Indy Theatre Habit

The Hoosier Storytelling Festival is this week!
Last night, I drove downtown to the Eiteljorg Museum to hear Native American storyteller Gene Tagaban.  I was supposed to have been his driver this whole week as he and the other featured tellers shared stories with crowds of school children in the huge Festival tents in Military Park, […]

I happened to meet actor/writer Les Kurkendall at the Metro Bar and Grille after the 2008 Indianapolis Fringe Preview Night Party.  I enjoyed chatting with him, so I looked forward to seeing his personal storytelling show, “Christmas in Bakersfield,” too.
I saw it at Stage Two of Theatre on the Square at 9:00 on the first Sunday evening of […]

 
By 10:30 on the first Saturday night of the 2008 Indy Fringe Festival I was worn out.  Worn out, and therefore in danger of biting people’s heads off.  Even though the structure of the Fringe festival allows for a relaxed, just-right transistion time betweeen shows, six shows in one day, plus all of the enjoyable but […]

It has been about a year since I began my life as a theatre writer and about five months since I started this blog.  Each week I learn a little more about how to do it.  I also learn a little bit more each week about how to keep my theatre habit in balance with the rest of […]

A week ago Saturday night (4-26-08) I drove downtown for a special storytelling collaboration.  Bobby Norfolk told “Swingin’ with Duke Ellington,” accompanied by pianist Pete Ruthenburg.  The event was presented by Storytelling Arts of Indiana and the Indiana History Center.  Joyce Ellinger interpreted the piece in American Sign Language.
I had heard Norfolk tell children’s stories […]

Last Saturday evening, after a second, and even longer and deeper than yesterday’s, massage that left me feeling euphoric and toxin-free and wondering why I don’t get massages more often, I bundled up and made my way again to the old schoolhouse to hear Megan Wells tell “Helen’s Troy.”  It would be the third and final storytelling piece […]

Last Friday night, after a pummeling massage that left me groggy followed by a light nap and a delicious dinner at the Storyteller’s Riverhouse, I grabbed my umbrella out of my car and walked over to the antique school house for the second night of storytelling at the “Going Deep: Long Traditional Story Festival” in […]

Last Thursday night I walked from the Storyteller’s Riverhouse, past the big tree house, past the tiny post office, past the big field, to the old school house to hear the first storytelling piece of the “Going Deep: Long Traditional Story Festival” in Bethlehem, Indiana.  Olga Loya would share her version of “The Aztec Creation.”

Last week I took a few days off from my day job and drove down to the tiny town of Bethlehem, Indiana, for the second “Going Deep: Long Traditional Story Festival.”  I went to the first one two years ago in 2006, too.  I hope it becomes an annual event.  It restores my equilibrium and inspires me in ways […]

On Saturday night I was at the Indiana History Center’s Basile Theater to hear one of my storytelling heroes, Heather Forest, share “Travel Scenes.”  This program for adults was produced by Storytelling Arts of Indiana and “presented” (sponsored) by Marcia Baker.  It was part of The Storytelling Series sponsored by Beth Millett.
Several years ago, when […]