Katherine Grier
Katherine has been telling stories formally for the past thirty years at events such as the Toronto, St. John’s and Ottawa Storytelling Festivals, the Ottawa Storytellers’ Epic Stories from the Ages series, and the NAC’s 4th Stage series – also in libraries, cafes, community centres, and prisons. She tells frequently to children and young people in the schools through MASC and the Ontario Arts Council/Artists in Education Program. As co-founder and original co-director of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program (which is based on storytelling and oral-language play), Katherine has worked extensively with parents and their pre-school children and has facilitated many training workshops on storytelling and program delivery. Lately, she and actor/director Eleanor Crowder have developed the Family Album Project, through which they work with adult immigrants, using personal and family storytelling to help dissolve barriers to integration and belonging.
Material
Katherine’s repertoire is made up of old tales with their distilled wisdom – folktales, legends, and myths – as well as stories shaped from her own and others’ experiences. She loves stories of transformation, journeying and honest trickery; she values clear language, strong images and an undercurrent of humour; and she is interested in the way stories allow us to explore our own experience, consciously or not. Katherine tells to people of all ages, from pre-schoolers to seniors.
“Katherine Grier finds stories that touch us – heart and soul – and tells them in a clear, kind voice full of peace, honesty, richness and gentle humour. Fortunate are those who have an opportunity to hear them.”
Elinor Benjamin,
Storyteller & retired Asst. Regional Librarian,
West Nfld/Labr. Division, Prov. Public Libraries
“Katherine is a highly skilled and effective storyteller and teacher. The students were just as impressed with her, as she managed to captivate and engage all of them in her stories and in the activities that followed. We even had comments from parents that their children had come home and recounted the stories she had told in great detail.”
Sharon Hickey-Sano, teacher, Churchill Alternative School, Ottawa
Availability
Katherine is available both on weekdays (and evenings) and weekends, for performances and workshops.
Rates
Rates vary with your needs and circumstances.
Contact
Websites for Family Album, my current show with actor Eleanor Crowder: www.asteriskrising.ca
For work through MASC: www.masconline.ca (Artists>Literary Arts)