Portland Storytellers Guild couldn’t be more thrilled to bring national storytelling treasure Mary Gay Ducey to Portland for this year’s Tellabration!™. Mary Gay Ducey is a storyteller who performs throughout the United States, Canada, and Ireland. She has appeared twice at the National Storytelling Festival and at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and was featured on the television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. She is a children’s librarian at a branch of the Oakland Public Library where she is also staff trainer for volunteer story-readers placed in Oakland Head Start programs.
After a childhood in segregated New Orleans, Ducey moved to Berkeley—just in time for the protest marches and sit-ins. From a childhood steeped in tradition and heritage to beginning her own family amidst the social unrest of the sixties, Ducey lived the social change which swept the country. As a storyteller, she draws from her life experiences to delight audiences with her humorous and insightful tales that mix personal and historical, literary and folk.
This year’s Tellabration!™ features a workshop and performance on the same day, Saturday, November 22. Both events will take place in downtown Portland at First Unitarian Universalist Church. Take a peek at the descriptions below for both events:
“The Company We Keep: Character Development in Stories”
Storytelling Workshop with Mary Gay Ducey
Saturday, November 22, 2014: 9:00am – 1:00pm
Buchan Reception Area, First UU Church – 1011 SW 12th Ave, PDX
All stories have characters: human, animal, even celestial. The care with which we treat these story-citizens influences the depth of our telling. We will explore methods for developing and animate these story characters by using personal experience and imagination to encourage them to speak. And we will listen to what they have to say. General tickets: $50 First UU and PSG members: $40 Purchase tickets here.
Tellabration!™ 2014 with Mary Gay Ducey: A Storytelling Concert
Saturday, November 22, 2014: 8:00pm
Sanctuary, First UU Church- 1011 SW 12th Ave, PDX
TELLABRATION!™ began in 1988 in six towns across Connecticut. More than 1,000 story listeners enjoyed that first evening’s performances. The following year Texas and Missouri joined Connecticut to entertain a total of 3,000 audience members. Since then, TELLABRATION!™ has grown to more than 333 sites with an audience of more than 34,000 and has evolved from a showcase for storytelling to a community-support project. Many TELLABRATION!™ events around the county use the donations they collect to help support schools, libraries, shelters for the homeless, Habitat for Humanity, Food Banks, and Crisis Centers. PSG hopes this concert grows to a place where they, too, can help with community literacy programs. Purchase tickets here.
Hope to see you there!
