The days are getting longer and the new year is getting underway. We have a full calendar year ahead of us, and the future is a fresh clean canvas.
In that spirit of renewal, Better Said Than Done brings you our first show of 2023! Join us online at 8:00 P.M. EST this Thursday, January 12th for Starter Kit: Stories of Beginning. The wonderful Bonnie Gardner is your host for the evening, and she’ll be bringing you an outstanding slate of storytellers: Sheila Arnold, J. Carroll, Chetter Galloway, Nina Lesiga, Ingrid Nixon, Sam Payne, and Greg Weiss!
Let’s take a moment to meet the whole crew…
Sheila Arnold has been called a Professional Imaginator, and, since she loved that title, she gladly embraces it and hopes her works show that title to be true. Sheila resides in Hampton, VA and is in her 20th year as a Professional Storyteller and Performer. Watch her this year as she celebrates 20 with an updated website, a new logo and soon 2 new CD’s. She is glad to have been home for four weeks and has enjoyed being with her grandsons and the rest of the family, as well as do some catch up work in the role of Artistic Director for the non-profit organization she helped co-found, Artists Standing Strong Together. Starting the last week of January she hits the road again, so check her calendar and see if she is coming near you.
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J. Carroll (StarLitWriter) is an author whose writing is published in 50+ books, but her real claim to fame is that her childhood failures have been broadcast widely on TV and in theaters. As a true storyteller, she’s been featured everywhere from dive bars in Mexico to L.A. hotspots to posh theaters in Toronto (she thinks…she performed virtually, so who really knows). She’s also a spoken word poet who’ll be the feature in an upcoming show on Zoom. Join her on Patreon.
Chetter Galloway grew up hearing his father tell stories on Sunday Road trips. One of his favorite stories was The Talking Skull, a West African cautionary tale where a man loses his head! Chetter graduated from East Tennessee State University with a Master of Arts degree in Storytelling and often includes African drumming with his performances. In his spare time, Chetter is an avid runner who enjoys creating stories while he’s running!
Bonnie Gardner made her storytelling for the stage debut in 2020. A former journalist who changed careers to work in IT, Bonnie never lost her love for a good story. She has performed in the Women’s Storytelling Festival, is a Six Feet Apart monthly story slam winner, and was a New Voice at the 2021 Stone Soup Storytelling Festival. She can next be seen January 21 at Better Said Than Done’s first in-person show of the year, Stories of Hope and Change. She’s based in Virginia.
Nina Lesiga from Stratford, CT is the host of the Bridgeport Art Trail Storytelling Exchange, a free monthly meeting to workshop stories on Zoom . Nina is one of the producers of PechaKucha Night Bridgeport, where personal stories are told with twenty images projected for twenty seconds each. Besides storytelling, Nina teaches ukulele and leads ukulele pop up events. She bring loaner ukuleles into public spaces and gets strangers to strum and sing along with her.
Ingrid Nixon is an award-winning, world-traveling storyteller who whisks listeners away on journeys of the imagination. Exploration nail-biters, tall tales, traditional and personal stories—she tells them all on international expeditions, and at venues around the country, including the National Storytelling Festival. She is a champion liar many times over and – no lie – holds a Masters in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University. She hails from Alaska.
Sam Payne hosts The Apple Seed, the long-lived storytelling radio show and podcast produced by BYUradio. He serves as the Weber State University Storytelling Fellow, and was part of the Peabody-nominated team that created the serial podcast Treasure Island 2020, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel. Sam has brought live stories and songs to halls and stages in Canada, Bulgaria, Tokyo, and from coast to coast in the United States. He has been featured at festivals large and small, including the National Storytelling Festival and the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.
For over three decades, storyteller, writer and teacher, Greg Weiss directed and produced theatre and storytelling events. His story work has brought him to schools, theaters, libraries, community centers, and other venues throughout Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Greg has performed his highly acclaimed, one man show of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for the last twenty years. He has presented panels, workshops, performances, and emceed concerts for Northlands and NSN. In 2002, Greg’s work earned him the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
That’s one tremendous group of tellers, and this promises to be a superb night of tales! The show is on Zoom at 8:00 Eastern, and tickets start at $5 for a minimum contribution, with a standard price of $15.
