BYU students, professors and alumni share their passion of storytelling at the Statewide 12th Annual StoryFest 2006.
March 3 to 5, 2006, award-winning storytellers, professors and six youth tellers will perform and teach through stories at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.
"Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment," said Daniel Bishop, the StoryFest Director. "It predates everything, even cave paintings in my belief. StoryFest is a continuation of this oldest tradition."
This will be the first time that students can attend StoryFest through the Sponsor-A-Student contest, said Anne Beardsley, BYU Storytelling Club president.
"As starving students, an event like this would be closed to us without the generosity of others," Beardsley said. "Thanks to these sponsors, young storytellers have a chance to learn from the professionals and build a few magic memories of their own."
Students who may not be able to attend StoryFest in Salt Lake City can still participate in the Storytelling Club on campus.
The BYU storytelling club was started by a BYU freshman, Rachel Hedman on Jan. 29, 1998. She started telling stories when she was a sophomore in high school and came to BYU assuming a storytelling club existed that she could join. She was disappointed to discover that a storytelling club had existed until the president graduated. As a freshman, Hedman said she decided to write a charter and start up, once again, the Storytelling Club.
Hedman said she is passionate about storytelling,
"It is a way to speak for truth, all stories are true, some are just more true than others," Hedman said. "I always ask, 'What can I share that will make a difference in the world?"
The club meets every Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Spencer W. Kimball Tower. Their purpose is to tell stories and perfect the art of storytelling.
For Sponsor-A-Student information, contact Rachel Hedman at Rachel@storytellingadventures.com. For storyfest information, contact Daniel Bishop at (801) 915-7529 or go to utahstorytellingguild.org.
