NEWS RELEASE
STORYTELLING ORILLIA
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Travel into an older Ireland, a new-made Ireland where wit, craft and music walked together, as Storytelling Orillia and the Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH) join to present an evening of tales about wise fools and the foolishness of the wise for World Storytelling Day.
SO… tellers Susan Charters and Sophy Cooper will lead listeners on The Shortening of the Road, a selection of stories out of oldest Ireland on Saturday, March 24 from 7-9 p.m. at OMAH.
Susan Smith on Celtic harp will add enchantment to tales that date back more than a thousand years to the world of the Wondersmith and his Son, where a treacherous lord is defeated by guile, oaths are made and broken, families quarrel and make up, and wonder is always to be found.
World Storytelling Day is celebrated across the world at the spring equinox, and OMAH and SO… have marked it together for four years. Last year featured Cooper and Charters telling stories from The 1001 Nights.
This year, the theme of wise fools led Charters and Cooper to old Irish stories and the history of the Wondersmith, a legendary figure.
Why these stories? “The stories are fun. I like them,” Cooper says. “That what it comes down to.” Charters admits to Irish blood, and a fascination with ancient Ireland.
The journey begins with a $10 ticket, available at OMAH, orilliamuseum.org, 705-326-2159. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Simple refreshments are served to give you strength for the road.
The presenters:
Susan Charters, a co-founder of Storytelling Orillia, has been telling stories professionally for 20 years at festivals, workshops and community events. She and Sophy Cooper have collaborated over the years, mixing stories and music, last year presenting stories from The Arabian Nights and Egyptian dance. Susan also worked with Orillia's Paul Court on Blood and Fire: The Donnelly Project. She is an active member of Storytellers of Canada.
Sophy Cooper has told stories at the Mariposa Folk Festival, the Ottawa Storytelling Festival, at Orillia Arts for Peace, at schools and in the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program for a good part of her 24 years in Orillia. She has loved stories – reading, listening and telling them – since she was a child. As an accomplished musician, Sophy specializes in songs from the British Isles and choral music.
Susan Smith was born in Orillia and attended Park St. Collegiate, where she began playing the French horn. After receiving Music and Education degrees from Western University, Susan taught vocal and instrumental music in the school system for over 30 years. The Celtic harp, which she has been playing for 15 years, is a retirement project. Susan and her husband, John, perform together, with John on clarinet.
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