Storytelling for Children and Families

For any new storyteller or community performer looking to develop a small business as an artist, knowing how to entertain a wide variety of audiences and having many opportunities to demonstrate one’s work are essential for ultimate success. But how does an artist move away from constantly donating services to confidently asking for and receiving […]

When eager new storytellers contact me for advice, they are usually interested in finding out what steps they need to take to eventually be able to charge for their services. Most of these folks understand it is necessary to polish performance skills until someone is willing to pay them a fee. There really isn’t a […]

Here I am telling stories on the Storytelling Stage during the2012 Tucson Festival of Books. I am often approached by phone or by email by a potential customer asking the “how much do you charge” question. My answer is always “that depends.” I need to consider answers to the following questions before I can provide […]

A few days ago, I received a phone call from a woman who told me she had just retired from teaching, and now wanted to become a storyteller and tell stories in schools. The happiness in her voice as she described her dream took me back to the start of my own journey. Her call […]

We had good crowds under the Storytelling Tent. The 2012 Tucson Festival of Books was even better than last year! This says a lot about how the our community supports and values stories, reading, books, authors and learning. I am proud to be a small part of an event that brings an estimated 115,000 people together in southern Arizona […]

In about two hours I will be on my way to the University of Arizona Mall to set up the Storytelling Tent in the Children/Youth section of the Tucson Festival of Books (TFOB). This is the fourth year for the TFOB, and last night during the Author’s Table Reception, it was announced that the event is now in the […]

At the request from a reader, this post includes two photos of Fry-Fry, the nemesis of the “Squirrely Shirley Meets Fry-Fry” show. The story behind the creation of this puppet started with a comment by a friend years ago when I was on the board of a downtown Tucson (AZ) historic neighborhood association. Being on the board […]

After performing for many years, I know a good thing when I see it, and the Squirrely Shirley show is a good thing – the real deal. I’ve been upstaged by puppets before, but this is different and more exciting. I’m jazzed! We added a Squirrely Shirley “journal” to the Story Works Group website during the 2010 […]

Whenever I can, I like to add a simple magic trick to my shows, so when I wrote the 2010 program, I considered Soft Soap, a trick that involves magically cleaning three small silks. Since I had used this trick during my clowning days, I knew it was a crowd pleaser. I wrote dialogue for […]

When the 2010 “Squirrely Shirley Makes Waves” tour returned to Tucson that fall, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much fun the show had been. This program proved to be a great way to entertain and reinforce important pool and water safety rules for children. Getting the kids involved by giving water safety advice to Squirrely […]