STF 2022 Fringe Performers - Northeast Storytelling

Steve Daut has been performing in various venues for over 35 years. Onstage credits include magic, sketch and stand-up comedy, improvisation, storytelling, and MC work. Steve’s versatile, improvisational storytelling style is engaging for a wide variety of audiences. A typical show for adults includes personal stories from heartwarming to hilarious, some bits of humorous history, and perhaps a Mark Twain story or two. He brings quirky characters to stage, often finding wisdom in the most unlikely places. His shows for younger children involve traditional folk tales, a lot of interaction, and a touch of magic.

"Hunting the Mastadon, Running with the Caribou:Re-Imagining the Lives of Ice Age People in North America"

This performance piece combines storytelling, primitive technology and interpretive history to offer a new understanding of the daily lives of prehistoric people who inhabited our region at the end of the Last Great Ice Age. Author, Storyteller and Experimental Archaeologist Robin Moore has replicated the clothing, tools and equipment neolithic people used to survive in a harsh climate 10,000 years ago. This program was commissioned and supported by a generous grant from the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania and demonstrates how interpretive storytelling can enhance historical presentations in a museum setting. robingmoore@gmail.com

Robin Moore has made his living as an author, storyteller and teacher of story-creation skills in spoken and written word since 1981. He is author of more than a dozen books published world-wide by HarperColllins, Random House and Simon & Schuster. He has presented over 5,000 storytelling programs and workshops at schools, libraries and universities. Robin serves on the faculty of the M.A. program in Creative Writing and Storytelling at The Graduate Institute and is Director of The Graduate Institute Publishing Center.

www.robin-moore.com

www.amazon.com/Robin-Moore/

Loren Niemi is a professional storyteller with 43 years of creating, collecting, performing, and teaching about what it means to be human with audiences of all ages in urban and rural settings. With Elizabeth Ellis he co-authored the critically acclaimed Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult Stories on the value and necessity of the stories that are hard to hear and harder to tell. He also authored The New Book of Plots, on the uses of narratives in creating oral and written stories, and Point of View and the Emotional Arc of Stories co-authored with Nancy Donoval. His collection of non-traditional “ghost” stories, What Haunts Us, won a 2020 Midwest Book Award for “Sci-Fi/ Horror / Fantasy / Paranormal” fiction. For more info: www.lorenNiemistories.com

Valentina Ortiz speaks the ancient Aztec words as well as the modern stories of Mexico. She has been on stage since she was 6 years old, as an actress, a musician and as a storyteller. She takes her stories to schools, assembly halls, parks and theaters in Mexico, the US and other parts of the world. She has published 4 books and produced 4 records with her original stories and music. She now deeply enjoys multilingual storytelling, Spanish, Nahuatl, English, French. Besides stories her passion is music, percussion instruments of the world; she has been a drummer and composer for over 30 years, participating in many afro-Latino bands and playing in her own alternative projects.

"Friendship Stamped on Paper"

A lifetime of joy sparks fond memories. The sparks of remembering become a joyous fire when letters sent and received are shared. You'll meet Andreas at the chess board with Dave Brubeck in the background. You will learn about the Easter Beer Hunt. You'll hear Andreas say, "On your mark, get set, Find Those Beers, Beer hunters!" You'll hear Andrea's friendship in a letter he sent after we'd been long years out of college. You'll meet Aunt Margaret in her wheel chair with her silver hair perfect, a tray of cookies on her lap, and her story of playing on the highway when she was 7 because there were no cars on the Route 24 yet. There will be that one last Postcard to Aunt Margaret. You'll go repelling with Garlic George, revel in his postal hijinks and duck when the shoe comes in the mail. toledogoat@aol.com

Tony Toledo has been telling stories to pay his rent since 1990. When Tony tells his tales kids laugh out loud and clap for more. Tony is a past President of NEST, future president of Professional Pie Tasters of New England and possessor of more books than any sane person would ever have. Tony hosted Speak Up Spoken Word Open Mic in Lynn, Massachusetts every Wednesday for seven years. He has hosted his Annual Corn Party for 28 years. He hosted the Pie Potluck and Pie Story Swap at the Beverly Library every January for 14 years. When Tony was awarded the Brother Blue and Ruth Hill Storytelling Award he was delighted, flabbergasted and grateful. Tony is 64 years old but reads at a 69 year old level. He will soon retire and sit by his phone hoping you’ll invite him out for coffee.

