Festival to feature internationally acclaimed performers

Observer Staff

11/5/2003 12:00:00 AM

The sharing of stories, from the great myths and legends of the world to the everyday tales of everyday people, will highlight the inaugural Michigan Story Festival Oct. 17 and 18 in Mount Pleasant.

The festival, a collaboration between Central Michigan University, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the Mount Pleasant community, will incorporate a wide spectrum of activities related to storytelling, including performances by internationally acclaimed performers Jay O'Callaghan, Leland Faulkner, Eth-Noh-Tec, Rex Ellis and Simon Otto.

Other activities include presentations by regional and local storytellers plus musical performances, dances, poetry, storytelling workshops for teachers, and exhibits featuring sculptures, paintings, quilts and photographs.

Sessions will shed light on such subjects as "Hemingway's Ties to Michigan," "African Stories," "World Folk Tales," Story in Sculpture," "Ojibwe Stories," "The Rumble and the Roar: Train Stories in Music" and "Dance and Music of India."

Event locations include CMU's Music Building, Moore Hall, University Art Gallery and Park Library and the ArtReach Center, Broadway Theatre and Veterans Memorial Library in Mount Pleasant.

Tickets are $15 for all events on Oct. 17 and $25 for all events on Oct. 18. Tickets are available online at www.michiganstoryfestival.org, at the Central Box Office on the lower level of the Bovee University center, or by calling (989) 774-3000 or (888) CMU-0111. Discounts for students and senior citizens are available.

To register for the teacher professional development workshops, call Pam Gates at (989) 774-3342.

"Stories and narratives are creative expressions of human existence," said Sue Ann Martin, dean of CMU's College of Communication and Fine Arts. "The aim of this festival is to bring together internationally acclaimed and regional storytellers to interact with the community and establish intercultural and intergenerational dialogues and relationships through performances, workshops, exhibitions and seminars."

Martin, who is the co-author of four books and who has written numerous articles on developing creativity in children, credits her mother for her love of language.

"She read, and I heard what voices sound like�the lilt in the language, the changes in tone and quality�all the things that we use everyday to interpret what people say to us," she said. "You can use the same words in every sentence but by being sensitive to lilt, expression, pause and inflection of the voice, you can really tell what's being said. That's why I prefer one-to-one conversation as opposed to e-mail."

Additional festival information, including a complete schedule and ticket pricing, is available at www.michiganstoryfestival.org.

The festival is partially funded by the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.

"We are especially grateful to our major festival sponsors�the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Michigan Humanities Council and CMU�for their substantial support which makes possible this exceptional programming," said Martin.