Sunday, January 21, 2007
Vicki Crescitelli entertained a large audience with her lively telling of stories from around the world. The stories were full of interesting characters including monsters, foxes, pigs, dancing lizards and eccentric, colorful humans! The children were active participants, clapping, singing and drumming at appropriate moments.

Sunday, February 18, 2007
A multi-generational audience participated in a lively program that focused on African heritage. Sandy Holman told personal stories of times with her grandfather, presented an introduction to some famous personalities from ancient Egypt, and read her book, "Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad?" Attendees also joined Sandy in dancing and playing musical instruments.

Sunday, March 18, 2007
Dressed in his kilt, J. Glenn Simpson (aka Red Beard) recounted the famous Celtic folktale, "The Old Hag's Leather Bag", to an attentive audience. Attendees also enjoyed dragon stories including "Tina and Liam in the Dragon's Mouth", in which a brother and sister battle an evil dragon to save the town's books.

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Both children and adults were active participants in Angela James' enactment of folktales from the Caribbean. Members of the audience were encouraged to play the roles of various characters in stories such as the 'Lion's Birthday Party'. Children were given the opportunity to play a variety of unusual instruments as the stories were being told. The performance ended with everyone marching and singing in a Carnival Parade.

Sunday, May 20, 2007
Children from the East Indian cultural group, Vanar Sena Pathshala, entertained a large audience in the last performance of the year. Opening the program was a group of young children in colorful costumes singing a Hindi folksong. This was followed by three plays that included a number of amusing animal characters and taught simple lessons of life. They were scripted from ancient Panchatantra folktales by members of the group. Children in the audience were invited to try on traditional Indian costumes after the performance.

Sunday, September 21, 2007
MaryLou Linvill of the PennyRoyal Puppet Theatre opened the new season with a performance of "A Million Pieces of Gold", an ancient Chinese dragon tale about the richest man in China. An experienced actress and theatrical designer, Mary Lou delighted the audience with her lively, funny and emotionally engaging performance in a walk-around theater.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Acme Theatre Company returned for it's third performance for the Storytelling Program. The players presented a dramatization of the East Indian Folktale, The King's Chessboard. A greedy king hoards rice until a peasant girl teaches him to play chess. Offered a reward for the happiness she has brought him, her choice promises to revive the kingdom and teach the monarch a lesson about kindness. Acme is the only community theatre company in the Sacramento area run entirely for and by high-school aged actors. The performance was followed by presentations on UNICEF and Trick-or-Treating. All proceeds were donated to UNICEF.

Sunday November 18, 2007

Francisco X. Alarcon, award-winning Chicano bilingual poet and author, read a number of children's bilingual poems from his five illustrated books of children's poetry. As the colorful pages were projected on a screen, Alarcon read the poems in both English and Spanish. Many of the poems were based on personal childhood experiences and emotions. Books were available for signing.

Sunday, January 13, 2008
Matt Biers-Ariel, a teacher, writer and storyteller from Davis, shared original and traditional Jewish stories with an audience of all ages. Amongst the stories he told were "Liser the Miser" and "The Rabbi Who was Hard of Hearing". He also read from his book "Solomon and the Trees", in celebration of Tu B'Shvat, Jewish Arbor Day.

Sunday February 9, 2008
The Crane Culture Theater, a Sacramento-based traveling troupe, presented "Grandfather's Dream". Masked actors, accompanied by live music, enacted the story of a Vietnamese family divided over whether to plant rice in the marsh where the cranes once lived or whether to give the cranes one last chance to return. Following the performance the audience learned about the diet and habits of cranes and children had the opportunity to make bracelets that represented the life cycle and habitats of cranes.

Sunday March 9, 2008
Laura Sandage, local musician and writer, took an enthusiastic audience on a trip to Ireland. Seated in a comfortable armchair, Laura opened the program with a tune on the pennywhistle and a song. She read several Irish stories and encouraged audience participation as she played tunes on the concertina and pennywhistle.

Sunday, April 13, 2008
Wyatt Hesemeyer presented a lively multimedia performance entitled "Magical Journey to the Heart of the Jungle". Drawing on his personal experiences while researching gibbons in Thailand, Wyatt delighted the audience with musical stories about snakes, monkeys and elephants.

Sunday, May 18, 2008
The last program of the season was a colorful performance by the UC Davis folklorico dance troupe, Danzantes del Alma. In addition to performing a number of dances from Mexico, the members of the group told the audience about different regions of Mexico where the dances originated and taught children (and willing adults) some of the steps.

The Storytelling Program will  take a break for the Summer and will resume in September 2008. The schedule for the upcoming season will be posted  as soon as it is available.
Click here for upcoming performances