Showing titles in Art of Storytelling

Selected Shorts is a weekly public radio show broadcast on over 130 stations to about 300,000 listeners. It is produced by Symphony Space and WNYC Radio and distributed by Public Radio International. The radio show is recorded live at the popular New York City stage show which began in 1985 and still enjoys sell-out audiences today at the Peter Sharp Theater at Symphony Space on Broadway and 95th Street in New York City. Selected Shorts is one of the premiere reading series in New York City.

The entire book of Daniel from the Old Testament is brought to life by performance artist Marquis Laughlin. Hundreds of live performances of this book make the difference as each nuance of emotional commentary gives us insight and makes us feel like we were there.

A lovely discussion between Judith Jones and Alex Prud'homme on their new books, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and My Life in France (co-authored by Prud'homme with Julia Child). As a young editor at Knopf, Jones edited Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and a relationship blossomed between her and Child. Since then, Jones has worked with a glorious lineup of cookbook writers from Madhur Jaffrey to Marion Cunningham, and has become an editorial legend.

For 16 years, Donald Davis has performed during the Christmas season at Fearrington Village, a unique destination community near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hundreds of people fill the seats in this historic barn, now converted for use as an events venue. Recorded live at Davis's December 15, 2007, performance, this audio captures the familiar and special relationship between a skilled and beloved storyteller and the audience that has sustained him year after year.

Everybody knows an Aunt Edith - picky, disagreeable, animal-hating, who couldn't possibly ever have been a kid herself. Well, if you know that Tricky is Jack's escape-artist hamster, you can just imagine the fun in the story "Aunt Edith Meets Tricky." This is just one example of the potential for silliness loaded in this engaging collection, in which master storyteller and songster Bill Harley presents originals, as well as his own, unique takes on old favorites. Others include "Wacka Wacka Woo," "Soap Soap," "Is Not, Is Too," "Tara and the Magic Sack," and "Aiken Drum."

A Grammy-nominated recording artist, Bill Harley - songwriter, storyteller, author, playwright - is known as one of the finest family performers in the United States. His unique combination of song and story, silly and serious, has entertained families for 20 years, and led him to be called "the Mark Twain of contemporary children's music" by Entertainment Weekly.

These wacky, but true, stories from growing up are about trying to figure out how the adult world works, and about having fun no matter how old you are. In this collection, Bill Harley, one of the most prolific and celebrated storytellers of our time, performs "Grownups Are Strange" (and, yes, kids are too!).

In the final play of a trilogy that began with Pretty Fire and continued with Neat, In Real Life finds Charlayne Woodard pursuing her dreams in New York City. From early days as a stuggling actor to being nominated for a Tony Award, the harsh realities of Broadway are balanced by the unusual and comforting characters that touched her life.

The Teachers' Lounge is Bill Harley's newest spoken word recording: a collection of hilarious and dead-on observations about life in elementary school. On this latest recording, two richly detailed and plotted stories of his school experiences ("The Teachers' Lounge" and "The Science Fair") are coupled with three poems.

Whether performing his original tales or retelling an old classic, Bill Harley is one of the liveliest acts going in storytelling for kids. You'll hear a story about a little girl named Sarah as well as Harley's take on what might happen if a kid stayed up all night (something he never got to do as a child) and his version of the old English folktale "Fox's Sack."

In Lunchroom Tales, Bill Harley and his band - the Troublemakers - return to the Delaware Trails Elementary School where Bill once roamed the halls as a student. They kick off their show with the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Different" - but soon, memories get the best of Bill, and he begins to recount adventures and disasters from his former days of glory (or was it torture?). Meet Mr. Hambleman, the custodian (not janitor!) and Mrs. Nottingham, the terrifying 3rd grade teacher (are teachers human, or are they a different species?), explore super cool places like the back of the bus, and enjoy Harley's engaging recreation - through song and story - of what it feels like to be a kid in school.

Mike Daisey is a fierce storyteller, one minute hilarious, the next minute sweet, with a fine-tuned ear for digression. He circles in on his uneasy subject matter, closer and closer, until he exposes the raw heart. The New York Times calls him "the master storyteller" and he has been compared to Garrison Keillor, Spalding Gray, and David Sedaris.

Remember 6th grade, where the question, "Are you cool?" takes on cosmic proportions? Acclaimed storyteller Bill Harley revisits the excitement (or was it torture?) in these hilarious true (or at least real!) stories. His wacky tales capture the essence of what it feels like to be a kid, and will delight and engage children and parents alike.

Bloomsday on Broadway celebrates June 16, 1904, the most famous fictional date in literature, when Leopold Bloom walked around Dublin in the pages of James Joyce's Ulysses. Since 1981, hundreds of acclaimed actors have joined avid Joyceans, writers, critics, and scholars on stage at Symphony Space to read selections from the book that heralded the birth of modern literature.

In five autobiographical vignettes, Charlayne Woodard tells the moving and inspirational tale of her African-American family through three generations of love, struggle, and triumph.

This now out-of-print underground release captures the incredible energy, creativity, and hysteria of the Un-Cabaret's birth. The legendary show was hailed as the "mother-show of alternative comedy" as Beth and her friends forged a new style of comedy that was real, true, intimate, emotional, and sometimes painfully honest.

“When bad sex happens to good people, there is no recourse like full disclosure,” is the motto of Worst Laid Plans, a comedy show staged at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the highly influential comedy organization co-founded by Amy Poehler. True stories of terrible sex imparted by...

In der Kultreihe des Süddeutschen Rundfunks aus den 1960 und 1970er Jahren sprechen die beiden Straßenkehrer Gottlob und Karle über ihren alltäglichen Sorgen und das Zeitgeschehen. Die Straßenkehrer 6 enthält folgende fünf Folgen: 1. "Gottlob macht auf vornehm/Geld verleihen/Müllers Tochter und Hund/Polizeicomputer/Ehefrauen/Träume/Aus dem Bett gefallen/Kollege im Krankenhaus", 2. "Der Höllentraum über Straßenreinigungsmaschinen", 3. "Über saure Kutteln/Image/Pornografie/Demonstration im Schlafzimmer", 4. "Das nächtliche Erlebnis oder der schiefe Haussegen", 5. "Die Gerichtsverhandlung - Anklage gegen Gottlob wegen Passantenbelästigung".

In der Kultreihe des Süddeutschen Rundfunks aus den 1960 und 1970er Jahren sprechen die beiden Straßenkehrer Gottlob und Karle über ihren alltäglichen Sorgen und das Zeitgeschehen. Die Straßenkehrer 5 enthält folgende fünf Folgen: 1. "Wetter und Arbeit/Über das Niveau/Der feine Herr/Herrenmagazin/Spätzle und Sauerkraut/Sauna/Verwechslung", 2. "Vorladung von Amtmann Bläderle", 3. "Personalabbau in der Verwaltung/Karle erfindet einen Straßenstaubsauger/Gottlob findet das Buch 'Bis zum letzten Pfiff'".

Ein literarischer Chansonabend mit Andreas Rebers und den Gitarristen André Matov und Samuel Halscheidt. Andreas Rebers bekommt als Kind Ende der 1960er Jahre an Weihnachten eine Schallplatte von Franz Josef Degenhardt geschenkt. Innerhalb einer Woche kann er alle Chansons auswendig. Degenhardt, der mit seinen Liedern die "Schreckenskammer der deutschen Provinz" beschreibt, wird zu seinem Komplizen, der besingt, was Andreas Rebers in seiner Kindheit im "Kleinen Kaukasus", in seiner Heimat und in seiner Familie, erlebt.