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Storyteller 1999 — PRESENT Intent: To lift hearts with live, original stories. Anne engages and refreshes audiences with vivid live performances of original and vintage tales. She performs and leads workshops for adults, children, and families in public and private venues. |
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ANNE'S STORYIn the mid-1990's I was desperate to find work that used my best self. Researching careers in the library, I stumbled on a description of a day in the life of a "Chalk-Talk Artist." Enthralled, I read about a man who made his living driving his old beat-up station wagon from church basements to schools to libraries, telling flannel-board and chalk-talk stories. "You can DO this? As a JOB?!!" I cried out. Other library patrons eyed me oddly, but I didn't care. I had found my calling. |
After a few years training and crafting stories, I rented a hall and sold tickets to my first solo storytelling show for adults. To my great joy, people came. And came back. And brought friends! More than ten years later, I have produced and performed over thirty such performances, as well as telling stories for audiences in schools, libraries, festivals and through recordings of my work. Thank you, Mr. Chalk-Talk Artist, wherever you are. |
Story Repertoire
Anne's repertoire includes dozens of thrilling, funny, smart stories for adults, children, elders and mixed-age audiences.
Most are her original work, including third-person fictional stories, personal experience and monologues.
She also tells dramatized versions of historical events and Northwest folklore.
Anne's stories are about ordinary people discovering the extraordinary in themselves, the world and one another.
Spiced with music, improvisation and interaction, her warm, flexible performance style engages and refreshes her audiences.
I felt that your performance was masterful and graciously true. I loved what you were able to do in front of us. Storytelling is an ancient and unifying art which prompts us to retrack our scattered minds along truer lines.
Your effect on me was immediate and deep, and I'd bet the other audience members feel the same right now.Audience member, Discovering Home, 2008
Living in the Driveway: 2007
On the Great Pacific Flyway: 2006
Member: Portland Storytellers Guild, Seattle Storytellers Guild, National Storytelling Network
Teaching Artist in the Schools: Young Audiences of Oregon/SW Washington, The Right-Brain Initiative
Neighborhood Artist: Regional Arts and Culture Council
Storyteller and Writer : 1999 — Present
Storytelling Coach: 2009 — Present
Actor and Co-Founder, As You Are Productions: 2003 — 2006
Mediator, Facilitator, and Co-Founder, Full Circle Consulting: 1995 — 2006
Fiscal Coordinator, Oregon State Health Division: 1989 — 1996
Area Director, Jesuit Volunteer Corps NW: 1984 — 1986
Fast-Track Program, National Speaker's Association: 2009 — Present
Art Without Boundaries, Oregon's Right Brain Initiative: 2009
Improvisational Theater The Brody Theater: 1999 —2008
Mandolin and Music Theory, Jan DeWeese: 1995 — Present
Planning Effective Arts Residencies, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: 2008 — 2009
Backstage Secrets for Onstage Success, Dramatic Difference: 2008
Vocal and Dramatic Presentation, Ana Edler Brown: 1999 — 2000
Master Storytelling, Will Hornyak: 1998
Storytelling Performance, Linda Sussman: 1996
Mediation Certification, Clark County Dispute Resolution Center: 1996
Master of Public Administration, Lewis and Clark College: 1992
Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society, Brown University: 1983
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PERFORMANCE HISTORYSolo Shows for AdultsThings that go Bump in the Night, Oct 08 What Happens Next? June 08 Living in the Driveway, CD Release Oct 07 Discovering Home, Sept 07, Feb 08 Crash! Bang! with Anne Penfound May 07 Quicksilver Moonlight Feb 07 Bread and Salt Oct 06 Happy to Be Here, June 06 Making Believe Feb 06
Making Believe, 2006 Autumn's Grace Oct 05 Are We There Yet? Feb 05 A Tonic for the Soul Oct 04 Calling Oregon Home June 04 Free Will — Use It or Lose It Feb 04 Not by the Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin Oct 03 How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away? 5/03 Mary's Toe Feb 03 Yielding to Temptation Nov 02 Becoming our own heroes Nov 01 Good Luck, Bad Luck — Who Can Tell ? Sept 01 The Radiant Heart June 01 Crossing Over Apr 01 Furry Women and Silken Men Oct 00 Tales for a Midsummer's Night June 00 Fool's Gold Apr 00 Rumors of Paradise Feb 00 Falling Into Grace Sept 99 Ordinary Women of Extraordinary Soul May 99
