Seacoast Storytellers Guild Celebration Held Sunday

The Seacoast Storytellers Guild and the Portsmouth Public Library invite you to a storytelling concert to celebrate the guild’s 30 year anniversary of sharing stories with people of all ages. This event will be free and open to the public! Light refreshments will be served.

The concert will include novice and professional storytellers from the Seacoast area telling some of their favorite stories for family audiences. Seacoast Storytellers Coordinator Debra Ballou will emcee the event, and welcomes everyone to join her and all the performers for light refreshments afterwards to commemorate this milestone moment, which is rooted in the efforts of so many others before her.

Originally called “Under the Lilacs,” the Seacoast Storytellers’ story began in 1984 when children’s librarian and storyteller, Margaret ‘Marge’ Chasteen, of the Portsmouth Public Library, encouraged other librarians to tell stories to children, in addition to reading books from the library’s collection. For about two years, the library staff, interested in learning the ancient oral skill of storytelling, met monthly in an upstairs activities room of the Portsmouth Public Library.

The group then moved to meeting in private houses. Each month, librarians and other community members gathered for an evening of potluck supper and storytelling in each other’s homes. Their purpose was to help each other develop skills to tell stories to children and other audiences. Musicians, professional storytellers, and other arts and entertainment professionals were invited to share their knowledge and experiences in a workshop environment. By gathering in various locations in different neighborhoods in the Seacoast area, the group spread the word and acquired new members.

Eventually, their membership grew in numbers too large to accommodate easily. They returned in 1987 to having meetings at the Portsmouth Public Library on Islington Street. Under the Lilacs then became The Seacoast Storytellers!

Marge Chasteen and children’s librarian Cathy Whittemore (later Pridham), ran the program until 1990. Cathy continued as coordinator of The Seacoast Storytellers with the assistance of librarian Shelley Hersey (who began her career as a storyteller when Marge challenged her to tell a story without a book). By 1998, The Seacoast Storytellers Guild membership grew to over 20 people. In 2010, Cathy retired, leaving the Seacoast Storytellers under the guidance of storyteller Debra Ballou. Debra serves as facilitator and coordinator of the organization. Although attendance numbers have varied over the years, the Guild, from 1990 through 2014, has provided storytelling programs for children, family, and adult audiences held at the Library, in local schools, and in other venues around the Seacoast area.

During 2000-2004, the Seacoast Storytellers was one of many storytelling groups around the country (and the world) to organize and perform annual Tellebrations on the Saturday evening of the weekend before Thanksgiving in the USA. The Seacoast Storytellers gathered with audience members at Temple Israel on State Street in Portsmouth for an evening of storytelling, refreshments, and door prizes. Donations collected were given to various local charities. Plans are now in the works to rejoin in the tradition of holding a Tellebration for 2014. Please check the Seacoast Storytellers Guild website for details and for other upcoming events: seacoaststorytellersnh.com.

The overall mission of the Seacoast Storytellers Guild is to provide an environment where people can tell and listen to stories, allowing everyone the opportunity to develop their storytelling skills. Now at thirty years and counting, the Seacoast Storytellers Guild continues the tradition of storytelling in the new Portsmouth Public Library built on Parrott Avenue in Portsmouth. The organization is one of five storytelling guilds in New Hampshire.

Submitted text. Courtesy photo.