Stories

Where Have All the Flowers Gone: Stories of the 60’s

• Jim Barnard, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”
• Susan Goldstein, “Interludes of the 60’s”
• Janet Griffith, “Paul is Dead”
• Edward Hamilton,” White Flower Day”
• Hilary Kaiser, “Paris, 1968”
• Ann Riley, “Mario Savio Speech”
• Linda Wright, “Voter Registration”

Music

ARIEL: JJ Jenkins & George Petersen, vocals, acoustic guitar & hand drum
Music of the 60’s

Jim Barnard opposed the Vietnam War, and came to believe that war, under any circumstances, could never be morally justified.  There must be better ways to solve our conflicts.

Susan Goldstein is a retired college teacher who is delighted to find a way to have an audience without having to grade papers. She rejects the idea that “if you remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there.”

Since her retirement as a psychologist in 2010, Janet Griffith has enjoyed exploring new worlds, sometimes by creating stories about old times.

Edward Hamilton, since retiring from his position as Chair of the City College of San Francisco’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies Department, has found a new creative passion in storytelling.

Hilary Kaiser, like Josephine Baker (who once sang “I have two loves, my country and Paris”), is an American who has been living in Paris for some 40 years.

Ann Riley became a storyteller the first time she got in trouble and needed a good ‘story’. She has been telling stories ever since. She is on the board of the Storytelling Association of California, and enjoys telling at the Asian Art Museum.

Linda Wright is a passionate and talented storyteller who brings history to life.  Linda has been telling stories around the Bay Area and conducts workshops for children and adults.

ARIEL features award-winning songwriters JJ Jenkins & George Petersen, and has been a Bay area music staple for over 30 years, sharing the bill with such luminaries as Santana, Starship, John Lee Hooker and Metallica to name a few.

Stories

• Susan Goldstein, My Trip to California
• Karin Werner, The Tell Tale Heart
• Abe Bernstein, The Discourager of Hesitancy
• Cynthia Cudaback, Hard Shells
• Ann Riley, The Story Spirits

Music

Freddy and the Freeloaders
(Way Better then Your Average Jazz Band)

Susan Goldstein moved to Los Angeles to go to college. When she came to Berkeley, she felt she was, at last, where she belonged. She has found another home at Stagebridge.

Karin Werner began a lifelong love affair with stories when she received her first library card in Cody, Wyoming. Many library cards later, she reaches back into myth and memory to create her own personal style. She is active with Pilgrim Tellers who tell epics and has appeared as Featured Teller in local swaps as well as many school and community venues.

Abe Bernstein is a writer, teacher, actor, and geezer who tells stories from time to time. Some are old, but unfamiliar, folk tales and ghost stories. Some are made up on the spur of the moment. Some are drawn from his life; of those, a few represent wishful thinking, a few are true, and a few, he hopes, are true stories that simply haven’t happened yet.

After operating research vessels, getting a PhD in oceanography and teaching college for seven years, Cynthia Cudaback decided to combine her passions for science, exploration, teaching and storytelling. Her stories combine the mystery and myth of the ocean with personal experiences and real science. From gentle tales of love and longing to tall tales salted with sea spray, prepare to experience the ocean in all its moods.

Ann Riley has been telling stories ever since she needed her first alibi. She tells for Stagebridge, in schools, at the Asian Art Museum, and is on the board of the Storytelling Association of California.

Freddy and the Freeloaders has been playing around the Bay Area for three years, with the majority of the gigs played in Marin County, Richmond, and the City.

Stories

• Tyrone Johnson, “Tyrone “ShortLeg” Johnson and Some White Boys”
• Erica Lann-Clark, “The Goats Know the Way”
• Maria Grazia Affinito, “In Italy”

Music

The Intones: Rick Goodwin, Jeremy Goodwin, Steve Ekstrand, Terry True, Richard Trafford-Owens and Megan Armstrong

Tyrone Johnson started his performing career teaming up with a one-leg tap dancer at honky tonks in Texas in the early 30s. After a brief stay at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility, “Shortleg” (as he is known by friend and foe) started a promising career in the blues / folk genre until an unfortunate incident at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival caused him to lose favor amongst promoters. Tyrone “ShortLeg” Johnson kicked around the Oakland blues scene for awhile after that and there is some vintage TV footage of him performing on a local teen dance show, however, no other recordings or film are available. He was thought to be dead until he was seen fronting a Sammy Davis Jr. tribute band in the summer of 2011 in Dayton, Ohio. (Cast: Tyrone Johnson, Steve Ekstrand, Rick Goodwin, Jeremy Goodwin, Richard Trafford-Owen and Terry True. Director:  Mark Kenward)

Storyteller, playwright, solo performer Erica Lann-Clark lives in a house with a garden full of wild birds, including a band of orioles. She loves to work at the crossroad where the story meets the listener. She’s worked from coast to coast and overseas; told tales at major festivals like National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee and Talk Story Festival in Honolulu; led workshops for conferences, corporations, congregations; and her recent solo show, Shopping for God, ran to critical acclaim at the  Marsh Theater in San Francisco and  Berkeley.… whew!

