Storytellers gear up for festival

PROVO CANYON — Debi Richan is a classic sort of storyteller.

The normally sweet-tempered, pleasant Provo grandmother can take an ordinary tale — like the story of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table or of the Ugsome Thing — add a deep, gravelly voice or two, a lot of dynamic expression, some serious stomping, hair-pulling and growling, and spin it anew.

Suddenly, it's really important to find out what the nice old lady does after the Ugsome Thing pulls down her laundry, smashes her basket of eggs and sours her milk.

The pressures and deadlines of the day take a back seat until Richan can finish her tale.

"When I tell a story, really tell it, I disappear. I become the story and the characters. It's like making multiple personality disorders work for you," Richan said. She is a veteran storyteller who started with the Timpanogos Festival and now travels on the national circuit, making enough money to support her book habit.

Therein lies the magic in storytelling and in storytelling festivals, where creative but otherwise everyday people come together for a couple of days and immerse themselves in rich folklore, fairy tales and the wonderful detail of their life stories.

The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, started 16 years ago by WordPerfect matriarch Karen Ashton as a fund-raising event for the Orem Children's Library, is one of the largest storytelling festivals in the West. Not only has the local festival attracted more than 25,000 visitors, it has outgrown two homes so far, attracted national attention and spawned at least seven other festivals, including the new Indian Summer Storytelling Festival in Vernal.

People the country over are rediscovering their heritage, their love of story and their ability to laugh as well as cry.

This year, the festival is in its long-awaited new home built by the city of Orem, the Mt. Timpanogos Park located a mile up Provo Canyon on the west side of the road. There are 10 national storytellers scheduled, along with regional and youth storytellers. Laughin' Night is back, along with the Bedtime Stories segment and a new segment called "Look Who's Talking" that offers participants a chance to sample some of the stories of each of the tellers without missing the others.

Regional storytellers