By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
After two years without a live in-person storytelling event, organizer Ellen Frankenstein is looking forward to bringing together tellers and listeners in the same space Tuesday night.
“Sitka Tells Tales” will be back at 7 p.m. Tuesday at BEAK restaurant, with the theme “Jumping Ship: Stories of Change of Course.” The program will be broadcast on KCAW-FM and carried by Zoom at the same time it goes before the restaurant audience. The on-site audience is limited to 20, and the seats are sold out.
The event is presented by Artchange Inc. and KCAW.
The storytellers will talk about their lives changing course in various ways, under the “Jumping Ship” theme, said Frankenstein.
“I get my inspiration for these events from conversations I have with people,” she said.
On a walk, a friend told her about moving home from abroad to look after her parents, and Frankenstein thought the general topic of transition and turning points would work well as a theme for a storyteller program.
Ellen Frankenstein emcees a story telling event in 2017 at the BEAK restaurant. The Sitka Tells Tales program is returning to a live format at the BEAK after a two-year
pandemic hiatus. (Sentinel file Photo)
“I thought it was a nice theme because of COVID and how we’ve had to change and pivot,” she said.
Storytellers for Tuesday’s show are Connie Sipe, Lina Kapp, Erin Fulton, Freya Shrestha, Jay Stillwell, and Ben Kinzet.
Each story is six minutes long.
Frankenstein works with tellers weeks in advance to hone their stories, which are told without notes. She said her favorite part is bringing the tellers together, with participants reviewing each other’s work and making suggestions.
“I love how everyone interacts,” she said. “It’s fun to get people together – it’s key to what we do.”
But this has been possible in the last two years only by virtual meetings on Zoom. The last time Sitka Tells Tales was presented before a live audience was in March 2020, on the theme “Picking up the Pieces.”
After the pandemic hit Frankenstein worked with KCAW to figure out how to keep storytelling going in a COVID-safe manner. About 11 months later, Sitka Tells Tales was back with a variety of storytelling evenings live on KCAW and also by Zoom.
Frankenstein has been involved with live storytelling since she worked with Elise Pepple on a few events starting in late 2015. It’s been a project of Artchange since then.
Frankenstein said the events are as appealing to her now as they were when she started.
“Because I love helping us listen to other people in the community,” she said. “If you hear stories you’ve never heard from someone you know, it creates new connections.”
Frankenstein, a documentary filmmaker, said the storytelling is more “instant gratification” compared to making a film, which might take two to four years.
“I love creating and working in nonfiction,” she added. “Something about true stories and real life that’s fascinating.”
Ben Kinzer, 24, an Americorps volunteer, said he plans to talk about the different apartments where he has lived in Sitka – a total of six in 18 months.
He said he enjoyed the storytelling process, and felt the main challenge was coming up with a topic.
“It then fell into place,” Kinzer said. He also enjoyed getting together with the other storytellers via Zoom, getting to know them and hearing their processes.
Lina Kapp, 23, is making their first appearance as a storyteller, after almost six months in Sitka as an Alaska Fellow at Mt. Edgecumbe High School.
“It was a fun, creative project,” Kapp said of the Sitka Tells Tales process. Kapp and Kinzer said the high point so far was the Zoom get-together last week, when the six presenters did a dry run and afterward and provided feedback and encouragement to one another.
“It made me feel excited instead of terrified,” Kapp said. “I’m looking forward to hearing everybody else’s stories (on Tuesday) and I think it will be fun.”
Frankenstein said even with a live audience back at BEAK, it will not be like past shows, because limits on group gatherings are still being advised.
“We used to love to see how many people we could pack into the BEAK, Fisheye and Mean Queen,” she said of the main venues of past shows. “For now we’re limiting the audience to 20.”
Those who miss the live broadcast on 90.1 and 104.7 FM can find an edited version on Artchange’s website and podcast platforms.
