— Anne
BY 2ND GRADE STUDENT

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.

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.

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, nd 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.
 
If I'm successful (in performance) it sounds like I'm relating a story that just occurred to me. The listener doesn't need to know how many iterations it took me to get there!

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.
 
In 2006 I was hired to create a CD of original stories and songs about urban migraory birds in Portland. Since then I've been using music more in my storytelling, and recording my own stories on CD's as well. I've been storytelling for almost ten years now - my husband and I joke that in another ten years, I'll be an overnight success!

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 1983
 
I loved Portland, stayed here, did a bunch of twentysomething jobs, eventually got a Masters degree in public administration and worked for the state health division. I left that to start a mediation practice, got a taste of being an entrepreneur, and started storytelling. With my husband Ron's support, I"ve been able to become a storyteller full time.

WHO INFLUENCED 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!