Join Us in Paradise
for Five Days of Storytelling Bliss

July 16-20, 2009

Eth-Noh-Tec joins the likes of Bobby Norfolk, Margaret Read MacDonald, Jim May, and Diane Ferlatte in celebration of story. Take part in workshops, concerts, and story swaps with tellers from Hawai’i, the Pacific Rim, and ‘Mainland’ America. Enjoy the gorgeous setting of the Queen Kapi’olani Hotel, just steps away from Waikiki Beach, and immerse yourself in story!

Eth-Noh-Tec Highlights:

• 7/17, 8:30pm – ‘Show & Tell’ of Nu Wa story tours to China, Singapore, and India.
• 7/18, 2:00pm – Storytelling: Transformational Tool – Nancy Wang (Eth-Noh-Tec)
• 7/19, 2:00pm – In Your Face – Facials with Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo (Eth-Noh-Tec), Bobby Norfolk, Jeff Gere
• 7/19, 4:30pm – Public Concert: ($12 Adults, $5 children) Diane Ferlatte, Jim May, Bobby Norfolk, Anne Glover, Margaret Read MacDonald, and Eth-Noh-Tec
• 7/20, 4:30pm – Public Concert: ($12 Adults, $5 children) Diane Ferlatte, Jim May, Bobby Norfolk, Anne Glover, Margaret Read MacDonald, and Eth-Noh-Tec

More details at http://www.nsntalkstoryconference.com/.

Hello Friends! Here’s what’s on our newsletter for your perusal:

Get Your Eth-Noh-News Here!

• India. Had many amazing experiences! Hear about the one sitting beneath Banyan trees listening to tribal women storytellers!?
• Shared curry, lassis and stories of India here at ENT.
• Performed in celebration events for Obama’s Inaguration. Hear all about it!
• Premiered our family immigration stories in Portland – They wanted more!
• ‘Salon! You’re On!’ continues its 4th season! Who’s on?
• Hear about our ‘Slam Bam Story Jam’ May 29-31! Remember the Noh Buddies?
• Summer Story Institute June 12-14. Join us!
• Presenting at the Talk Story Conference in Hawaii mid-July. Two new workshops!
• Our 3rd Orcas Island Storyfest 8/2-8/09. Come enjoy the island and the festival!
• The entire project of ‘Green Grows the Story’ at Buena Vista Elementary School starts in the Fall!
• We’ll be presenting in Singapore and the Philippines! Oh yes! How did that happen?
• Come to China with us Sept. 10-26! Don’t miss this chance!
• Community! What some of them are doing to thrive.

Read the whole story!

Eth-Noh-News – Spring 2009

On Day #6 our storytellers went to the Irula Tribal Herb Center.  This NGO is dedicated to the preservation of folk knowledge of the bio-pharmacopoeia of the forest.  Through millennia, the indigenous Irula people learned of the countless herbs and medication found naturally in their environment.  One “hands on” activity included helping to plant several saplings of Rosewood in their orchard.

STORYTELLING! MADE IN THE SHADE! Later on, the Irula women would introduce us to several of their villages where we would be engaging in cultural exchange through story-swapping.

Jeeva Raghunath, local Tamil storyteller was our liaison between two worlds: Americans and Irula tribes-people as we discovered our common ground: STORYTELLING!  It was as we had imagined, listening and telling stories under the shade of a large banyan tree.  Around us were children, teenagers, parents and elders.  Storytelling is alive and well here in rural India!

Our fifth day in India we moved on to a smaller city, Kanchipuram where we would be taking our storytelling exploration into the realm of more dramatic styles of storytelling: Kattaikkuttu.  This terminology created through the work of performer Rajagopal and Hannah deBruin is derived from a street theater storytelling called Therookuttu, traditionally used to dramatize excerpts from such epics as the Ramayana and Mahabharat.

The Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam, or Kattaikkuttu Youth Theatre School, provides a group of thirty rural, underprivileged children the possibility to combine traditional, in-depth training in the Kattaikkuttu theatre with basic education. The school encourages its students to explore their own artistic and intellectual abilities and to turn them into professional skills. This is the first time that girls participate in professional Kattaikkuttu training. The Kattaikuttu Gurukulam or “Youth Theatre School” was started in 2002 by Rajagopal, trained Kattaikuttu performer himself, and his wife — Dutch Indologist, Hannah M.de Bruin — believing that children born into the koothu tradition must be encouraged to stay on, with the promise of being able to make a living. The Sangam found many children of performers wrenched out of their households and trade by poverty, forced into child labour, and decided to bring them back into the fold and throw in formal education also.

The boarding school offers rural, underprivileged children in-depth training in Kattaikuttu, introduction to other theatre forms (martial arts, puppetry, story writing, contemporary dance), in addition to instruction in regular subjects as prescribed by the State Government. However, it allows for extrapolations and even encourages the students to be critical, creative and think out of the box.

The American storytellers were able to spend a day-and-a-half with the master artists and students as they not only shared their artistry, but hospitality with their wonderful lunch, engaging “hands on” workshops, and allowing us to share our storytelling with their youth.

STORYTELLING WITH BHARATANATYAM On our fourth day in India we took a workshop in the storytelling dance theater style of Bharatanatyam with Master Teacher Uma Ramesh.  Southern classical dance is well known for the full body approach to storytelling, from the shape of body posturing, the intricate hand mudras gestures, to the use of facial gestures expressed as “The Nine Emotions“, this form for centuries has depicted the stories of Hindu culture.

DANCING WITH STORYTELLING Above you can see our storytellers (Alton Chung, Nancy Wang, Simona Miller, Geri Isara and Jeff Byers) exploring this artform. It was so great to see our storytellers taking on the instructions and expanding their storytelling with new PHYSICAL approaches to their performances.  they are working on a famous tale found in India (as a Panchantantra story) and the world over, “The Talkative Turtle”.