Everybody loves a good story! And the 10^th Annual Mohegan Colony Storytelling and Music Festival is a full day and evening celebration of professional storytelling and music entertainment for the whole family. This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, August 14, 2010, 12:30 – 10:30 pm and with some of the most esteemed storytellers in the nation including Hudson Valley’s own favorite, Jonathan Kruk. The festival also includes music, a special storytelling workshop with The Oracle Award winning Storycrafters, and poetry / prose readings by Mohegan Colony poets and writers, celebrating the rich history of the historic colony. Other storytellers include: The Storycrafters, Peninnah Schram, Carol Birch,   Michael Parent, Karen Chace, Joy Kelly, Chris Kastle, Bob Reiser, Gina Bergamini,  Ken Corsbie, Barbara Aliprantis, Judith Heineman,  and the children from the Garden Road Summer Theatre camp.  Music performances feature John and Ellen Montan’s Jazz band “Nostalgia”.  

 

Events are located under the huge outdoor pavilion and in the stone schoolhouse, with plenty of outdoor picnic and family space available on the spacious grounds of Mohegan Colony’s country setting. Light refreshments and restrooms are available.

 

Come to the afternoon program, the evening ghost stories, or stay for both!  Evening events include ghost stories told around flaming tiki torches and flickering candle light, and an open mic. Don't miss a word!

 

This year, the Oracle Award winning Storycrafters will offer an interactive storytelling workshop, 'Nothing But a Fairy Tale!', 10am – noon. Pre-registration is suggested.  Fee is $20.00 per person. (See workshop description below.)

 

Fees:

Daytime admission price, including FREE parking, is $15.00 for adults and $3.00 for children and $15 for adults and $3 for children for the evening Ghost Stories. All day/night discount rate is $20 for adults and $5 for children. Family and group rates are available.  Pre-registration is suggested for the interactive workshop, ($20.00). 

 

Location:

The Festival is located at 99 Baron de Hirsch Road, in Crompond, New York, 10517, three miles east of Peekskill. Follow signs from the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Townsend Road.  The Metro-North stop is Peekskill. The venue is 10 minutes from the train station and taxis are available.  CLICK HERE FOR A MAP AND DIRECTIONS.

 

Workshop Information: 'Nothing But a Fairy Tale!'

Fairy tales hold an incongruous place in our world and oral literature: They are both loved and reviled. We find ourselves drawn to their classic structure, and it is one that has been used and re-used in world literature and performance art throughout history. At the same time, our cynical side repels against the 'happy ending' and the seeming simplicity of the fairy tale's message, invoking rolling of eyes and the comment, "Well that's nothing but a fairy tale. Life just isn't that simple..."

 

In this workshop, we'll ask questions such as: What exactly makes the fairy tale mood? Why do fairy tales keep coming back in our written and oral literature? How do we as storytellers approach the fairy tale to raise it up beyond something that the listeners will feel is 'just another fairy tale'?

 

Through lecture, participatory exercises, discussion, and if time permits, demonstration, we'll explore: the socio-political history and psychology of the fairy tale; the allegorical and 'social commentary' levels of images and archetypes within the fairy tale; ways of approaching the composition and telling of the fairy tale.

 

During our time together, we'll delve into the world of the fairy tale, discuss our thoughts and opinions of them, and see if our ideas have changed at the end of the journey.

 

The Storycrafters (Barry Marshall and Jeri Burns PhD) are award-winning, internationally acclaimed storytellers, and adjunct faculty in the graduate program of the Oral Tradition through the School of Info and Library Sciences at Southern CT State University.

 

Among their many course offerings at SCSU is a graduate course exploring the of the fairy tale in its many aspects. They have made the telling and adaptation of fairy tales a central part of their repertoire, applying much of what they have learned and taught in their graduate school course to the telling of the tales, and the reverse. The 2-hour workshop will be a distillation of their study, teaching, and performance work with fairy tales.

 

For More Information:

For reservations, workshop registration, Information, or to volunteer-- please call Ellen Monten: 914-528-5830; jmonten@optonline.net  or Judith Heineman: 312-925-0439; juhestories@aol.com .

 

This project was made possible by the Arts Alive program of the Westchester Arts Council, with funding from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.