Janel Behm, of the Tamiami Tale Tellers Guild, and Walt Belcher, with The Storytellers of Old Tampa Bay, traveled to Woodruff, S.C., in April to participate in the state’s Stone Soup Festival.
Janel was one of the featured tellers. Walt was one of the “new voices,” and he also competed in a Liar’s Contest.
Janel, who has been a porch teller and a Member’s Showcase teller at past Florida Storytelling Festivals, says she was “super excited” that there were two tellers from the FSA at the Stone Soup Festival held on the last weekend in April.
The South Carolina festival takes place in the small town of Woodruff, S.C. (about 25 miles east of Greenville) and it just may be Stone Soup one of the most intimate festivals in the country.
Warm and welcoming, the festival is held in the cozy and historic 134 Muse building on Main Street. Karyn Page-Davies, president of The Stone Soup Institute, is dedicated to preserving the art of storytelling with help from jack-of-all-trades Tom Davies and other Stone Soup supporters.
In addition to Janel, the featured tellers included Jessica Robinson, Laura Deal, and Terrell Shaw. The “new voices” included Walt, Loren Niemi, Mo Reynolds, Teri Lott, Nancy Tolson, Natalie Jones, Gwendolyn Napier, Bonnie Gardner and Gary Buchanan.
“I was nervous about meeting in-person all the new people and tellers who I have admired from a distance,” said Janel. “Then I walked in the Muse performance space and saw a picture of Mary Lou Williams hanging on the wall and I immediately relaxed.”
Janel delighted the audience with her stories, including one about romance and learning to drive a farm tractor.
“Everyone says, ‘it’s so good to be in person with a live audience again,’ and that’s almost a cliché, but, golly, it’s true,” Janel said. “The past two years have given me many performance opportunities via Zoom that I likely would not have had otherwise and I’m grateful and better for it. However, there is something truly Magical about being in the presence of other humans and sharing the experience of storytelling together in the moment.”
“I learned that the rewards of being a featured teller aren’t just getting to share stories onstage, it’s getting to hang out with other amazing tellers and hear their personal stories. Stone Soup provided lodging for me at an Air-BnB with Terrell Shaw and his lovely wife Sheila and Gwendolyn Napier. Gwendolyn rode with me every day to the festival in the Monster Truck (the large rental pickup truck) and we laughed so hard in the ten minutes it took us to get to or from the theater, I’m shocked there wasn’t an accident. I expected to tell stories, I didn’t expect to laugh that hard. The laughter was a welcomed bonus.”
Walt, who told a story about playing tic-tac-toe with a chicken, also enjoyed the experience. “This is such a fun event with such talented people as tellers, and Karyn, Tom, Stone Soup assistant Hunter McLeod, and all the volunteers made us all feel like we were part of a family of story lovers. Every teller got a beautiful and distinctive hand-made soup bowl as a parting gift. I will keep in a place of honor forever.”
Both Janel and Walt hope to attend the 2023 Stone Soup Festival as audience members and participants in the Liar’s Contest.
If you have a story, or a story idea for this blog, please contact Walt at wbelcher47@yahoo.com
Florida was well represented.
It’s a great gathering, yes?
i am so Glad we had excellent tellers to represent FSA
Congratulations to Walt Belcher and Janelle Behm on their performances at the Stone Soup Festival in South Carolina this April, 2022. It is an honor to be invited to this prestigious festival and a great pleasure, too. The Stone Soup Festival treats their tellers with the most cordial hospitality. It is a wonderful festival that offers opportunity for well known tellers to tell their tales and aspiring storytellers to become well known. My beautiful hand made soup bowl complete with the main ingredient, a stone, holds a place of honor in my home and heart. It is a great reminder of a great gathering of storytellers and listeners. Kudos, Janelle and Walt.