Arts & Entertainment

Tradition of Storytelling Alive and Well

Tellabration! celebrates the art of storytelling.

Just when we believe that we're all grown up comes along a spinner of tales to bewitch and captivate even the most seasoned elder sitting quietly in the  on Saturday evening.

Tellabration! is an occasion," said Jane Dorfman, president of Voices in the Glen, a nonprofit organization for storytelling advocates in the Washington, D.C. metro area. "It's a good chance to tell to adults. You can do more with plot and sophistication."

Tellabration!, an annual storytelling event celebrated around the world, is traditionally held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year's event featured tellers Laura J. Bobrow, Miriam Nadel, Cricket Parmelee, Bob Rovinsky, and Anne Sheldon.

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The evening's stories highlighted folk tales whose characters, including a wise mountain sage, a floating ballerina and a clever princess, imparted lessons and captivated an appreciative audience, many of whom are professional or amateur tellers. 

"It's a wonderful way of communicating," said Ellouise Schoettler, of Chevy Chase, a professional storyteller. She added that telling provides an opportunity to reconnect with an art form that taps into one's family stories.

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Storytelling is an ancient oral tradition that, according to Justin Metcalf-Burton, 19, of Gaithersburg, is a "highly personal form of expression." He added, "It's a wonderful way of teaching ethical and moral things are that are hard to describe." Metcalf-Burton, home on break from his studies at Butler University, said he's been telling since he was "knee high to a grasshopper with very big knees."

Zoe Sagalow, 14, of Germantown, said that she's been a teller "my whole life." She amused the rapt listeners during the open mic portion of the evening with a Mayan folk tale entitled "The Mouse Bride."

Sagalow, a home-schooled student, said that her parents taught her how to tell stories. A tall, self-assured teen, her storytelling passion runs so deep that she organized her school schedule just so she could have more time for telling.

As younger generations embrace the oral tradition of storytelling from their wise and talented parents and elders, it's clear that storytelling is indeed alive and well – at least in a charming bookshop in Kensington.

"When people find it [storytelling], they're surprised how much they like it," Dorfman said.


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