Jonesborough devoted to art of storytelling

Town home to International Storytelling Center, annual festival

“Tell the one where you put the car inside the school,” my son asks his grandfather. And my dad launches into an account of youthful shenanigans disassembling and reassembling a 1960s Volkswagen in his rural Pennsylvania high school.

Most families pass tales around campfires and holiday dinners. They might be about Second Cousin Jimmy distilling corn spirits during Prohibition or the Russian folklore of Baba Yaga. Whatever the topic, stories give us context for our lives, our culture and our world. They explain, enlighten and entertain.

Because storytelling is important to a civilization and its contents, experts at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, are working to promote and preserve its value as an art form. Perhaps the most significant event in the storytelling world is ISC’s storytelling festival in Jonesborough — in the state’s northeast corner about 485 miles from Cleveland. The Oct. 6-to-8 event attracts more than 10,000 people to the oldest town in Tennessee (population 5,100).

During the weekend, visitors can roam from the theater to various circus tents listening. A teller might strut and slink around a hardwood stage floor, whispering so the crowd must lean forward, and then explode into an “outdoor voice” pushing them back into their seats. She will use volume and intonation to emphasize the movement of characters in a folktale. Meanwhile,

another performer will unfold a metal chair and settle into perfect posture, feet on the floor with only his head and eyes darting about the room to see invisible characters and events while he regales the crowd with memory.

The international event started with a simple small-town journalism teacher, Jimmy Neil Smith, in 1973. Then Smith gathered some neighbors and friends into Courthouse Square and told stories. Two years later, an Institution that is now the International Storytelling Center was founded. By 2002, the Center had a formal home — complete with stage and retail store — in downtown Jonesborough.

Today, hundreds of stories are shared during the festival weekend. They range from ghost stories under the stars to a Grammy Award-winning performer punctuating tales with music. All told, they captivate audiences for days.

I sampled one story during a visit last fall and am hungry for more. I tell stories in print and online every day. My goal is to share reality and bring new experiences to readers. But on the stage, tellers such as Clare Murphy

transfix with ancient tales more meaningful than reality.

With her native Irish accent, Murphy sets up her tale at the beginning of time, before people existed. At that time, the gods created “virtues” and “vices.” The virtues and vices were bored and decided to play hide and seek. Tiptoeing and whispering, then shouting obnoxiously, Murphy exaggerates her gestures to personify them one at a time.

In the tale, the gruffvoiced Madness is the seeker. He counts loudly while Stealth and Patience creep away. Eyes open, he immediately finds Stupidity, who forgot to hide. One by one, Greed, Mischief, Serenity and the others are discovered. But Madness struggles to find Love. Frustrated, he repeatedly pokes

a sharp stick into the forest floor, and Love arises with bloodied eyes. Madness apologizes, takes Love gently by the hand and promises to help guide her.

“And that is why love is blind ... and where you find love, madness is close behind,” concluded Murphy.

Like a small child, I wanted to clap and say, “Again, again” so she’d repeat the tale.

Witnessing her performance, I was sad that storytelling is merely a shadow in popular culture. I long for the campfires of my youth where mom made up stories about two kids in the wilderness and dad told tales of rural farm life.

And that is one of many reasons the ISC exists — to preserve the art my parents, and folks through the ages, shared with families and friends. I hope ISC lasts long and spreads the good word through its festival and gatherings around the world. See you in October.

PHOTOS BY PARIS WOLFE — THE NEWS-HERALD Irish storyteller Clare Murphy has honed an exaggerated physicality that brings multiple characters to life in her folktale of the Virtues and Vices. She was artist in residence at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, for a week in October.