Children's International Story-telling Programs - September 2005 to May 2006

Tricia Brown, a Sacramento kindergarten teacher and award-winning author, shared experiences and read excerpts from some of her books. With a display of many of her books at her side, Tricia told an audience of children and adults about her early interest in other cultures and her travels to many different countries. She read from her first book, an award-winning photo essay about children with disabilities entitled “Someone Special Just Like You”. This was followed by excerpts from “Hello, Amigos!”, “L’Chaim: The Story of a Russian Émigré Boy” and her most recent book, “Salaam: A Muslim American Boy’s Story”. The message she brings is that what is in your heart is what matters; not where you come from or how you look. After the storytelling children enjoyed making hand puppets and were encouraged to use these to tell stories about people of other cultures.

Sunday, October 15, 2005

Students of the Acme Theatre Company, an independent self-sustaining community theatre group for young artists of high school age in Davis, presented two versions of the favorite folktale “Cinderella”. A short hand puppet show of the version best-known to Americans was followed by a lively and creative dramatization of the Chinese Cinderella story. Children enjoyed interacting with the actors after the performance. As part of a focus on UNICEF in the month of October, all donations received were given to UNICEF and two Davis school students gave a presentation on Trick or Treating.

We welcomed back Pablita Marshall for her second performance at I-House. Pablita shared some of her Native American culture as she told the story of a Mole and a Coyote, followed by a tale about a Racoon and a ‘tribe’ of crawfish. Children enjoyed sitting on fur skins and viewing her extensive collection of artifacts.

Sunday, January 22, 2006
Rabbi Steve brought several Jewish cultural artifacts and provided a lively repertoire of tales and music at this program. Some of the stories in his repertoire started out as oral tradition, some are rabbinic commentary on Scripture, some are works of his own creation, and others are folk tales that feature Jewish characters. Among the favorites for children and adults alike, were the "noodle stories" featuring not-always-so-foolish "fools and tricksters".

Sunday, February 26, 2006
The chants, poems and stories of 'Straight Out Scribes' were very entertaining. The children delighted in the opportunity to ask personal questions of staajabu and her daughter, V.S. Chochezi, such as why they have chosen the reading of poetry and where they have performed in and out of North America. Each attendee also took home a copy of an original poem, signed by each of the performers.

Sunday, March 26, 2006
Jungwon Cha (visiting Davis from Busan, South Korea) presented a highly entertaining program that introduced the audience to various facets of Korean culture. The performers, dressed in brightly-colored Korean costumes, told the traditional Korean folktale "Kongi and Patgi", a variant on the Cinderella story. Jungwon narrated in English while her son and friends read the lines of the various characters in Korean.
Afterwards, Eugene Shin, a young award-winning performer played a traditional instrument call the Kayakeum and sang a Korean-style opera.
Following the performance children in the audience enjoyed dressing up in Korean costumes for picture taking.

Sunday, April 23, 2006
"Brazil in Davis" group entertained the audience with an enactment of the story of "Curumin and Onca" (Indian and Jaguar). The players acted out this story of a young boy protecting a jaguar from hunters, with the narrators speaking in both English and Portuguese. Brazilian music and the sounds of the forest played in the background. Children had the opportunity to make headbands and necklaces after the performance.

Sunday, May 21, 2006
Wen Ding and other members of the NewStar Chinese School in Davis represented China in a program of storytelling. Attendees enjoyed touching and learning about the artifacts that were brought to the performance.