Tale spinners Raconteurs at Mountain Storytelling Festival will share tales of sailing expeditions, a compassionate bus driver,

LOVELL – The Brick Church for the Performing Arts will open its 2009 season with the Mountain Storytelling Festival at 7:30 p.m Friday, May 29. The evening will feature five storytellers from the Mountain Storytelling Guild, an association of tale spinners from western Maine and nearby New Hampshire.
This sampler will showcase a wide range of stories for adults and families, blending folk tales and true stories, fact and fiction, hilarity and drama. Andy Davis of Albany, N.H. will bring out a new story, “Every Dog Has Its Day,” in which personal experience frames an eerie Scottish legend. Traditional Scotland features again in Madison teller Olga Morrill’s rendition of a northern folk tale about a seal hunter’s extraordinary, and dangerous, adventure.
Adventure moves south in the British Isles with “Alfie’s Autumnal Adventures,” a side-splitting and heartwarming story by Marion Posner of Tamworth, based on the true story of an English bus driver’s journey across Europe to rescue refugees. (“Oh, Alfie, you can’t dear,” said his wife; “you are geographically challenged!”)
Two other stories are rooted in Maine and intermingled with tales from world culture. In “The Lion-Maker,” Jo Radner, Lovell storyteller, weaves a Sufi parable around the true history of a Maine farmer who was knighted by Queen Victoria for his amazing – and sinister – scientific inventions. Finally, in “Jordan’s Delight,” by David Neufeld, a gifted Swedish artist, a Down East sailing expedition turns into an otherworldly love story.
All five raconteurs are celebrated professional performers and their program will demonstrate much of the variety of the contemporary art of storytelling.
Tickets, available at the door, are $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under. The Brick Church for the Performing Arts on Christian Hill Road is off Route 5 in Lovell Village. Refreshments will be served. For more information, go to www.lovellbrickchurch.org or call 925-2792.