The seventh annual Cumberland Mountain Storytelling Festival will be Oct. 17, at the Palace Theater.
This year it will feature a man of many faces: Stephen Hollen. Stephen appears across the country in a number of guises. At this festival he will appear as Buffalo Bill Cody in the afternoon session and as Mark Twain in the evening. Both characters will enthrall you with their tales. Stephen will also be presenting a free storytelling workshop in the morning at 10, before the main festival gets underway. It will be entitled "Using Family Stories to Create Your Own Tall Tales."
The afternoon session will begin at 1:45 p.m. with a section of Youth Voices: Student Storytellers who have been chosen to regale you with stories that they have prepared for the occasion. They will be followed by Jane Marshall, president of the Volunteer State Tellers; Stephen Hollen as Buffalo Bill Cody; Sandy Lewis, a teller of folktales and original tales who is completing an MA in Storytelling from ETSU; Anne Looney Cook, a teller of personal stories about growing up in the Cumberland Homesteads; and Leslie Zeigler, who tells embellished family stories.
In the evening beginning at 6:45 p.m. people will also get a chance to hear Tim Mangan (The Purveyer of Questionable Wisdom) who tells historical stories and stories from his fertile imagination; the Edu-Tellers (Betty and Mike Roe), who have performed tandem and individual stories of all types across the United States and Canada; and, finally, Stephen Hollen as Mark Twain.
All stage performances will be held at the Palace Theatre at 72 S. Main Street in Crossville.
Make a day of it by attending both the afternoon and evening sessions. Attendees will hear a wide variety of stories and perhaps a song or two. If one wants to meet Mark Twain and maybe get a picture, he will be in the lobby from 6:30-6:45 p.m.
All tickets for the Matinee are $5. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students for the evening performance. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
The Cumberland Mountain Storytelling Festival is presented by the Cumberland Mountain Storytelling Guild, an affiliate of Volunteer State Tellers.
For more information, call 931-200-5944.