Storytelling a Team Sport

Red Sox or Yankees? Uconn or U. Tenn? Does it matter? Mass Mouth ( http://www.massmouth.ning.com/ ) or the Moth ( http://www.themoth.org/ ) no not in storytelling or really in sports. We can choose who we follow and root for, we just need to pick our game and be enthused. Put on your Storyteller t-shirt and become a fan of original entertainment. Let your friends know who you follow. Check out their webpages and make storytelling a prominent place in your life. Who's on your homepage? do storytellers rank their own column in your " Favorites", are we complaining that no one cares or listens but not doing our piece about cheering on the team?

Team Storyteller will be having lots of events through the rest of the year and I plan to support the whole team by promoting these venues and the people who bring their stories to homeplate batting for a homerun!

Here is one for the team and it looks like its going over the wall.....SPEAK UP! Spoken Word Open MikeEvery Wednesday 7 PM. Tatiana's Restaurant70 Market StreetLynn, MA 01901781-477-0700http://www.tatianasrestaurant.net%c2%a0/ ciao,Tony Toledo, SPEAK UP! hostJim's Big Ego Fan Club President, MA Division.PO Box 302Beverly MA 01915ToledoGoat@aol.com978-921-GOAT(4628)http://www.tonytoledo.com/

Next up at bat is Andrea Lovett and she swings and....The All Star Slam - Monday MAY 24th - 6:30 to 8:00PM in the Lecture Hall in the beautiful new Cambridge Public Library (Main Branch),cosponsored by StoryStream, Cambridge, a concert featuring 12 storytellers, each of whom will tell a 5-minute personal story; one of these tellers will win the chance to be the massmouth representative at the National Story Slam!!!
Windy City National Story Slam in Chicago - JUNE 13th, 2010, Sunday afternoon at Printers Row
For more information, check out - http://www.windycitystoryslam.com/wordpress/

With hitting power like that we can expect great things from Team Storytell in 2010 I'll be saving seats for a world series!

Song-A-Day

It is a very good thing I am not limited to a song a day for without music I wouldnt be happy. I sing in the barn and in the car ,while doing things around the house and yard, pretty near anywhere. I think that is why I was first drawn to the Song-A-Day Music Center in Coventry, Ct. http://www.http//songadaymusic.com My weekely outlet for my music is our Church choir at First Church of Christ in Mansfield Center, http://www.http//pages.cthome.net/FCCMansfield It doesn't matter to me what genre of music I'm singing, I like it all.

Song-A-Day Music Center sponsors an Open Mic once a month called Nightsongs. It is held at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 138 Snake Hil Rd. Coventry. This month it wil lbe held on May 27 a Thursday eve at 7 p.m. I am lucky enough to be the featured performer so I will be taking my stories and a little music to the event. If you can come out the donations collected at the door go to service work sponsored by the Knights of Columbus Group. Bring your instruments and sign in to be part of the lineup or where your listening shoes and come for the toe tapping music that will be offered up before and after my storytelling.

A-MAZE-ING Story Slam

Yesterday I drove the winding Boston Turnpike ( Rte 44) which boasts many improvements since George Washington traveled it. Finally turning off to the northeast I headed in the direction of Thompson , Ct. www.thompsonct.org I came up to the green now shaded by the ginat trees and went along one side past the library and congregational church so common on a New England Green. Taking a final right onto Quaddick Rd. I passed stately colonials and soon the land opened into the rolling meadows of a Connecticut farm. Fort Hill Farms to be exact and the Quintessential Gardens. www.forthillfarms.com I hadn't made the drive since last fall and was glad to see the tapestry of green fields and trees and owner Krisitn Orr just getting out of her car there to meet with me.

The meeting was a first planning session for The A-MAZE-ING Story Slam to be held Sept.4, 2010 at 1 p.m. We just knew this had to be a personal meeting to transfer our enthusiasm for the project into an actual plan of action and bring together my world of storytelling, www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com and Kristin's world of the annual Corn Maze. Actually our worlds overlap in that I come from a farm family as well www.mountaindairy.com and we have that understanding of farming, real food, all forms of agriculture and how many in the world are losing touch with these essential roots.

