Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but 2020 has been A LOT. Hours have felt like days, weeks have seemed like months. And yet somehow, here we are, solidly in December, nearing the end of the year.
We at Better Said Than Done have decided to embrace the spirit of the times and end our 2020 season with a super-sized celebration storytelling show. Join us on Saturday, December 12th for a three-course meal of stories and sharing from a line-up of fourteen amazing storytellers, two hosts, and maybe… you! Get your seat at the table now!
The evening kicks off at 7 P.M. with a slate of family friendly stories suitable for the whole family. The roster of tellers is Allen DeBey, Rachel Hedman, Misty Mator, Carol Moore, Nicolette Nordin Heavey, and Kristin Pedemonti, with your host Miriam Nadel.
Then at 8:00 we send the little ones off to bed Sound of Music style, so that host Jessica Robinson can set the table for Stuffed: Stories about eating, cooking and overdoing it. It’s a sumptuous feast whipped up by tellers Calvin S. Cato, Ray Christian, Alton Chung, Claire Hennessy, Angela Lloyd, Jennifer Munro, Sharon Price Singer, and Antonio Sacre.
Finally, around 10:00 we close out the evening in fine fashion. We’ll raise a glass to seeing the back-end of 2020, our tellers and hosts will offer some unrehearsed musings, and we’ll invite any audience members who are so inclined onto our virtual stage so they can share their thoughts on the year that was.
Tickets are pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth, starting with a wallet-friendly minimum $6 contribution. Grab your ticket here, at whatever level suits you best. All proceeds are shared among the tellers and Better Said Than Done.
And as a bonus, we’ve collected a batch of 29 recipes from our Better Said Than Done community of tellers. All ticket holders will receive the collection as a PDF!
We’re gonna stuff fellowship and laughs into the waning days of the year! Please come be part of the festivities!
Bios of the evening’s tellers
Calvin S. Cato has performed across the United States and has even crossed the border into Canada. His television appearances include the Game Show Network, Netflix, Oxygen’s My Crazy Love, National Geographic’s Brain Games, and an unaired pilot for Vice Media called Emergency Black Meeting. You may have heard him overshare on many podcasts including Keith and The Girl, The Beige Philip Show, RISK!, and Tinder Tales. In 2017, Calvin was named one of Time Out New York’s Queer Comics of Color to Watch Out For.
Ray Christian’s stories have appeared in Readers Digest’s Best Stories in America (2016) and American Hero’s (2017) editions. He was selected as the 2017 Serenbe France Focus Storytelling Fellow (Atlanta, GA) and his stories have been featured on NPR radio shows such as The Moth Radio Hour, Snap Judgment, and Backstory as well as the Risk podcast, among many others. As a competitive storyteller, Ray is a ten-time Moth Story Slam Champion, and winner of the 2016 National Storytelling Festival Story Slam. Sharing his stories across the US and Canada, Ray has made several appearances on Moth Mainstage, The National Storytelling Festival Exchange Place (2019), and was part of the 2018 tour of Snap Judgment Live! Ray is currently the producer and host of What’s Ray Saying, a podcast that utilizes history , storytelling and commentary to provide a unique perspective on the African American cultural experience. Most recently, Dr. Raymond Christian has received the prestigious Fulbright Specialist Scholar Award as an expert in Education and Storytelling Narrative.
Japanese-Korean storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung, grew up with the superstitions and the magic of the Hawaiian Islands. He travels the world spreading aloha and sharing stories of Hawaii, of the Japanese-American Experience of WWII, and Asian folktales.
Allen DeBey lives in Osborne, Kansas. He has been writing and performing stories for 18 years, competing in 17 tall tale or liar’s contests and has never failed to lose a preliminary round. In his first competition he may have lost the contest, however he received the vote of 5 time tall tale champion Bil Lepp who told him that he was going to win the contest. He ended up winning the contest the very next year. He went on to win 3 Kansas Storytelling Festival tall tale champions at which point he was called a master storyteller and was not allowed to continue competing in the contest.
Rachel Hedman competed in storytelling as a sophomore high schooler in 1994. Everything went wrong with her first telling, and she considered quitting. By senior year, she received 5th in State (Wisconsin) for Storytelling. For 15 years, Rachel mentored California high school tellers and received the Arne Nixon Storytelling Award from them. She has been Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance Co-Chair, National Youth Storytelling Showcase Board Member, and Utah Storytelling Guild President. Rachel received the national ORACLE Award for service and leadership in the Western Region and the Karen J. Ashton Award for storytelling service specifically in Utah. For eight years, she served the WSU Storytelling Festival, became Storyteller Chair, and started the Annual Youth Teller Reunion. Meanwhile, she completed her Storytelling Masters from East Tennessee State University. The adoption folktales thesis was defended two days before adopting two boys with her husband, Casey. They have since adopted a girl. She kickstarted Story Crossroads, a Salt Lake county storytelling festival in 2016 and continues to expand it with the dream of an Olympic-level six-day event called World Story Crossroads no later than 2030.
