Heather Forest

Heather Forest’s unique minstrel style of storytelling blends original music, folk guitar, poetry, prose and the sung and spoken word. She has toured her repertoire of world folktales for the past thirty years to theatres, major storytelling festivals, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. 

Her many performance credits include The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, TN, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, Tales of Graz Festival, Austria, and the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand. She has been a featured teller at major storytelling festivals throughout the United States, a keynote speaker at the National Storytelling Congress (USA), and has taught storytelling and communication arts seminars as a guest lecturer at universities and at the National Storytelling Institute (USA) in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Simon Brooks

Simon Brooks is an award-winning British storyteller who now lives in New London, New Hampshire, New England, New World!  He also uses his voice to bring a depth to folk and fairy tales, making them seem all the bit more real. He is also a storyteller, writer, and educator who dabbles in photography.

Order his book Under The Oaken Bough from your nearest brick and mortar bookstore, and listen to his podcast Conversations with Storytellersto hear what it is like to work as a performance storyteller, from some living legends!

Ed Stivender

Since 1977, when he left his day job as a high school teacher in Connecticut and turned to storytelling full-time, Ed has fabulated his way around the globe –appearing in schools, churches, coffeehouses and theaters, as well as at major storytelling festivals.  He has been a featured performer at the National Storytelling Festival, the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival in Ireland, Graz Festival, Austria and our own Philadelphia Folk Festival. In reviews of his work, Ed Stivender has been called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” by the Miami Herald  and “a Catholic Garrison Keillor” by Kirkus Review.

Allen DeBay

Specializes in creating original stories and competing in tall tale storytelling competitions. I have been telling original tall tales for over 20 years competing in contests in multiple states online and in person. I have won the Kansas Storytelling Festival Tall Tale contest winning the competition 3 times and been named a Master Storyteller and have been retired from the competition. I have told in swapping grounds from Utah’s Timpanogos Storytelling festival to Tennessee’s National Storytelling Festival.

Simon Brooks

Simon Brooks is an award-winning British storyteller who now lives in New London, New Hampshire, New England, New World!  He also uses his voice to bring a depth to folk and fairy tales, making them seem all the bit more real. He is also a storyteller, writer, and educator who dabbles in photography.

Order his book Under The Oaken Bough from your nearest brick and mortar bookstore, and listen to his podcast Conversations with Storytellersto hear what it is like to work as a performance storyteller, from some living legends!

Joanne Piazzi

Joanne Piazzi has been telling stories professionally since 1996. She has an MA in the Creative Arts in Education from Lesley University. Joanne is a member of the Seacoast Storytellers (NH) and LANES. The material she uses in her performances is often original, sometimes traditional, and always fun. She is available to perform anywhere that someone wants to hear a good story. Joanne also leads workshops for educators and children. Creating stories for special occasions is a specialty.

Priscilla Howe

“I live in my head. A lot. I make stuff up, I borrow from old tales, I reinterpret new stories. As a storyteller, I’m a tour guide to that space in my brain. I work without a script, without costumes, without props. When I’m doing it right, listeners laugh, smile, sigh and breathe together, connected in the space of stories. I perform at schools, libraries, festivals, special events, and in my own backyard, literally. My mouthy hand puppets come along to shows for young children. I tell more grownup stories to, well, grownups and older kids. We play together. Apart from being the oldest educational method in the world, storytelling is just plain fun.”

Join Priscilla Howe for online story time or join her Patreon to get stories directly from her!!

Ed Stivender

Since 1977, when he left his day job as a high school teacher in Connecticut and turned to storytelling full-time, Ed has fabulated his way around the globe –appearing in schools, churches, coffeehouses and theaters, as well as at major storytelling festivals.  He has been a featured performer at the National Storytelling Festival, the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival in Ireland, Graz Festival, Austria and our own Philadelphia Folk Festival. In reviews of his work, Ed Stivender has been called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” by the Miami Herald  and “a Catholic Garrison Keillor” by Kirkus Review.

Fran Stallings

Fran Stallings is an American storyteller for people of all ages. She has performed at national and international storytelling festivals, in schools and libraries, and on the radio. She performs primarily folktales from around the world. She has produced several audio recordings and books of stories.  She conducts workshops, residencies, and festival performances throughout the United States and overseas.

Stallings’s storytelling style is noted for its ability to entrance listeners, a phenomenon she wrote about for The National Storytelling Journal. She teaches educators to use stories in the classroom to hold students’ attention while conveying lessons.

Elisa Pearmain

Elisa began her storytelling career by working for ten years as a Storyteller in Residence in the Boston Public Schools. There she came to appreciate and tell stories from the many diverse cultures that the children represented. Other early storytelling experiences included collecting stories from Vietnam Veterans and sharing them with high school, college and adults in a program called, The Defoliated Heart. She also led groups of women to share and learn from their stories together. These experiences helped to inspire her belief in the power of stories to heal.

