Welcome To Two Rivers Story Spinners
Two Rivers Story Spinners: Central Iowa's Storytelling Guild
TRSS Guild Presentation Alert
Sun. Aug. 22, 4 -5:30 pm
DM Playhouse classroom, 831 42nd St.
The Hows and Whys of Storytelling 101:
The Gentle Peer Coach Approach
August Meeting Agenda:
4 pm Welcome and intros
4:10 Treasurer's report and past meeting highlights
4:15Old Business
4:25 New Business
4:40 Coaching Program
5:00 Story Swap
5:30 TRSS meeting ends
Come Gather @ the August meeting!
THEN promote
~Tellabration! 2010 ~
Plans for upcoming events: , volunteer opps with Story City Festival, Living History Farms Halloween, Tellabration, Storytelling Workshops w/Charlotte Blake Aliston & Jim May,
~New Member Introductions~
THANK YOU, Munoz Productions, for last month's presentation about options for taping storytelling!
June's meeting brought us to Greenwood Park for a wonderful early Sunday afternoon picnic with a side of stories. Good food, good times, good people and a merciful lack of bugs combined with a cadre of casual personal tales. The day was topped off with a preview of a tale Jill Beebout debuted at the Iowa Storytelling Festival at Clear Lake.
At the April Guild meeting Co-President Jill Beebout (good egg that she is and what she brought!) lead us through the a review of old business and discussion of new business. Then we went into storytime. The classroom was pleasantly alive with the warmth of stories and open hearts! New member, Mary Chamberlain, brings a wealth of life experiences to share AND she'll already signed up for a Tellebration committee.
Bring a neighbor or other friend this month; there's room for even more good tellers and listeners!
TRSS Officers 2010-2011
President: Maureen Korte
Vice-Presidents: Thea Nicholas, Mike King
Treasurer: Carol Taylor
Secretaries/Web: Susan Jellinger Facebook: Jill Beebout
Once upon a time a merry band of characters (Central Iowans, all) gathered at The Des Moines Playhouse to heed the called of that whimsical teller and puppeteer Carol Taylor! That group convened this storytelling guild, The Two Rivers Story Spinners, and crafted a community of tellers. We come, we go; we listen, we tell. Some tell as volunteers, some as paid professionals, some tell as volunteers at church or school, some for family, and all tell for the love of the story.
The guild meets the fourth Sunday of most months from 4 - 5:30 pm at the Des Moines Playhouse, 831-42nd Street, Des Moines, Iowa. If you enjoy telling or just listening to stories, come experience a guild meeting and consider adding to the story by joining!
Upcoming Events ~ see sidebar
Two Rivers Story Spinners (TRSS) membership is only $10.00 (USD) per year. Besides the regular meetings, members particpate in workshops, conferences, storytelling festivals, and our yearly Tellerbration fundraiser. The Guild (and/ or members) is frequently featured at community events in Central Iowa:
- Ashcraft Project Storytelling
- Living History Farm's Family Halloween
- Miracle on 4th Street
- Pufferbelly Days
- Festival of Trees
- Storytelling Festivals
- Literacy Round-ups
- KidsFest
- Tellebration!
- School and church events
Upcoming Events
Enhance Your Story with the use of the Senses & that 6th Sense!
She tells stories from every genre to every age and culture. In this May meeting mini-workshop Maureen Korte directed participants on"How to Use Your Six Senses," a way of using the 5 physical senses within a story to enhance the emotional connections in the story and with an audience.
Fantastic news to share! Mark your calendar for Feb. 16, 2011!
National storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston will be in Des Moines presenting a workshop for the Two Rivers Story Spinners storytelling group at the Des Moines Playhouse that Tuesday evening. We'll also have this open to the public, so more can experience this vibrant teller!
She is also in town for the History Through The Arts theater season at the Iowa State Historical Museum, Feb. 16th through the 18th. During her three days at the museum Charlotte will be performing African Stories for students in grades 3 through high school. Following her performances students will attend workshops facilitated by local tellers, and some of them may be TRSS members!
Past Guild Meetings
The Guild began this storytelling year sharing stories around a table and slapping labels onto over a thousand books collected in Dave Ashcraft's memory to be given to youth visiting family in jail. Judge Celeste Bremer is checking with the approriate Polk County correctional officers to set a date for The Ashcraft Project presentation. Co-President Maureen Korte hosted the event and meeting at her house. People brought wine and food and we made merry! Some telling folks worked on plans for upcoming events.
The February meeting featured a Mary Swander workshop about the rhythmic, poetic use of language in storytelling, with a dash of music and an opportunity to create storytelling monologues! As poet laureate of Iowa, a playwrite, and a nationally known author, Swander maintains a very full calendar so getting her was quite a coup. (Thanks, Thea!)
If you have questions or need directions for the next guild meeting, call Susan, 515-243-4367. Get your "once upon a time" in gear and get here to the DM Playhouse on March 28th!
March meeting blew past fast with Guild elections, workshop and storytelling reviews, Northlands Conference update and promotion, some planning for the summer picnic and Fall Tellebration, and several stories!
March we finally got around to elections, then quickly addressed some exciting events: The Ashcraft Project/Forever Books presentation planned for April at the Polk County Jail, Tellebration Committee sign-ups, Charlotte Black Alston workshops next year, and other plans/dreams! With a full room of storytellers, we also had a grand time telling! Matt Leonard did a tradtional bardic tale -- though he trimmed it to an untraditional short segment -- on the Celt Fergus!
April's meeting showered us with a surprise: the Playhouse had double booked and all the classrooms were in use, so we made do circling together in the downstairs lobby. It was intimate and it was still a good gathering. President Jill multi-tasked as well, having her cooler full of Blue Gate Farm fresh eggs. So we all came out of our shells as various people stopped by throughout the meeting, including the Playhouse's scheduler!
A long, long time ago .....
There were so many "once upon a times" to explore, different styles and techniques to learn or just appreciate, times to branch out and connect with others such as at Northland conferences: this group learned and grew together. Many members came with experience presenting before an audience and had their own style. Others came wanting to hone a speaking or teaching skill into the art of storytelling. They practiced with folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, personal stories, myths, poems, and even nursery rhymes! Members have stayed and some moved on, but the Two Rivers Story Spinners Guild continues to celebrate and share this ancient yet ever renewing art of telling stories.
Two Rivers Members at an earlier Living History Farms Halloween, featuring Dave Ashcraft.
Next gatherings:
- Sunday, Mar. 28, TRSS monthly guild meeting, 4 - 5:30pm @ DM Playhouse, basement classroom Business: Officer Elections! Committee assignments for Tellebration and Summer Storytelling Shindig (maybe we can be at Sleepy Hollow's Festival Park again!), Northlands Storytelling Conference, AND Storytelling! Positive-oriented critiquing, if requested.
- Sunday, Apr. 25, TRSS monthly guild meeting, 4 - 5:30pm @ DM Playhouse, basement classroom
Storytelling theme: Foolish Notions or Spring Stories Other business: Report from Northlands.
