alston

1:00        Antonio Sacre

2:00        Donald Davis

3:00        Panel with all featured tellers, moderated by LynnAnn Wojciechowicz

7:00        Humor Us Storytelling Concert, featuring Donald Davis, Charlotte Blake Alston, Sheila Kay Adams, and Antonio Sacre with emcee Don Doyle

Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse: Featured Tellers

9:30        Sandy Oglesby

10:45     Sheila Kay Adams

12:00     Willy Claflin

1:00        Kala Jojo

Wells Fargo Garden: Best of the West Tellers, Youth Tellers, and Arizona Tellers

10:45     LynnAnn Wojciechowicz, Shannon Pauly, Mike and Andrea Rivera, Jean Baxter

12:00     Sean Buvala, Perla Estrada, Enid Ochoa, Kate Litteral

1:00        Marilyn Omifunke Torres, Jacqueline Pauly, Robert Alvarez, Elly Reidy

2:00        Dustin Loehr, Enid Ochoa & Perla Estrada, Shannon Pauly, Harriet Cole

Farnsworth Theater: Target Presents: Stories Alive! Stories, Books, and Crafts for Families

Each session of stories is followed by craft activities to ex­tend literacy and story learning in the Multi-Purpose Room.

9:30        Fat Cat with Harriet Cole, Shannon Pauly, and Perla Estrada. Activities following based on Fat Cat and other cumulative tales.

10:30     Why? Why? Why? With Kate Litteral, Enid Ochoa, and featured teller Kala Jojo. Activities following based on Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears and other origin stories.

12:00     Childsplay presents A Little Bit of Water.

1:00        Four-legged, Two-legged, Slinky and Slimy with Jean Baxter, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, Mike and Andrea Rivera and featured teller Sandy Oglesby. Activities following based on Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun and other animal stories.

2:00        Fairly Fractured Fables with Elly Reidy, City of Mesa Assistant Fire Chief Mary Cameli, Jacqueline Pauly and Robert Alvarez. Activities following based on Little Red Cowboy Hat and other fractured fables.

3:15        Childsplay presents A Little Bit of Water

Childsplay comes to the Mesa Storytelling Festival with A Little Bit of Water. The world-famous master storyteller, Marie, with the help of her two assistants, Liz and Enrique, tells, “A Ribbon of Green,” the story of a river in the desert. Using puppets, projections and other theatrical magic, the apprentices - and the audience - learn that the story of the river need not end at all, but can continue on through countless generations of storytellers.

The Stories from the Edge concert is free. All other concerts are $11. Workshops are $5, or free with a ticket to that night’s concert.