We spend a lot of time discussing logisitics and bounce from topic to topic with our ideas and energy building. Signs, internet, web links, prizes, who we know, how to get things done. The maze itself, and rain logisitcs and we have answers for everything! There is a wonderful greenhouse that will easily seat all who may come if the weather decides not to cooperate. There is the maze itself which won't be seeded until July 10 and my plan to be there to video tape that so all on Ning and Facebook etc can share in the excitement of the planting. ( it goes in late and stays up until November, that way it doesnt dry out) Come fall the maze will become feed for the cows of Fort Hill Farms www.thefarmerscow.com so the corn has purpose beyond family fun.

Next we walk the gardens, Quintessential Gardens tended with loving care by Kristin. There are the peace gardens, lavendar labyrinth, walled gardens, small and large gardens, bursts of spring color and shady retreats for a summer day. My camera catches many images to store for use in forth coming posts and sites.

Inspired by MassMouth www.massmouth.ning.com and in such easy driving distance of Boston, Providence and New London, Thompson is the perfect location to move the energy of Ct. Storytelling to the forefront while supporting Ct. Agriculture.

Save the date of Sept. 4, 2010 the Saturday of Labor Day weekend to come to Thompson for the A-MAZE-ING Story Slam. Better yet follow the ning,

( A-MAZE-INGstoryslam.ning.com ) facebook and or blog pages to learn about all the great things you can do in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut to make your Labor Day vacation perfect. There is a little something for everyone in the Quiet Corner. This is just like the seeds of the corn, lots yet to be revealed.

note photos from the 2009 maze

MyLITV.com - The Island Long Riders cowboy mounted shooting club Long Islands Best Videos Politics and Local News

MyLITV.com - The Island Long Riders cowboy mounted shooting club Long Islands Best Videos Politics and Local News

Here is a great look at what I do a lot of announcing for. There is a tiny segment where you can hear me. This is a great sport filled with great people. Will be back out there May 23-24 high noon Enfield Ct at the Round Tuit Ranch!

Geneology of a Storytelling

Aetna, of Hartford, Ct., the insurance giant, has a huge auditorium at the home office. Yesterday ( Saturday May 8, 2010) I brought my Connecticut Stories to the Aetna 39 rs, their Retiree Group. The theatre lighting, railed balconies, carpeted main floor and huge stage behind me made for the perfect setting for sharing old and new tales from Connecticut. To add to it I had my own sound man taking care of me up in the booth and it was wonderful to have the use of such a nice system.

The stage, the floor & balcony seating would make an incredible venue for workshops as it was for performance. It is a real theatre right in the middle of the huge Aetna building. The main floor is flat and they say often has table seating for lunch meetings etc. Yesterday they pulled the tables and had rows of chairs in a semi circle for my performance.
I was booked by the Aetna 39rs a retirees group. Two members had seen me last year at St Isaacs an E. Hartford church. There I did a civil war performance and was booked for this meeting. I was booked to St Isaacs by someone who had seen me at The Historical Society of East Hartford, like a geneology these booking trails. I think it is important that we nurture the thought, "who is watching me today?" Somewhere in every audience is someone just thinking that they could hire me for a venue they are in charge of or pass my info onto the person in their social or professional circle who books entertainment and educational workshops. I was ready at the end to speak with a couple of people who approcahed me and asked about just that possibility. Passing along my buiness card and assuring them they could find plenty of info on my website. I wonder how far I will be able to track this geneology of performance places. I think i will keep a log of it for curiosities sake and to show me where my work comes from. Word of Mouth is still one of the best business builders out there and all it costs is the time to develope a product ( story) that listeners can grasp onto and take with them in memories.

Friends of Rockville Library ( Ct. ) Turns out these friends are friends in so many ways. We shared a interest in Ct. History when I brought my show of Connecticut Stories to their meeting at Rockville Library on May 6, 2010. Once we had taken care of where cowboys got their look and a ghost in Natchaug Forest, we moved on to the Civil War native son Edward Whitaker of Ashford and slid easily from there to the open arms of New Haven Harbor. Speaking of open arms well thats how the evening was, like old friends ready to embrace, smiling and warm and welcoming, it was a easy group to share this collection with. In the end we visited a few minutes to learn that several of us have roots in my hometown of Coventry. I left when the sky was painted like a oil painters palette of color and the shadows growing bolder under the trees and the feeling that even on this perfect summer eve it was the stories not the fine weather that made us feel so at home with the Friends of Rockville Library. www.biblio.org/rockville/

Storyteller Jay O’Callahan’s play explores NASA’s history - The Boston Globe

Storyteller Jay O’Callahan’s play explores NASA’s history - The Boston Globe

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