British-born Claire Hennessy is an award-winning storyteller, podcaster (The Bonkers Brit) and author. She performs funny, true and often embarrassing stories around the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been published in award-winning anthologies and is hoping to find an agent for her humorous memoir before she is too old to go on a book tour. She started Six Feet Apart Productions with Regina Stoops at the start of the pandemic and produces online live storytelling shows on YouTube.
Angela Lloyd has been described as “diagonally parked in a parallel world” (Barbara McBride Smith). Angela Lives in Victorville, CA with her husband, Larry and dog, Maddie. She’s the winner of the 2013 Circle of Excellence Angela tells oral tradition stories, poems, and personal adventures in surprise. “Listening to her tell tales is an adventure unto itself. You’re never quite sure where she’s taking you until you arrive, but inevitably it’s exactly where you want or need to be” – Steve Sanfield, Sierra Storytelling Festival
Misty Mator captivates with timeless tales that teach history, celebrate culture, inspire creativity and promote moral values. Misty draws on her study of traditional myths and her experience as a mother-of-four to entertain, educate, and amuse audiences of all ages. She is a member of the TELL: Pittsburgh Storytelling Series production team, and has performed at Tellabration, Pittsburgh’s Alphabet Trails & Tails, the Ellwood City Storytelling Festival, Better Said Than Done in Washington D.C., and the Historic Fayette Theater in West Virginia amongst other venues. Her storytelling enriches lives with connection, laughter, and wisdom.
Carol Moore is a storyteller and public speaking coach who lives to connect and entertain through stories. With a style of storytelling that is comedic, conversational and authentic, she has presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, served as a speaker coach for TED speakers through TEDxTysons, and received the title of Moth StorySLAM Champion. She’s also competed in public speaking competitions with Toastmasters International and is a member of both the National Storytelling Network and the National Communication Association. When Carol is not working, she can likely be found on her cozy couch, happily crocheting blankets and watching Marvel movies.
Jennifer Munro grew up in a small village in the heart of the industrial Midlands of England where she learned the rules of engagement that have resulted in a collection of original stories about rascals, rogues, and heroes. Her stories, funny and poignant, will have you cheering one moment and weeping the next. Her repertoire also includes original myths and adult fairy tales, which resonate with a deep and abiding truth that speaks to the here and now. Jennifer has performed on NPR, at libraries, schools, coffee houses, conferences, and major festivals across the nation, most notably the National Festival in Jonesborough, TN, and the Timpanogos Festival in Utah. Her CDs, Relatives and their Body Parts and Beginnings are both Storytelling World Winners as is her collection of short stories, Aunty Lily and other Delightfully Perverse Stories, published by Parkhurst Brothers in 2016. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Barbara Reed award for distinguished and outstanding service to the Connecticut Storytelling Center.
Nicolette Nordin Heavey led a storied childhood in Europe. She left a career in sales and marketing in 2002 to pursue her passion. There’s no better way to look someone, especially a child, in the eyes and catch a glimpse of their imagination than by storytelling. Stories In The Streets is a community outreach literacy program that trains brings storytellers to public places in at-risk communities. Stories at Play provides early education arts content to preschool-Kindergarten centers.
Kristin Pedemonti, a StoryBridge Oracle Award recipient has performed on 5 continents, so far; favorite experiences being the first American Storyteller accepted to perform in Iran and performing in Kenya. Currently, Kristin divides her time between serving as Storytelling Consultant for the World Bank and facilitating recovery from trauma workshops for her project Steer Your Story.
Antonio Sacre tells stories. His tales of growing up bilingually in a Cuban and Irish-American household have inspired children worldwide to gather their own family stories and become storytellers themselves. His stories have been published in award-winning books and audio recordings. His Professional Developments and Keynote addresses have helped educators teach writing to students from pre-Kindergarten through graduate school. Now his stories are being developed for film and television. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two children, and two cats. Yes, he’s a cat guy.
Sharon Price Singer is newish to the storytelling stage as she needed an audience after repeating the same stories to friends and families too many times. Sharon is originally from New York City, spent 15 years in DC, and now lives in Reston, VA now with her husband and three dogs: Rosie, Shlomo and Babka. Her career has been working on ending homelessness and providing safe, affordable housing for households in need.
