The Wake Forest Renaissance Centre for the Arts will host the 2016 Forest of Wake Storyfest on Saturday, Aug. 6. Featuring three professional storytellers, along with entertaining workshops and concerts for children and adults, the festival will bring the art of storytelling to the Wake Forest community and celebrate one of humanity’s oldest art forms.
Audiences of ages 6 and older are sure to relate to the colorful, humorous, and inspirational stories shared by the lineup of storytellers, including Wake Forest’s Daniel Blaisdell, Durham’s Donna Washington, and Charlotte’s Lona Bartlett.
Blaisdell is a North Carolina solo guitarist and singer who can provide appropriate music to make any event a memorable occasion. His repertoire contains a wide variety of styles including Country, Blues, Contemporary Classics, Rock, Folk, Easy Listening, and more. He is also an accomplished songwriter with several hundred original songs to his credit in a variety of styles.
Master storyteller Donna Washington graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Speech in 1989. Since then she has traveled across the world performing as a storyteller and presenting workshops about the inextricable link between storytelling and literacy. Washington has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN as well as hundreds of festivals across the country. She has performed in thousands of schools and libraries, and keynotes conferences about the importance of storytelling and early literacy, using hospice stories for healing and closure, and employing storytelling as an educational tool in the classroom. Her nine storytelling CDs have garnered over 24 awards, including Golden and Silver Parent’s Choice Awards, Storytelling World and Honor Awards, Children’s Music Web Awards, and National Parenting Publication Awards.
Lona Bartlett is a puppeteer, storyteller, performance artist and educator. Her varied background and talent gives way to a long list of presentations. With degrees in education and her small town upbringing in the Catskill Mountains opens a gateway to a long list of presentations. No matter the genre, whether folktales, fairytales, puppets, or personal stories, Lona brings excitement and insight to stage and classroom. Lona has been involved with multimedia productions and her custom puppet creations and scripts span to four continents. Her CD “Heck no, we didn’t bury my mother!” received the Winner’s Award from Storytelling World Magazine.
The Forest of Wake Storyfest will begin at 11 a.m. with a free storytelling hour for special needs children. A variety of workshops and performances will follow beginning at 1 p.m.
The day-long festival will conclude at 7 p.m. with a two-hour evening concert featuring performances by all three storytellers.
A variety of ticket options are available, including a full festival concert pass for $15. Tickets for each event and workshop may be purchased online at www.wakeforestnc.gov/tickets-events.aspx or at the Renaissance Centre Box Office, 405 S. Brooks St.
For more information about the 2016 Forest of Wake Storyfest, including descriptions of all the events and workshops, visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/2016-forest-of-wake-storyfest.aspx.