Ordinary Women of Extraordinary Soul To Suffer and Transform Apr 99 The Quickening Heart Feb 99 Our Quest for the Holy Jan 99 |
Community PerformancesTapestry of Tales, Mult. Co. Lib. Nov 09, Nov 07 Citizen Inv. Awards, Mult. Co. Apr 09, 08 Hearing Voices, Washington Co. Library April 08 Migratory Bird Festival, Ptld. Parks May 08, 06 Featured Teller, Jackson Co. Library, June 07 Madras Summer Festival, Madras, OR June 06 Home for the Holidays, Aurora Chorus : Dec 04 Multi-Artist Shows
With Anne Penfound and Sarah Hauser, Storytellers 3:
With Tobin Golihar, As You Are Productions Shows for All Ages
With Jan DeWeese:
With Tobin Golihar, As You Are Productions: Oregon Lost and Found June 06
The Princess, the Pea, Its Cook
The Princess, the Pea, Its Cook and the Mother Bears. Bears? BEARS! May 05 A Tale of Two Lions Apr 05 The Grumpy Prince Mar 05 When You Wish Upon a Starship Feb 05 Robin Hood Meets Sir Bouncelot Jan 05 The Accidental Princess Dec 04 Nancy Shoe, Girl Detective Nov 04 King Kong Meets King Arthur Oct 04 The BIGLittle Show Camps Out June 04 Flippant Fairytales May 04 Jack and Jill in the Outback Apr 04 Up the Beanstalk! Mar 04 Robin Hood Meets Pip the Obscure Feb 04 Fairytale-Land Revealed! Dec 03 Wacky Wonderland Nov 03 The BIGLittle Show — Debut! Oct 03 |
Anne, why do you tell stories?
Stories are how we make sense of our lives and the world around us. I express my view of the world in the stories I create; characters and themes come alive for me and I want to share them. I love it when people in the audience nod or laugh (or tear up!) because they relate to something in the story I'm telling.Where do you get the stories you tell?
I create them. A character or situation occurs to me, and I talk it out until the story takes shape. Then I figure out what the point of the story is, and prune it down to the essential details. It's always fun to revisit a story I made up several years ago, and re-invigorate it from my current perspective.
Anne shows an early affinity for cowboy tales.
Do you write your stories down?
Not until I've told them a lot and they are pretty well formed. The rhythm and word choices you make in writing a story are very different from a story told aloud. It's a different art form. I have started to craft written versions of my stories to submit for publication; we'll see what comes of that.How do you remember them if you don't write them down?
The same way you remember a story from your life you tell a lot. Even if it is a fictional story, I live it in my imagination until the events and people are real to me, and I can see it in my mind when I'm telling it. Details change depending on the circumstances in which I'm telling it, and that keeps it fresh.Email: anne@annerutherford.com
Phone: (503) 235-2633
Mail: 1014 SE Sherrett Street, Portland OR 97202
What can people expect at one of your performances?
To feel relaxed and invigorated. You create the story in your imagination as I tell it, so it's like going on a vacation in your own mind, with me as tour guide. People often tell me they're refreshed after a performance, that my stories (like those of any good storyteller) sparked memories and ideas for them.How did you get started?
In 1999 I got the idea for a storytelling program for adults. I'd been experimentng with storytelling for a while, and it was time to act! I rented a hall, advertised, and people came. So I kept coming up with themes and putting on more programs, expanding to work with children as well. I also got some training in improvisational theater, which added to the spontaneity of my storytelling style.What's your personal background?
I grew up in a little town in eastern Pennsylvania that was a cross between Norman Rockwell and Stephen King. It provided a lot of vivid settings and characters that up in my stories. I went to college in Rhode Island, then came west to Portland with a volunteer organization in 1983Who influences your storytelling style?
I grew up in the Catholic tradition, which is full of stories. I read a lot as a kid (and still do); Edgar Allen Poe, Saki, O. Henry and Ray Bradbury are authors whose style I emulate. Oral storytellers: Garrison Keillor, Bill Cosby and George Carlin. And anybody I'm around who is telling a good story!Any final words?
A huge thank you to everyone who has given my storytelling a try, by coming to a performance or listening to a CD. Special thanks to those folks who spread the word to other people. This is an oral tradition and that's how people find me, word of mouth. And thanks to you for reading to the end of this interview!
