The thrill of Tellabration!
for me is the knowledge that all of us are
part of this event together, all over the world. The feeling
of
connection is very strong, and provides the fuel for doing the
work of
preparation.
This year our theme was "recollections," and the
6 storytellers that participated told their stories with that theme in mind; the
emcee did a
beautiful job of weaving the theme into her comments.
We are the Storytellers' Guild of Anchorage, and this was
our 5th
Tellabration. Our Tellabrations have always been free, donations
accepted, so we never know how many will attend. Attendance
was the
highest the year the newspaper did a big writeup beforehand.
This year
we put a lot of effort into personally contacting people, and
a survey
of the audience revealed that the vast majority of those attending
had
been personally contacted; and they were people we knew were interested in storytelling. There were about 80 people stuffed into the
second
floor cafe of Kaladi Brothers Coffee company.
Picture a cafe with tables, a small stage, and everyone trying
to find a
spot to squeeze in, with quite a few faithfuls standing for the
whole
thing at the back of the room by the door. Picture a group of
women
warming the audience up with folk songs, the smiling emcee drawing
the
audience in with her radiant presence and humor, the reading
of the
proclamation by the coordinator, and 6 storytellers sharing
remembrances, folktales, and story songs. And halfway through
everyone
joyfully dancing in place a Yupik Eskimo story dance led by guest
storyteller Paul Sugar from Bethel.
Despite the fact that it was crowded and grew stuffy, the
magic of
storytelling kept people there-- their faces were happy faces.
The
balance of types of storytellers, and the singing and dancing,
seemed to
provide the perfect alchemy for the evening.
Will we sell tickets next year so we know how many are coming?
That's
on the agenda for our Monday steering committee meeting.
Pam McDowell Saylor, coordinator
