Odds Bodkin Family StoryBlast Concert

Master Storyteller Odds Bodkin will present an hour-long family StoryBlast Concert at Round Hill Community Church on Sunday, September 21 at 4:00 p.m. He will tell three stories using different instruments to flavor his performance tales with movie-like scores creating a cinematic experience for the imagining listener. The New York Times has described Odds Bodkin as “a consummate storyteller,” and Billboard Magazine has called him “a modern-day Orpheus.”

His first story, “The Name of the Tree” is an African folktale with hilarious character voices, sound effects (including water droplets), and music on the sanza, or thumb piano. Both kids and parents find it lots of fun.

“The Mysterious Guest” is a Swedish tale performed on Celtic harp, about a farmer whose farm won’t grow food until he discovers a barn elf beneath his cow shed and learns the funny reason for his farm’s misfortunes. This story accompanied by beautiful music, is moving for the adults, too.

“Finn MacCool and the Big Man” rounds out the StoryBlast. Underscored by a dance rhythm on 12-string guitar, this Irish tale tells how an ancient Irish hero and his wife outwit a big man who’s come from a foreign land and isn’t particularly smart or friendly. It includes a sing-along tune with fast clapping for the audience.

Since 1982, Odds Bodkin has made his living as a master storyteller, author, creative musician, and educator. His picture books include The Banshee Train, The Crane Wife, The Christmas Cobwebs, and Ghost of the Southern Belle. His recordings and books have won Indie Awards, Parents’ Choice Gold and Silver Awards, Storytelling World Awards, the Dove Foundation Award, Booklist’s Editors’ Choice, the New York Public Library’s “100 Best Titles for Reading and Sharing” Award, The Children’s Music Web Award, and AudioWorld’s Golden Headset Award, among others.

Twice the subject of Lincoln Center Institute’s “Window on the Work,” he has performed at the White House, the National Storytelling Festival, across America at schools, museums, universities and festivals, and in Thailand and Great Britain. He has

been the artist-in-residence at venues as diverse as Emerson College in England, world headquarters of the Waldorf Schools, to the International Storytelling Center in Tennessee.

Master Storyteller Odds Bodkin will perform his hour-long StoryBlast Concert at Round Hill Community Church on Sunday, September 21 at 4:00 p.m. A reception will follow the concert, in the Church Parlor. Tickets for StoryBlast are $5 for adults and free for children. Round Hill Community Church is located at 395 Round Hill Road in Greenwich. For more information or to reserve tickets, call 203/869-1091 or visit roundhillcommunitychurch.org