Work begins on storytelling festival

When Chuck Martin and Dr. Joel Rhodes went to Jonesborough, Tenn., for their first look at the National Storytelling Festival in 2006, they weren't necessarily expecting what they found.

The event was massive.

"It's huge," Rhodes said. "This is a culture that's thriving. Tens of thousands of people come from all over North America to hear these storytellers."

More than 10,000 people attended at a price of $150 per ticket, Martin said.

Martin, director of the CapeGirardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Rhodes, a Southeast Missouri State University history professor, were at Jonesborough to do some research on starting a storytelling festival in Cape Girardeau.

Now the CVB has decided to make that festival a reality, sponsoring the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival that will take place downtown April 4 to 6. Four nationally known storytellers -- Donald Davis, Willy Claflin, Sheila Kay Adams and Dan Keding -- along with five Midwest storytellers are expected to participate in the event.

On Tuesday, Davis will visit the River City Yacht Club for an invitation-only performance for the media and leaders of city government, business and tourism.

The idea for a festival comes from a recommendation made by the city's Storytelling Committee, a group that formed a few years ago to promote storytelling activities in Cape Girardeau.

"Our ultimate goal was to have a big storytelling festival, to build interest," said Marsha Toll, chair of the now-inactive committee. "The seed has been planted."

The committee and the CVB have worked over the past few years to build local interest in the art of storytelling through events at Lorimier Cemetery and the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Working with KRCU, they recorded the oral histories of several local residents that were aired on KRCU during last year's Chautauqua.

Through those events, Martin, Toll and Rhodes said, interest has been fostered locally -- and people's misconceptions about storytelling itself have started to dissolve.

The preview performance by Davis, a storytelling circuit star hailed by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, is meant to further dispel the misconceptions.

"A lot of people hear the term 'storytelling' and they think of a children's librarian reading stories to 6-year-olds," Martin said. "Nothing can be further from the truth."

A storytelling festival fits with Cape Girardeau's rich river-town history, Martin said, and builds on the city's four-year-old marketing image as the place "Where the River Turns A Thousand Tales."

Martin and Rhodes aren't yet sure what kind of interest the event will draw, since the concept is a new one for Southeast Missouri. But, like other performers, storytellers build a following.

Over the weekend Rhodes visited Jonesborough again, handing out promotional materials for the local festival. He's already received responses from storytelling fans in several states.

"We could have a couple of thousand people come or we could have Woodstock on our hands," Rhodes said.

And the people in Jonesborough had some advice for him.

"We've been warned, be prepared," he said.

For more information on the Storytelling Festival, call the CVB at 335-1631.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182