Local storytelling group tries to bolster east-end presence

Instead, it’s the art of spinning a tale, explains the publicity and marketing co-ordinator for Ottawa Storytellers – a local group for the area’s best bards – and when a seasoned pro takes the stage, it can be “absolutely remarkable.”

Ottawa Storytellers – which hosted a show at the Shenkman Arts Centre earlier this month, and returns to the east end with two more appearances slated for coming weeks – has a 25-year history in the capital and boasts approximately 100 members, Holloway continues. The group participates in about 200 events on an annual basis, ranging from a regular series at the National Gallery to an upcoming, one-time event at Billing Estates, he adds.

But even with a storied presence across the city, one area not often a venue for the group has been the east end, something Holloway says Ottawa Storytellers hopes to change by boosting their profile.

The first step in that process was booking two nights in the Black Box Theatre at Shenkman, he explains, with one show of personal stories by two local tellers performed Oct. 8. The next production, Holloway continues, will be on Nov. 13, when four Ottawa Storytellers members bring selections from Homer’s Odyssey to life at the east-end facility in a reprieve of a popular show done at the National Arts Centre several years back.

When Shenkman opened, “we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a presence in the east end?’” he recounts, especially as a member of the Arts Ottawa East Arts Council, one of the building’s resident partners. “We would very much like to be part of the east Ottawa community.”

Ottawa Storytellers will also appear in the rural east end later this month, as part of Cumberland Heritage Village Museum’s storytelling festival from Oct. 23 to 25, Holloway adds, instead offering the group’s talents in straight storytelling style rather than the play format Shenkman audiences will see.

“We’re really interested in finding our way into different niches in Ottawa,” continues Caitlyn Paxson, artistic director for the group. “We’re really excited to have a chance to get into a new arts facility.”

As one of the oldest art forms – “humans have been doing it for as long as we’ve been talking,” she adds – storytelling is a talent in need of more promotion, Paxson suggests. With little notice behind the Shenkman performance earlier in October, they were “quite pleased” with an audience of approximately 45 showing up at the Black Box to take in the evening, she recounts.

“We’re hoping to fill up for the next show,” Paxson adds. “We’re definitely interested in continuing to perform at Shenkman. (Bolstering the Ottawa Storytellers name in the east end) is a fairly new initiative. It’s in part because the new arts centre went up. It was really a sign for us.”

For more information, please visit www.ottawastorytellers.ca or www.shenkmanarts.ca