Maria Grazia Affinito is a local equity actress. She has performed with various companies in the Bay Area and in several independent films.   A sampling of her stage credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (SF Shakespeare Festival), Ana in Displaced (Marin Theater Company), and Nancy in Gaslight (California Conservatory Theater).  In Italy was developed with David Ford at The Marsh.  You can see her next at Solo Sundays, Stage Werx Theatre, on March 25, 2011. 

Stories

• Nancy Pearlman, “Evil Deli” an excerpt from Yeshiva Girl
• Marcelina Delgadillo, “Rufus”
• Ann Riley, “The Painted Fan”
• Sally Holzman, “The Smile”
• Dana Chernack, “A Dog’s Life”
• Kirk Waller, “The True Legend of Stagger Lee Shelton”

Music

John Cowan: Old country blues and jug band music

Nancy Pearlman grew up in New York and then moved to a small Southern town in Northern Florida at age 14. Her life has taken many twists and turns from commercial fishing to glass artist and jeweler. She is a member of the Antic’witties improv troupe, but her most important role is Grandma to two smart, talented, funny, adorable (did I mention smart?) girls.

Marcelina Delgadillo focuses on stories of her life growing up and living in Oakland as well as traditional Latino tales that celebrate her Chicano Heritage. She has been a student at Stagebridge for 3 years, performing at Senior Centers and mentoring at Hesperian School in the San Lorenzo.

Ann Riley grew up telling stories… mostly to stay out of trouble. She now tells for the Asian Art Museum, Stagebridge, various schools, senior residents, and local swaps. She is on the board of SAC, the Storytelling Association of California.

Sally Holzman’s instruction for an exciting, imaginative, creative and friendly retirement is to become a storyteller. She has been practicing this principle for ten years and her life is imaginative, exciting, and oh so friendly.

For 25 years, Dana Chernack, pushed a lawnmower over the manicured hills and dales of Piedmont and Montclair. He then went to work in a warehouse where he fell on his head. This led to a personality change. He is now a writer/performer/desk clerk. He has a wide variety of material. Mr. Chernack is willing to perform for peanuts.

Kirk Waller is the Director of Storytelling Programs at Stagebridge Senior Theater Company.  Kirk’s storytelling is a blend of musicality, movement and emotion.  He is the winner of the National Storytelling Network’s 2010 Emerging Artist Grant and has appeared at storytelling festivals, schools, theaters and various venues in the land!

Waxwing John Cowan sings and plays the old country blues and jug band music in the styles in which they were first recorded, yet with his own deep feelings and expressiveness. He plays them on guitars as old as the recordings he has mined for his material. Delta and Piedmont blues may be familiar to a somewhat knowledgeable listener, but Waxwing John also plays the styles of Memphis, St. Louis, and even Indianapolis among others. His songs are mixed with stories about the early players and the development of the various styles, as well as about the guitars he plays, old ladder braced Stellas and metal bodied National resonators.

Stories

• Terry Stokes, “Spare the Rod”
• Susan Goldstein, “Women’s Studies”
• Al Paltin, “Dream Makers and Dream Breakers”
• Dana Chernack, “Sigor Ros in the House”
• Karin Werner, “A Day in a Life”
• Kirk Waller, “The Legend of John Henry”

Music

The 3-Sixties: Tommy Shea, Susan Liroff and David Sturdevant sing golden rock and doo-wop with great harmonies

Terry Stokes has been telling stories as a Film Editor in Hollywood until he retired a few years ago. Having been told that he was a natural, he’s been telling stories orally at swaps and workshops throughout the Bay area since moving to the bay area several years ago.

Susan Goldstein is an enthusiastic participant in Stagebridge classes and performing arts day camp. She is a retired college teacher of Psychology and Women’s Studies who discovered storytelling as a way to have listeners without having to grade papers. Last year she told the story of “Loving vs. Virginia” at TIOT.

Al Paltin has been involved with Stagebridge for nearly a decade.  His is most interested in Vaudevilles, Musical Theater and Storytelling. Al has been in over 50 plays, musicals, and comedies. Al Paltin loves storytelling so much that if he’s not careful he becomes so immersed in the story that it takes him to another place and time… and if we’re lucky, we get to go too.

Dana Chernack has been a pirate and a poet, but never a pawn or a king. He claims to have an alien ancestor (on his father’s side). He has been married 40 years (to the same woman!). The Chernacks have two grown children, neither of whom has spent a day in jail! Mr. Chernack refuses to get a tattoo.

Karin Werner began a life long love affair of stories when she got her first library card in Cody, Wyoming. Many library cards and stories later, she reaches back into memory and myth to create her own personal style.

Kirk Waller, the Director of Storytelling Programs at Stagebridge, the nation’s oldest senior theater company, teaches storytelling classes and plans storytelling events and programs throughout the local community, in schools, senior facilities, conferences and public venues. Kirk’s passion is telling stories to anyone who will listen.  He has appeared at storytelling festivals, schools, businesses and various venues in the bay area and beyond.

