Events & Classes > Tapestry of Tales > Festival Storytellers
Festival Storytellers
Featured storytellers
Donald Davis-
Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Donald Davis was born in a Southern Appalachian mountain world rich in stories. He grew up hearing gentle fairy tales, simple and silly Jack tales, scary mountain lore, ancient Welsh and Scottish folktales, and-most importantly-nourishing true-to-life stories of his own neighbors and kin. A retired Methodist minister, he has been a featured teller at the Smithsonian Institution, the World's Fair, and festivals throughout the world. He is a prolific author and producer of books and tapes, a master storyteller, and father of four sons. For Donald Davis, storytelling is a way of giving and living life. He invites each listener to come along, to pull deep inside for one's own stories, to personally share and co-create the common experiences that celebrate the creative spirit.
Eth-Noh-Tec -
San Francisco, California
Eth-Noh-Tec is kinetic story theater that is at once precision choreography, lyrical word-weaving, graceful, playful and poetic. By layering ancient Asian mythologies, folktales and Asian urban legends with Asian American sensibilities, Eth-Noh-Tec has created an exciting new blend of storytelling and physical theater. Eth-Noh-Tec was founded in 1982 and is the combined performance chemistry of Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang. Together they mix an alchemy of music, theater, dance and the spoken word to challenge the borders between theater, movement, mime and storytelling. Watch Eth-Noh-Tec perform online!
Antonio Sacre-
Hollywood, California
Antonio Sacre, born in Boston in 1968 to a Cuban father and an Irish American mother, is an internationally touring writer, storyteller, and solo performance artist based in Los Angeles. Since 1993, Antonio Sacre has been delighting audiences with his touching and humourous bilingual stories, challenging solo theatrical performances, and children's books and tapes. His fun-filled performances appeal to all ages. Often they are the first understandable theater experience for Latino children and they are an exciting introduction to the Spanish language for English speaking audiences. He has taught drama, storytelling, and writing to teachers and students nationwide, and worked as an artist-in-residence with high schools in New York, Chicago, and South Central Los Angeles.
Rafe Martin-
Rochester, New York
Rafe is the author of over 20 books that have been translated into many languages including Swedish, French, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, Korean, Japanese and Portuguese. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including three Notable Book awards and four Parent's Choice Gold awards. Speaking as both an author and a storyteller, Rafe has appeared in thousands of schools, libraries, festivals, and conferences in nearly every state-including Alaska and Hawaii-and as far away as Japan. He works with all ages, telling stories and sharing an empowering vision of language, writing, creativity, and imagination. He leaves listeners with an awareness of their own power to create.
Regional storytellers
Will Hornyak-
Milwaukie, Oregon
Formerly a journalist, Will Hornyak travelled widely through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela. While there, he was influenced by Latin American folk culture, music, poetry and storytelling. He turned in his typewriter for a tool belt upon returning to the states, plied his trade as a carpenter and slowly incubated his interest poetry, storytelling and performance art. Studying mythology, drama and storytelling and performing in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Will developed a repertoire of over 60 traditional and original stories for performance. He teaches in the Portland area and performs throughout the United States. A strong advocate for storytelling as a tool in personal and social empowerment he has worked with the Mankind Project, the Multnomah County Department of Juvenile Justice, the Oregon State Penetentiary and the Portland Office of Diversity. Listen to Will talk about the power of language and storytelling. 
Anne Rutherford-
Portland, Oregon
Anne Rutherford creates and tells original stories that connect people with universal themes in their own lives. Anne's repertoire includes more than one hundred hours of stories for adults, children, elders and mixed-age audiences. Most are her original stories, including third-person fictional stories, personal experience and fictional monologues. She also tells dramatized versions of historical events, local folklore, and world- and Northwest-native-folktales. Anne uses her training to bring music and improvisation into her storytelling; her strong and flexible performance style engages, stimulates and respects her audiences. Listen to Anne talk about the process of creating stories, and what you can expect when you come to hear her at this year's Tapestry of Tales.