 
My vaudevillian great aunt
Annette Dare |
I grew up in a little, white house with green shutters and a hip
roof. I loved living there, but it became a family joke that I hated
the hip roof, because I thought that other roofs looked cooler in
our school drawings. Now, whenever I see a little house with a hip
roof, I’m instantly drawn to it. I am the third and last child
— magic in folk and fairy tales, the one who’s lost for
a long time and then completes the needed journey to the authentic
self — not to sound too much like highfalutin’ psyche
gibberish….
Daddio was a
Choir Boy |
Daddio Was a Choir Boy…Mama Read James Joyce
My dad was a salesman who loved to sing and taught us to sing "Bicycle
Built for Two" in harmony. He told me stories and how elves
dance in rings where the ferns grow in the woods. His aunt was Annette
Dare, a singer/vaudevillian on the B.F. Keith circuit. He whistled
out the back door for me to quit playing kick-the-can when there
was a violin concert on television. One moment I’d have my
back pressed against the slats in the Helliwell’s garage, the
next, I’d be in our little den watching ten-year-old Lolitte
Campbell play Mendelssohn on TV. Mom stacked Barbra Streisand albums
and sang along as she weeded out the hall closet, but her special
gift to my brother and sister and me was a love of literature. All
three of us got bachelor degrees in English literature.
From the beginning I loved
self-employment
I started out shy but friendly
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Hey, Man, Let’s Play Records in the Garage
My brother and sister, Pete and Gail, are 7 and 8 years older than
I am, so they came back from college with records of jazz, folk
and classical music. I listened to Pablo Casals rehearsing the Brandenburg
Concertos and fell in love with the music of Bach. My parents took
me to Tanglewood concerts. My brother taught me how to create the
musical staff and gave me an early start in theory and notation.
He wasn’t old enough to drive when he was hired to play drums
in summer stock productions in the Berkshires, and is a professional
jazz drummer now (Peter Dare and Le Jazz Cool). He constantly bought
albums — Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Laura Nyro,
Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell,
Julian Bream, Pentangle, Vivaldi, Handel, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
My sister sang in high school and college groups, and imitated every
nuance of "West Side Story." My brother would cart his
ton of drums to a gig and my mom would say, "Why didn’t
you take up the piccolo?" The first time I heard "I Want
to Hold Your Hand,"my brother and sister sang it with their
green book bags over their shoulders, before getting on the bus
to high school. They also brought home and sang all the folk protest
songs of the ’60s. It all made me love music more and more.
The music and my family impressed me with the importance of civil
rights. My parents taught me always to fight for the underdog.
Fiddles and Eau de Chop Suey
In the fifth grade, I was thrilled to begin violin lessons in the
detached cafeteria of our school. It smelled like American chop
suey in there as we practiced on our rented fiddles with our teacher,
Peter Proud. We liked him so much, we gave him a tie clip with a
G clef on it. Mr. Kenneth Lesem started a youth orchestra in town,
and two of my best friends, Maura and Nancy, and I, practiced in
the high school. I had a crush on the concertmaster, who carried
a slingshot in his violin case. Our orchestra sounded pretty, um,
rough, since we were very inexperienced, but it meant the world
to me to be a part of it, surrounded by all those instruments.
Jan Stocklinski and
Marjorie |
Now for Some Serious Study
In seventh grade, I went to the Community Music School and met one
of my all-time favorite teachers, Jan Stocklinski. Here was a no-nonsense,
conservatory atmosphere with regular "assemblies" at which
I thought my nervous heart would jump out of my nose. I was in awe
of Mr. Stocklinski, and proud when on rare occasions he interrupted
our lessons to tell me something of his personal life. When he was
a little boy, European musicians heard him play and asked his parents
if they could tour him in Europe, training him to be a world-class
concert violinist, but his parents refused. The day he told me that,
his shoulders fell, he turned his back to me, opened a closet door
and brought out the smallest violin case I had ever seen. He showed
me the little violin within, his first. I loved his patience, his
gentleness, and most of all, the feeling that he was looking out
for me, for the secret heart of me, without ever embarrassing me.
He taught me excellent classical technique and music theory. I learned
major and minor scales, did finger-busting exercises and finally
played first violin in the Bach Double Violin Concerto at a Berkshire
Museum concert. Mr. Stocklinski made me feel that my talent for
violin made me special. I needed that feeling very much as I entered
junior high. I was friendly, but shy and terribly insecure. Years
later, after he died, I became close friends with his pianist widow,
Marjorie, 50 years my senior..
Middlebury College
I was an English major at Middlebury College, Vermont, and I continued
violin and played in the college orchestra. I also played in some
pit orchestras for Gilbert and Sullivan’s "Pirates of
Penzance" and Behan’s "The Hostage." I took
classes in music theory, performance, composition, history and ethnomusicology.