Stories

• Miriam Chaya, “I Talk to the Trees”
• Dana Chernack, “Before La Dreck”
• Susan Goldstein, “Loving vs. Virginia”
• Milt Elbogen, “Maybe Durango”
• Sharon Nichols, “6th Grade on Grant Street”
• Jim Rea, “Learn These Words”
• with Liz Nichols, Stagebridge Storytelling Director

Music

The 3 Sixties, Tommy Shea, Susan Liroff and David Sturdevant, golden rock-and-doo-wop with great harmonies

Dana Chernack is a retired laborer. Presently, he works part time as a desk clerk. He also works at The Greek Theater scanning tickets and doing whatever other chores he is deemed capable of doing. He plans to live happily ever after with his wife of forty years in a bungalow in Bay Point, California. Mr. Chernack will perform his story “When Harry Met Sally” at the University Theater at Cal. State East Bay, November 14-23.

Susan Goldstein is a retired college teacher of Psychology and Women’s Studies who finds storytelling a way to have listeners without having to grade papers.

Jim Rea started attending storytelling workshops and classes in 2006, but he has always been a dreamer of dreams and a teller of tales.

Milt Elbogen indulges his love for spinning fanciful yarns and telling tales of his wretched childhood at Bay Area storytelling swaps. He also visits East Bay schools with other Stagebridge participnts as a performer in plays and to help encourage children to tell their own stories; a very rewarding experience. Milt’s business card reads “Available for Wasting Time.”

Miriam Chaya, actor, director, writer, teacher and documentary filmmaker wrote and performed “Odyssey of a Jewish Woman” a one-woman show which appeared on PBS. She co-directed and produced Timbrels and Torahs, a documentary film, which had its world premiere at the Castro Theatre. She studied improv and story-telling with Nina Wise, and performed in showcase at The Marsh Theatre under the direction of David Ford and Charlie Varon.

Newly and exuberantly retired, Sharon Nichols spends her free time volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club and substituting in the Oakland Unified School District. She signed on at Stagebridge last year and enjoys sharing stories with school children and with seniors at Oakland facilities. She loves drumming with the Isis Rising Healing Circle, reading, listening to music (especially oldies), and watching foreign/indie movies. Last year Sharon was an interviewer for “In Our Own Words”, an oral history project documenting preservation of Negro spirituals. She is pursuing a coaching certificate in Positive Psychology at SFSU.

Stories

• Jeff Byers “One Eyed Birds for Sale”
• Tureeda Mikell “Mother Do Tell”
• Liz Nichols “The Mother Bird”
• Sharon Noteboom “The New Blue Leg”
• Bertha Reilly “In My Back Yard”
• Elaine Stanley “The Day Luck & Intelligence First Met”

Music

Lisa Safran & Chris Faust, original style folk music

Jeff Byers began telling stories the first time he got in trouble with his mother, but he learned to do it for fun as a member of the Storyteller Corps of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He is a board member of the Storytelling Association of Alta California, and studies and volunteers at Stagebridge, telling stories to diverse audiences, from school children to nursing students.

Tureeda Mikell is a story medicine woman or jdeli (African word for French word griot). She is a poet, writer and word historian. Her unique style blends biology, astronomy, African folk tales, and rhyme into her poems and stories. She has worked extensively as an artist-in-residence in local schools, with Stagebridge, California Poets in the Schools and other arts programs.

As the Storytelling Director of Stagebridge, the nation’s oldest senior theater company, Liz Nichols teaches storytelling classes and plans storytelling events and programs throughout the local community, in schools, senior facilities, conferences and public venues. Although she got her invitation to join AARP last year, she prefers to be an honorary senior at Stagebridge where the role models are funnier, more creative and way better looking.

Sharon Noteboom’s storytelling adventures began when she was teaching fifth grade in San Francisco. She found that telling realistic stories to her students, provided a real springboard for deep communication, understanding and discussion. Since retiring, she has been studying and telling stories of all kinds with Stagebridge.

Bertha Reilly grew up with stories all around her in Ireland. For the past ten years she has been a storyteller and actress with Stagebridge, sharing her tales of long ago and far away with little children in schools, older adults in senior facilities, nursing students in local colleges, and public audiences of all ages.

Elaine Stanley is a “Weaver of Stories for Head, Heart and Soul”. A graduate of the Dominican College Storytelling Program, Elaine delights in the gathering of people to share the gifts of story. She enhances her stories with the use of Sign Language, facial expressions, and brings the stories alive with her enthusiasm and energy.

Stories

•  Sally Holzman, “A Little Bit of South”
• Gwen Capehart-Bolling, “Growing Up With Betty”
• Kim Takemura, “Barikan Haircut”
• Dana Chernack, “Paulina!”
• Jeanne Haynes, “The Stove Is White, Part III”
• Liz Nichols, “Creation is a Messy Business”

Music

Stuart Rosh, Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica