By Darren Zaccaria
The Western Front

The art of storytelling has been around for centuries. Culture and tradition are passed down from generation to generation through stories told by elders. Stories convey important messages and they can entertain as well. Some storytellers are so captivating that their audiences will hang on every word. Using vivid descriptions and body language, they can make stories seem to come alive.

The art of storytelling is still alive and well today. This week is National Storytelling Week, a week devoted to storytelling in all of its many forms and styles. In honor of this week, there have been many evening storytelling events, leading up to the grand finale on Saturday, entitled "Tellabration." Tellabration is a celebration of the art of storytelling and those who perform it. Local storytellers, including three Western students, will be performing at Tellabration, which is from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday in the Performing Arts Center Concert Hall.

"The storytelling at Tellabration will be extemporaneous and spontaneous, with very close audience eye contact and audience interaction," Tellabration coordinator Rosemary Vohs said. "It feels very real; they are not just up there performing a monologue, they are telling a story and telling it vividly."

Tellabration was started in 1988 in Connecticut by originator J.G. Pinkerton. It soon gained attention and popularity and by 1990 it had expanded worldwide. Now there are 40 states in the United States and 16 other countries that all have Tellabration on the same day. There are hundreds of storytelling events happening worldwide Saturday, including four in the state of Washington.

Some of the events leading up to Saturday's Tellabration, have been coordinated by storyteller Doug Banner. Banner helped to coordinate last year's Tellabration at Western, in which 300 people attended. He is a member of the Bellingham Storytellers Guild and has been very involved in making people aware of this week.

"It is my intention, as well as the Guild's intention to help people realize that storytelling is a performing art and that it's about making connections with people in the community," he said.

Events this week have included storytelling performances at Village Books and Allied Arts on Monday and Tuesday and a performance by Western students at the Western Gallery on Wednesday.

Saturday's performance will consist of two one-hour, with a 15-minute intermission. Nine storytellers scheduled to perform, including Rosemary Vohs, Gail Smedley from Vista Middle School and Johnny Moses, a Native American storyteller from the Tulalip tribe. The other six storytellers are students, three from Vista Middle School and three from Western. Vohs teaches a storytelling class at Western and selected three of her students to perform, Kristina Ried, Kris Baker and Lisa Albert.

Ried said each student was able to choose a story they wanted to tell and practice it the way they want to tell it. The stories were picked depending on a performer's style of storytelling.

"There were different kinds of stories to choose from, but I wrote my own story," Baker said. "It is about a personal experience I had that I put into a storytelling form."

At Tellabration, stories told will be categorized into three different types, including folklore, which are stories that have been around for a long time and have been told by numerous people, literary, which are written by specific authors and original, which are stories written by the storytellers themselves.

Baker said a lot of preparation was put into rehearsing these stories, but it's not like performing a monologue.

"We don't try and memorize the story word for word," she said. We memorize the plot and tell it in our own words."

"My aunt called my the other day to ask me what story I was going to be reading," Ried said. "I had to tell her that we're not just up there reading a story out of a book, we're telling the story to the audience. There's a big difference between the two."

Telling a story in front of 300 people can be intimidating, but Albert said this performance will help her prepare for her future career.

"I'm going to be an elementary education major, so this performance will help to improve my storytelling skills," she said. Storytelling is often times associated with school children. Vohs said that these days many people would not be interested in attending a storytelling, because of this reason.

"Our focus at Tellabration is to get adults to attend and let them know that storytelling is for people of all ages," she said. "Centuries ago, storytelling used to be a form of entertainment for everyone, that is why folktales are called folktales. They are people tales."

One of the ways Vohs hopes to turn people onto storytelling is by having them listen to Johnny Moses. Moses is fluent in eight Native languages and is a traveling ambassador for Northwest American Indian cultures. He shares the cultural and spiritual traditions of his peoples, through storytelling. Moses will be the opening and closing performer at Tellabration and will share several traditional American Indian stories.

"Johnny Moses has been really involved in the national resurgence of the art of storytelling," Vohs said. He's also been very instrumental in getting people to enjoy Native American stories and appreciate his culture and tradition." Vohs said she hopes there is a nice turnout and that people will walk away with a new appreciation for storytelling.

Ticket prices for Tellabration are $7 for adults and $4 for students and children. For tickets call the PAC Box Office at 650-6146.