Cincinnati’s favorite storytelling event returns to Westwood November 14-16 with three nationally recognized storytellers taking center stage.
Covington’s Paul Strickland, Festival Artistic Director, will be one of three headliners of this year’s festival.
Stickland is a professional storyteller and theatre artist who lives in Covington. He has well over seven hours of unique family friendly stories in his repertoire, including reupholstered folk tales, fairytales for adults and future adults, tall-tales and even historical stories that just happen to have never happened.
He has been a Featured Teller at the National Storytelling Festival, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, and many more major storytelling festivals across the U.S. Always adapting to whatever audience is in front of him, he loves telling stories in every imaginable environment, from comedy clubs to elementary and middle schools, corporate events and even two prisons – where he was not an inmate at the time.
Collections of his stories have won “Best of Fest” honors more than 18 times at Fringe Theatre Festivals in the U.S. and Canada, and his shadow and flashlight ghost story play was featured Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse. Selections from his comedy performance “Levels of Difficulty” are still played nearly every day on SiriusXM radio.
Appearing with Strickland will be Lyn Ford and Andy Offutt Irwin who will join in delighting audiences young and old over three days of live storytelling at West Side Brewing, the Westwood Town Hall, and the Westwood Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library.
Two of the festival events this year will be completely free of charge, including one for children and families on Saturday at 2 p.m. and one late-night event for adults only on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
Thursday night’s shows, “Gather Round” and “Twisted Tales,” will both be held at West Side Brewing in the back room. Last year’s “Gather Round” sold out, so it is recommended to secure advance tickets. Friday night’s shows include “Laugh Riot!” at West Side Brewing, a short dinner break, and then the much-anticipated ghost story show “Spooky Stories” across the street at Westwood Town Hall.
Saturday will include a wide variety of programming, starting with “Children’s Stories,” a free show for children and families at the Westwood Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library, and then a guest performance at Town Hall featuring the best of “True Theatre.” “Old Tales Told New” will feature masterful and entertaining reimagining of age-old stories, and the closing show “Two Truths and a Truth, Hosted by a Liar” is sure to delight and entertain.
Most shows are for adults and children ages thirteen and up, with the exception of the Saturday afternoon library show which is specifically for children and families, and the Thursday night late show which is restricted to adults ages 21+.
Advance tickets and passes are on sale now at cincystoryfest.com/buy-tickets