I worked in the college music library and listened to absolutely
everything from Pygmy music of Africa to the ondes martineau. The
English department at Middlebury College deserved its reputation
for excellence. I also took art history, tons of French, and then
German, even spending my first summer after graduation in the intensive,
famous, summer Middlebury College Language Schools, where I performed
in German in a German cabaret under Herbert and Eva Nelson, artists
who performed in the days of the Weimar Republic. I had always loved
theater, but it took me till several years after college before
I summoned the nerve again to try out for community musicals. Those
gave me a lot of joy and confidence. I played Laura in the "Glass
Menagerie," and Mabel in "Mack and Mabel."
As an English lit. major I read and loved the classics, and wrote
constantly. I especially loved D.H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, e.e.
cummings, W.B. Yeats and Thomas Hardy. After college I was crazy
about the classic Russian novels. In 1977 I graduated cum laude
with honors in English.
Middlebury received 5,400 applications for admission for a class
of 515. "U.S. News & World Report" magazine has ranked
Middlebury College fifth among national liberal arts colleges in
its year 2000 edition of "America's Best Colleges."
Wandering
I was out of college for l4 years (typical Ramayana epic length
of being lost in the wilderness) before my education and predilections
came together in my work. I went without direction in many jobs;
I waitressed, wrote obituaries for a newspaper bureau, worked in
a bookstore, as a secretary, sold insurance, freelanced in advertising
writing and graphic design, all the while feeling pretty desperate
and broke. The economy was terrible! Then, my sister-in-law, Ruth
Danckert Wells (author of A to Zen, Picture Book Studios)
and The Farmer and the Poor God, Simon & Schuster) invited
me to work part time in her children’s bookstore, A Likely
Story, and I loved the children’s books. That job enabled me
finally to get the first job suited to my interests — as children’s
librarian for a branch of a big city library. I did programs for
700 preschoolers thru sixth-graders per month. It was there that
I realized two things — one, I had come close to finding my
calling; two, I wanted to be my own boss. So I left after a year
and hired myself out to preschools and fairs to tell stories, sing
(I bought a used guitar and worked up the chords Sherry had taught
me in fifth grade), and play fiddle tunes. In the beginning, I worked
part-time running an after-school program for the Girls’ Club
and was development director for a small parenting magazine. I wrote
copy, sold ads, and reformatted the publication till we won a most-improved
award from the National Parenting Publications at their national
conference.
More Arts Training
Holly Pearson/Voice Holly taught me to relax my voice to
achieve smooth vocal shifts.
Acting for Non-Actors/University of Massachusetts with Barry
Langdon I loved this class so much, I took it twice. Barry is
brilliant at getting you away from the script to feel the subtext.
Deborah Henson-Conant, Mike Michlon, MJ
& Carolyn Powers |
Celebration Barn/Tony Montanaro, Storytelling and Movement
Here is a real mime/storytelling master, who helped me break through
as a storyteller. I learned how to rehearse a story, how to adapt
mime to add effective physicalization to the telling. Tony studied
with Marceau. He had us at his theater barn for an intense summer
week. I met Motoko, hip harpest Deborah Henson-Conant, Ruth Stotter
and others there. It was exhausting, physically demanding and totally
inspiring. At the end-of-week public show, I performed "Blackbird’s
Drum," a folktale from India, and after the show I looked up
at the stars feeling I’d passed a big test. It wasn’t
the world’s greatest performance, but it felt like it to me.
The following week I found the guts to tell it at the Iron Horse’s
open mic in Northampton.
Randy Judkins/Character I went back to the Barn a few summers
later and lost 11 pounds in one week in the summer heat, acting
insane with some extremely funny characters studying character,
among them, Keith Haddrill, cruise ship ventriloquist; Michael Michlon,
new age vaudevillian; Henrik of Denmark, cruise ship entertainer;
and others. We engaged in all kinds of crazy theater activities
to develop rounded characters for our work, exploring voices, movements,
personality quirks, mock histories and backgrounds, even slapstick.
The week culminated in a show at which I told "The Dancing
Skeleton" with fiddle.
Dan Peterson/Movement and Voice Dan has a Ph.D. in ballet,
and taught me his unique combination of Feldenkreis/Alexander technique,
which focuses on the whole body as the instrument of the voice.
He taught me folk dances, singing, movement, and coached my stories.
MJ in pink with
Jay O'Callahan and friends |
Jay O’Callahan and Doug Lipman/Storytelling & Creativity
Weekend Workshop Intensive Here I met more wonderful, creative
people, among them, Teresa and Frank Whitaker, Wess August, and,
of course, Jay O’Callahan and Doug Lipman. This workshop was
powerful, because the entire atmosphere was one of appreciation
and support. I also made some very special friends.
Brattleboro Performer’s Retreat
Want to have a ball? Hang out with Alexander, King of Fools; Jackson
Gillman; Henry the Juggler; Cynthia Payne; Rob Peck and other fabulous
performers for a week of cloistered rehearsal and group antics.
The culminating show (January) is always packed.
Wandering Minstrel
For many years I was also a wandering minstrel, solo and with various
groups. The Mime Circus taught me lots about performance and trouping.
