2011 Storytelling Festival

Click here to meet our six featured storytellers for 2011

2010 Storytelling Festival Sponsors

THE 2010 STORYTELLERS

2010 Storytellers
Antonio Rocha, Olga Loya, Sarah Saulter, Beth Horner, Donald Davis, and Syd Lieberman

Picture from our 23rd Mariposa Storytelling Festival, March 12—14, 2010

2010 Storytelling Finale
Festival Finale March 14, 2010

Storytelling Festival thrilled audiences

Thank you Marilyn Rudzik, Director/Producer

For the Mariposa County Arts Council, support comes in the form of donations, support through professional and personal relationships, cooperation, collaboration, funding, endorsement and undoubtedly the most important, the contribution of time and help by our volunteers! The volunteers that make the Storytelling Festival a reality contribute hundreds of hours each year. Generous, unselfish assistance comes from the volunteer coordinator, who coordinates Storytelling volunteers to help with everything from ticket sales to setting-up chairs for our audiences. These individuals contribute an immeasurably valuable service that is beyond what a Storytelling Festival or the Arts Council could ever pay. Year after year these faithful volunteers return to help. Through the hours that our volunteers give to the Arts Council, we learn to know and appreciate the fine people who make up this community. We are so grateful for the quality of their contributions, their friendships and their support to the Arts Council. As a direct result of the time and work that our volunteers have given to this program, the Storytelling Festival had another successful year.

Total attendance at the Storytelling Festival: 2,952

Five of the storytellers shared their stories and brought this educational and cultural enrichment experience to preschool through 12th grade students in Mariposa County Schools, to families in Coulterville, and additional schools, universities, colleges and libraries in Sonora, Merced, Ahwahnee, Oakhurst, Coarsegold, North Fork, Fresno, Clovis, Madera, and Reedley.

Our 2010 Storytellers gave 53 performances at 28 schools, communities, colleges, and libraries, for a total audience of 6,139 students and 716 teachers and other adult listeners in five counties!

The combined Festival and Touring performances: 9,807 viewers!

This accomplishment is the direct result of our community Volunteers. Thank you!

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Mariposa and Yosemite Information - Where to stay, meals and maps
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The Storytelling Festival has been recognized and supported by two fine organizations: The James Irvine Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts. "A Great Nation Deserves Great Art."

Storytelling …Not What You Remember

Storytelling has existed as long as humanity has had language. It is the world of myth, of history, of the imagination... it explains life. Every culture has its stories and legends, just as every culture has its storytellers and often revered figures with the magic of the tale in their voices and minds.

Though nearly all humans tell stories, many individuals have brought this skill to the level of art. Storytelling Festivals feature the work of these individuals. Elements of the storytelling art form include visualization (the seeing of images in the mind's eye), and vocal and bodily gestures. In many ways, the art of storytelling draws upon other art forms such as acting, oral interpretation, and performance studies.

The Mariposa Storytelling Festival is an annual event that features nationally known oral Storytellers. Each Storyteller has six scheduled times to share six different stories with you. The featured Storytellers are professional performing artists who often incorporate movement, gestures, expressions, song, music or dance in their stories. In the oral tradition, storytelling includes the teller and the audience. The Storyteller creates the experience, while the audience perceives the message and creates personal mental images from the words heard and the gestures seen. In this experience, the audience becomes the co-creator of the art.

Our festival is a multiple day event. All six featured Storytellers rotate in a two and a half hour performance on Friday and Saturday nights in the auditorium at Mariposa County High School. During the day on Saturday, the Storytellers alternate between two venues at the high school providing an opportunity to share more stories in an intimate audience setting. During the Saturday lunch break, we host an open mike event referred to as "story swapping," where our audience may sign up to share their own stories.

The festival culminates in a grand finale storytelling performance on Sunday afternoon at the Visitors Center Auditorium, in Yosemite National Park, where all six of our professional Storytellers will share their final stories of our three day event.

The intrinsic nature of stories was described by Reynolds Price, when he wrote:
"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives."

Come fill your need of stories from a wealth of cultures, traditions and styles at our three day extravaganza of compelling performances by six of our nations best Storytellers. Don’t miss a single word!

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