The final story session of the winter/spring season was hosted by Lee Porteous who brought together a truly outstanding group of tellers including four prizewinning school girls who delivered their stories with confidence, flawless memory and delightful ways of drawing in their audience.
Meghan Scott – winner of this year’s storytelling book prize presented by the Guild opened the telling with her animal fable “The Mouse Dentist”, in which a mouse dentist outwits a sly fox who is planning to eat his tiny doctor but instead allows himself to be lured into having his mouth glued shut with the promise of good dental health.
Sarah Vincent who had won a prize for storytelling elements in her performances based her story on “The Book of Banshee” by Anne Fine and delivered a spirited verbal duel fought between Estelle “who had turned into a teenaged banshee” and her dad who had been heard to refer to school as a “waste of time but nevertheless required.” He conceded the match with “It’s a deal”, when Estelle declared, “You can make me go to school, but you can’t make me learn!”
In her story “Gloria in Excelsis” Andrea Samuels one again took us to Jamaica painting a colourful canvas of family life in the country starting in the 1940’s with the head of a farm family waiting for the birth of his 7th son only to find that when his wife gave birth, the baby was not only a girl but also afflicted by partial deafness and blindness. Devoted mother-love, determination and a female conspiracy to get little Gloria to school brought success that saw her graduate as the country’s top scholar – a shock to her father who never knew she went to school. Once graduated from midwifery college, Gloria went on to work and teach, never refusing any challenge to be of service and actually delivering 3,000 babies. Though dad had firmly labeled her “as impossible ever to amount to anything,” she went on to signal honours and was presented with The Order of Distinction for Services to the Community. With that, Andrea revealed that all along she had been talking about her aunt Gloria.
The previous year’s Book Prize Winner, Jaya Scott, was selected this year in Nanaimo to perform at the provincials. Jaya told the story of “Ferdinand the Bull” by Munro Leaf. She presented a charming picture of Ferdinand sniffing the flowers and living peacefully in his meadow until 5 men with black hats came to select the fiercest bull for the bull fight in Madrid. That day Ferdinand sat down on a big bumble bee and got stung so painfully that he roared and bucked to put the performances of all the other bulls to shame. The trouble was, once he was in the bull ring and all of the banderilleros, picadores and even the matador were fearing for their lives, Ferdinand once again sat back to enjoy the flowers and had not the slightest interest in bucking or snorting. So he returned to his meadow to live happily ever after.
Mary Vincent had been selected inVictoria to perform in the Provincials in Nanaimo and was also selected to perform a Shakespeare scene at the Highlights Concert in Nanaimo. She made a skilled presentation of Gordon Korman’s little book “Schooled” about a hippie named Cap who comes to public school while his hippie grandmother is in hospital after falling out of a plum tree. Preserving a lot of the dialogue of the original text, Mary demonstrated how Cap made an impact on the school with his wit and strange ways though he returned to his grandmother “Rain” once she managed to get out of the hospital.
Entitling her story “A very determined Woman”, Anne Beatty painted colourful word pictures of family life as she grew up and of having to move about when her father lost his job. Being determined to support the family, mother went to work at S.S. Kresge’s Five and Dime Store and, when finding a pink dismissal slip in her pay envelope, simply tore the slip into little shreds and kept right on working. Some 20 years later, she was honoured for her longstanding faithful service.
Why should a tree with beautiful red flowers be called “Judas tree?”
Searching for an answer, Jacquie Hunt found the answer in legends about two trees that both asked the Lord for special favours. Because its wood had been used as timber to crucify Jesus, the dogwood asked that it should henceforth be too small and weak to be used as lumber. The Judas tree, so named because Judas Iscariot had hanged himself on it, also asked to be too small and weak ever to be used as a hanging tree. Both had their requests granted with added symbolisms of colour and design embodied in their respective blossoms, such as blood-red flowers on the Judas Tree.
Catherine Sheehan’s story “Take One Bay Leaf” – was her version of the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, where the nymph Daphne’s pursuit by the god and her eventual transformation into a bay laurel tree leads to her fulfillment in life.
“The stolen Bairne and the Sidhe” by Sorche Nic Leodhas from “Thistle and Thyme, Tales and Legends of Scotland” was the source of Lee Porteous’ story that brought a very special evening to a fitting close. Starting with the theft of a baby by two Fairies from the Sidh and the rescue of its mother by fishermen, Lee brought her full storytelling skills to bear on following the young mother through her trials and preparations for her meeting with the thieving Sidhs to rescue her child and return to the fishing village to live happily ever after.
Anne Forester, Janna and Catherine Sheehan