They also taught me how to make great costumes. One year I formed
the Merry Minstrel Revels with Joan Robb and Roy Drew. We sang carols
at the Springfield Library & Museum’s Holiday Gala, where
I had previously soloed. I wandered at Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s
Kids’ Day, and for 5 years at Westfest, always putting together
a new costume and strolling the grounds with songs, guitar, fiddle
and recorder. I’ve hung up my bloomers, in case you’re
wondering. But this year will mark my third performance at Norman
Rockwell Museum’s December holiday event.
I performed for five years at Northampton's First Night.
Other Watersheds
The Massachusetts Cultural Council accepted me as a Roster Artist.
That was one big hoop! It required enormous planning and writing
of templates for school residencies and events. This enables schools
to receive funding support for my work.
The Recording Studio
Jim Armenti is an outstanding musician who runs his own recording
studio. I recorded "Books Are Celebrations" with him and
won a 1999 National Parenting Publications Gold Award. Now I’m
working on a c.d. of ghost stories "Howlarious Halloween."
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MJ at Doggone
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MJ was invited to tell
"Old Sally Cato"
at the Sterling, Virginia LAUGHS
Festival, June, 2001
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Storytelling Festivals
Doggone, Chester, Connecticut
Three Apples, Harvard, Mass.
Mark Twain, Hartford, Connecticut
LAUGHS, Sterling, Virginia
Connecticut Storytelling Festival
(April, 2002), New London, CT
Schoodic Arts Festival, Maine
Kids with pumpkin masks |
Creating the Pumpkins Was Part of the Story
The Children’s Study Home-Learning How to Teach
I met Mark Lyon, principal of the Kathleen Thornton School, when
I was promoting summer reading club for the library in 1989, and
ever since, he has been a key supporter. Since 1989 I’ve been
visiting the alternative elementary school for severely at-risk
kids to present many different theme programs. Most years I visited
monthly, sometimes supported by grants from the Springfield Cultural
Council, of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. I did a unit that
connected storytelling to science, one on mythology, one on the
hero’s journey, and my yearly pilot programs for each new summer
reading club theme. Most of all, the kids love to act out stories;
in fact, every where I go, children are wildly enthusiastic to do
so. Because I’m on the road meeting new people all the time,
I love the long relationship with the school. They teach with positivity
and encouragement there-the best kind of model, I believe.
Preschool Regulars
Another regular visit is to a local Day Nursery, where twice a month
I play music and tell stories in a participatory, pre-school centered
way. Most of my first programs as a self-employed minstrel were
for a zillion preschoolers, and I still love their openness and
eagerness to do and try everything. I love their energy and their
innocent naughtiness. They are fun and love life.
I have a warm spot for the kids and teachers of Kennebunk, Maine,
who keep calling me back to perform in school and at their Reading
Olympics. I entertain 700 Kindergarten through 3rd graders at their
ceremony, and they are as good as gold.
I spent several semesters teaching adults storytelling at our local
community college’s continuing education department. Sometimes
I coach tellers, one-on-one.
I adore afterschool programs, especially in Waterbury, Connecticut,
where they keep me coming back. It’s nice to have just 20-50
kids squished together in a school library, all listening to stories
and taking turns telling them. We have a marvelous time. Everyone
gets applause. Residencies in storytelling in schools have given
me deeply rewarding experiences. I love the classroom and closer
work with individual students that workshops allow. I see talent
everywhere! How wonderful to see students applauding their peers!
In December, I spent a week story coaching 3rd and 4th graders at
Mountain View School, Bristol, CT.
Self-Taught, Oh, Yeah…
…Because ultimately we’re all alone with ourselves in
a room. So, it’s practice, practice, practice, read, read,
read — the body of world folktales from which I draw most of
my storytelling is vast. It’s enabled me to collect lots of
wonderful anthologies. I tell audiences, I even like the way books
smell. But I’ve learned tons about how to tell stories from
my eight pilgrimages to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough,
Tennessee. You simply soak yourself in stories, told in various
ways. People who love stories tend to be incredibly friendly.
Jonesborough Tent |
Experience is the Best Teacher…
The sheer number of performances I’ve given, always listening
to audience reaction, has been an even greater teacher than Jonesborough.
Even after all these years, the more I tell, the more fluent I become;
the more relaxed I am, the more freely expressive I am. In this
way the audience and I are "conversing" with each other,
and I get to be the instigator of fun, laughter, joy, imagination,
even the (broadly speaking) spiritual. It’s my way of fulfilling
my old wish to be a "catcher in the rye."
"Your easy manner and gentle approach, your rapport with an
audience of varied ages, and your ability to accommodate your program
to the interest of the group certainly added up to a spectacular
evening!
Because of these qualities, it was quickly apparent that you and
the audience were in tune with each other, each adding to and building
upon the other’s sense of fun — as if everyone was a part
of the performance. Thank you so much for providing a fanciful evening
for so many! I hope we will have you come back soon, but now that
you have become known, we may have to move to a larger space!"
--Ann V. Holliday, Children’s Librarian, Windsor Locks Public
Library
Performance is a great joy. Mutual performance is the greatest!
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