What's the Story?

It’s difficult to explain a storytelling festival.
What is it? Who’s involved? Why should I go in the first place?

Believe me, if anyone knows what a storytelling festival is, it’s Betty Roth, one of the coordinators for the Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival. She has had her share of storytelling festivals and has visited several to understand the logistics of running one. What kind of tent to use, how to fix the seating arrangements, what should be included in the program, that sort of thing. Betty will have you cackling about her experience at the Cave Run festival in KY (it rained) and smiling about her experience at the Athens festival in GA (yep, it rained, again). As Betty puts it, “You’ve got three generations of people sitting in the front row laughing from the gut about the same story—and they all get it. I love to watch the people get it.”

We hope that this year, capeSF fans will still “get it”, and we’ve got six great storytellers that will stand on stage rain or shine and perform stories that will truly entertain you.

Take storyteller Donald Davis for example. He was a featured teller during our first festival in 2008 and has returned again this year. His stories speak to the heart of growing up in the south. Most people can relate to him simply because his stories are just so darn funny. But more importantly, his stories resonate with a wide audience simply because he talks about the kind of major story themes that most stories come from, whether those stories are television shows, books, or films. I’m referring to themes like coming of age, his family, his relationship with his mother, and his attempts to define himself outside of his family sphere. These are the themes that all good stories come from, no matter the medium.

But, I know what you’re thinking. That sounds great, but why should I go to capeSF? Why should I believe that storytelling is great entertainment just because storytelling is coming to Cape Girardeau, MO?

Let’s just look at other places then shall we? California, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia all have highly successful storytelling festivals. They attract upwards of 10,000 people at the largest festivals. In fact, the National Storytelling Festival based in Jonesborough, TN, is going on its 37th year and has grown into an event that is now one of the Top 100 Events in North America.

But let’s cut to the chase. “Storytelling” is a genre of performance—no different than rock and opera are genres of music. Storytelling as a performance is featured at festivals, like capeSF, it is featured on radio shows like NPR or BBC radio, it is also featured as podcasts that are served to your email inboxes, and it is featured in pubs and coffeehouses in major cities across the U.S.

The trendy method of storytelling—through podcasts and live events in big cities—is something that is expanding the concept of storytelling as a performance genre. For instance, themoth.org started in someone’s living room and now has syndicated to monthly shows in and around New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. Storytellers get together to tell and listen to real-life stories. These tellers could be anyone from the actor Sam Shepard to just your average Joe off the street. Afterwards everyone gathers to trade stories over drinks and dinner, and the organization sends out monthly podcasts of the recorded stories.

The Cape Girardeau Storytelling Festival is simply good entertainment, no different than enjoying a comedian or one-man/one-woman show. The tellers tell stories from their own lives just like a major one-named performer. The stories range from funny to sad to quirky and sometimes remind you of your own life. A performer who relays their message in a form that the audience can relate to is simply a good performer—whether that’s a storyteller or a singer, and the storytellers that we book for our festival are some of the very best performers in what they do—they tell stories. In a sense, a storyteller performs a motion picture film, only you don’t see the actors and you don’t see the sets. You see everything the storyteller is telling you on the screen in your mind.

Telling a story that someone else can “see” in their own mind is a gift. It is an ability that takes years to craft. These tellers not only have great stories to tell but they deliver them on stage. Sure, your uncle Dave can tell a great story, but can he stand up on stage in front of 1,000 people and perform it? That’s what our tellers can do. They can tell a tale, deliver it with gusto and entertain a packed house. So, let’s pack the house for this year’s tellers on April 9th, 10th, and 11th. You’ll love every minute of it. That’s our story and we’re sticking with it!