"The Little Gold Ring: A Spanish Armada Story"

The Little Gold Ring follows the fortunes of a young sailor (Zago Augustin) who sailed aboard the Spanish Armada Galleasse, La Girona, which was driven on the rugged north coast of Ireland in Octoher 1588 with the loss of 1300 Spanish lives and a vast treasure. Zago is one of the marineros thrown into the raging sea when his ship breaks apart, but he alone is given sanctuary in a strange otherworld beneath the waves. Offered the chance for eternal life by his other-worldly saviours, he must decide what is more important to him- cast wealth and his mortality or love and immortality.

Described as '..keeping alive the tradition of the Seanchaí', Colin Urwin is a folk singer, songwriter and storyteller from Co. Antrim in the north of Ireland. He is well known locally and performs at events and festivals all over Ireland, the UK and further afield. As well as his beautifully woven, self-penned stories drawn from the local legend and folklore of his beloved Glens of Antrim, Colin tells many traditional Irish and Scottish folk tales.
In March 2021 he released his first album of original songs, A Kind of Love Song, and in July two albums of magical stories entitled The Madman's Window and The Swan Maiden. He has also written a book of folk tales which is due for publication with Orkneyology Press. www.colinurwin.com

Howard Lieberman is a writer, performance artist/storyteller and outspoken social activist whose art takes emotional risks that most storytellers avoid. Howard is a moderately nice Jewish boy whose personality was shaped by being emotionally abused as a child, orphaned at 14 and homeless at 17. Through a combination of blind dumb luck and perseverance Howard only wound up in jail once (for assaulting a police officer) and found his way to NYC where he eventually became an attorney, Irish ceili dance teacher and Director of the Irish Arts Center. Hating what NYC brought out in him, Howard moved to MN from in 1990 to experience living among Lutherans and bitterly cold winters. Despite the boredom and overall passive aggressive nature of Minnesotans, Howard is relatively happy in Minnesota and plans to stay there until he either dies or decides to move somewhere more interesting .

hlieberman@lieberman-nelson.com

Maria is the current Storyteller in Residence for the Kerry Writers Museum. She is the Artistic Director for the Listowel International Storytelling Festival 2021. She is a well known Bean An Tí (Irish Session Host) on the Irish Storytelling Circuit. She holds an M.A in Dramatherapy with an emphasis on Story. She loves listening to stories and will tell a story at the drop of a hat. She loves co-creating stories with anyone ‘from the cradle to the grave’. She believes deeply in the power of stories to build communities, heal prejudice and to build resilience. She is a member of IACAT (Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists). She is an award winning storyteller having won the longest running Story Competition in Ireland - Finuge - twice and the Butter Roads Storytelling Competition.

beansceal@gmail.com

"Dangerous When Wet: Booze, Sex, and My Mother"

Written & Performed by Jamie Brickhouse

Dangerous When Wet is Jamie’s alcoholic odyssey from small-town sissy to louche Manhattanite that’s wickedly intoxicating as he hits bottom and discovers he can’t escape the all-consuming love of his mother Mama Jean, a Texan Elizabeth Taylor with the split personality of Auntie Mame and Mama Rose who never has a thought she doesn’t speak. Ripped from the pages of Jamie's critically-acclaimed memoir, it's the winner of 5 fringe awards and a fusillade of praise from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Called “a natural raconteur” by the Washington Post, comedic storyteller and writer Jamie Brickhouse is the New York Times published author of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and My Mother, which he adapted into a 5-time award-winning storytelling show. He’s performed it in Canada, Mexico, and across the U.S., most recently for Storytelling Arts of Indiana. Jamie has appeared on PBS-TV’s Stories from the Stage, The Moth Podcast, Risk! Podcast, Story Collider Podcast, and recorded voice-overs for the legendary cartoon Beavis and Butthead. He is a four-time Moth StorySLAM champion, National Storytelling Network Grand Slam winner, 99-Second Story GrandSLAM champ, and his daily #storiesinheels TikTok videos in which he tells true stories in high heels have over two million views. Jamie is a member of the National Storytelling Network and former board member. A native Texan, he lives in New York City with his husband Michael. Follow him on TikTok @Jamie_Brickhouse and @jamiebrickhouse on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or visit www.jamiebrickhouse.com.

jamie.brickhouse@gmail.com