Tampa-Hillsborough County Storytelling Festival - Contributing to the Storytelling Community

Contributing to the Storytelling Community

The TAMPA-HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY STORYTELLING FESTIVAL contributes to the storytelling community by

increasing awareness of the art form
providing venues which showcase storytellers
training and nurturing new tellers
offering workshops for experienced tellers

All year, storytellers from the Festival, both adults and exceptional quality student storytellers (the Ambassador Club), are featured at community events at malls, festivals and other locations. Their participation in these events has helped emphasize the importance of storytelling as a vehicle both for communicating literature and human values and for providing family entertainment that promotes interaction between people of all ages. The culminating Festival in April features hundreds of storytellers of all ages telling in the traditional style of storytelling and a host of other art forms used in storytelling. Balladeers, dancers, puppeteers, mimes, actors and costumed storybook characters are just a few of the diverse local artists who combine their art with storytelling at the Festival. The swapping corner invites the public to join in and tell their own stories, and lunchtime heralds the entrance of a parade of storybook characters, such as Little Red Riding Hood, who visit each family's picnic spread. A listener might personally hear of Little Red's encounter with a wolf or receive a pearl of wisdom from the Wizard of Oz. The Festival continues to assert the position of storytelling as a valid art form by providing meaningful compensation to storytellers, rather than asking them to volunteer their time or perform for less than their usual fee at the Festival. In addition to monetary compensation, these artists also receive promotion in pre- and post-event publicity (print, television and radio), a listing in the Festival program, and the opportunity to distribute brochures and business cards at a resource table at the Festival. From October to January each year, workshops are held for adults who work with children. These teachers, recreation leaders, parents and others then instruct the children in the art of storytelling. The children select stories to tell from books, and are coached by teachers, recreation leaders, or their parents. In February and March, children tell their stories at a series of mini-festivals throughout the County. Those children who meet the Storytelling Committee's criteria for outstanding storytelling are deemed to be Festival Quality Storytellers and are invited to be featured storytellers at the culminating Festival in April. All children who learn stories are awarded a certificate thanking them for promoting the art of storytelling. Those children who are Festival Quality Storytellers are featured at the Festival and awarded gift books and ribbons at that event (approximately 500 each year). The Festival Committee created a manual for teaching storytelling. Updates to this manual are made as needed. This manual guides teachers (who often are novice tellers) step by step through the process of turning shy and awkward children into Festival Quality Storytellers who can confidently stand in front of an audience and share a story. Manual highlights include:

suggested lesson plans, with a time line,
a variety of storytelling games and activities,
detailed instructions on coaching storytellers,
suggested curriculum tie-ins, and
a bibliography of books and Web sites for further help in bringing storytelling into the classroom.

This manual has all the information a storyteller with any level of experience needs to get started. The manual was designed to be helpful for enhancing the school curriculum with storytelling, even if a teacher is not planning to participate in the Festival. The Festival includes free workshops for those who are interested in becoming storytellers or who wish to polish their existing storytelling skills. The addition of a free workshop on Sunday will extend the Festival to a three-day event. Sunday's longer and more in-depth workshop will be led by the national teller and will be for both novice and experienced tellers from sixth grade through adult. Attendees at workshops include teachers, students, recreation leaders, Sunday school teachers, Boy and Girl Scout leaders, preschool teachers, parents, grandparents, storytelling hobbyists and professional tellers.