Recently her most popular storytelling programs  in the schools are on character education and bullying prevention through story. She received a grant in 2002 to study character education through story from the National Storytelling Network.

She is a currently a board member of The Healing Story Alliance www.healingstory.org and is an active member of The League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES), and past Board member.  You can learn more about LANES and the storytelling conference at www.lanes.org

Lev Ropes “Grandbear the Storyteller”

Grandbear (Lev Ropes), tells a variety of stories for adults and kids about people and animals (Coyote shows up a lot) who live in the West, including his cousin’s Montana Ranch. His stories range from fact to fantasy, and from humorous to heart warming.

Host – Isabelle Hauser

A fairy tale believer since the beginning of her time, Isabelle Hauser discovered the path of storytelling training with professional storyteller Liz Weir in Northern Ireland. When Isabelle is not telling tales or playing the harp on various stages in Switzerland and abroad, you can find her talking to the swans on the shore of her hometown lake, looking for four leaf clover, or chasing rainbows in the surrounding forests.

Music by Podington Bear

Julie Moss

As a professional storyteller, Julie presents storytelling performances for all ages and group sizes. She offers workshops for educators and their students.

Julie works with groups of students to help them tell stories of their own. She can be hired as an artist-in-residence.

One of her newest workshops is “Storytelling as a Pathway to Writing,” which teaches educators how to use storytelling to enhance their students’ writing, as well as giving teachers a break from grading so many writing projects.  This workshop can be adapted for students, as well as for writers.

Julie is able to help educators in the field of Early Childhood Education utilize storytelling in their classrooms through a workshop on “Storytelling in Early Childhood Education.”

Julie’s story repertoire includes folktales from around the world, family and personal stories, and literary tales. She can adapt a program to fit your needs.

She is traveled to China and gathered stories , which you can hear on this episode.

Isabelle Hauser

A fairy tale believer since the beginning of her time, Isabelle Hauser discovered the path of storytelling training with professional storyteller Liz Weir in Northern Ireland. When Isabelle is not telling tales or playing the harp on various stages in Switzerland and abroad, you can find her talking to the swans on the shore of her hometown lake, looking for four leaf clover, or chasing rainbows in the surrounding forests.

Simon Brooks

Simon Brooks is an award-winning British storyteller who now lives in New London, New Hampshire, New England, New World!  He also uses his voice to bring a depth to folk and fairy tales, making them seem all the bit more real. He is also a storyteller, writer, and educator who dabbles in photography.

Order his book Under The Oaken Bough from your nearest brick and mortar bookstore, and listen to his podcast Conversations with Storytellersto hear what it is like to work as a performance storyteller, from some living legends!

Donna Washington

Donna L. Washington is a professional storyteller, actress, and author. She started performing at age six. She has adapted folktales into two full-length stage productions at Chicago’s Upstage Downstage Theater and performed at numerous storytelling festivals. She is the author of “The Story of Kwanzaa, and she received a Parents’ Choice Award for her recording “Live and Learn: The Exploding Frog and Other Stories.

Donna has performed at thousands of schools & libraries and numerous storytelling festivals throughout the country. 

She also offers workshops in storytelling, writing, education, and creative drama for librarians and educators as well.

Heather Forest

Heather Forest’s unique minstrel style of storytelling blends original music, folk guitar, poetry, prose and the sung and spoken word. She has toured her repertoire of world folktales for the past thirty years to theatres, major storytelling festivals, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. 

Her many performance credits include The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The National Storytelling Festival, TN, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, Tales of Graz Festival, Austria, and the Glistening Waters Storytelling Festival, New Zealand. She has been a featured teller at major storytelling festivals throughout the United States, a keynote speaker at the National Storytelling Congress (USA), and has taught storytelling and communication arts seminars as a guest lecturer at universities and at the National Storytelling Institute (USA) in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Marie Victoria Robertson

In 2018, I discovered the wonderful art of storytelling. I love telling tales to children and grownups! I also bring the art of storytelling to my job as a federal public servant, where I teach a workshop focusing on mental health and personal storytelling, and as a public speaker about LGBTQ+ issues and other diversity and inclusion topics.

I also love a good party, so please invite me—I’ll bring the stories and the cookies!

Kevin Cordi

He has told stories in over forty states,  England, Scotland, Singapore, Canada, Japan and in Qatar.  Kevin shares stories with a highly energetic, animated and interactive style and is considered by many storytelling professionals as one of the most influential and dynamic storytellers and teachers today.  His award-winning story work has been commissioned by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, American Library Association, National Storytelling Network, Newsweek, and the Qatar Foundation International.

Host – Isabelle Hauser

A fairy tale believer since the beginning of her time, Isabelle Hauser discovered the path of storytelling training with professional storyteller Liz Weir in Northern Ireland. When Isabelle is not telling tales or playing the harp on various stages in Switzerland and abroad, you can find her talking to the swans on the shore of her hometown lake, looking for four leaf clover, or chasing rainbows in the surrounding forests.

Music by Podington Bear