Book a Teller

Gail Anglin, a founding member of Ottawa StoryTellers, has entertained audiences in Canada and the U.S. where she has told at festivals, in schools, in university classes, at business sessions, at organizational events, on radio and T.V., and to sold-out performances at the National Arts Centre’s 4th Stage. Gail, an accomplished singer and musician, often incorporates music into her shows. In addition to being a teller, Gail directed the “Spirits of the Times” shows that Ottawa StoryTellers present at the Billings Estate.

Material
Gail is a versatile performer. From her wide repertoire of stories for adults and children – including ghost stories, stories about historic figures, epics, stories about contemporary issues, personal stories, and stories just for fun - she can create programs for any age audience and for any occasion. She is especially known for her keen sense of comic timing.

“I found our guest speaker, Gail, to be fantastic! She really inspired me and the class to seek out new ways to make stories a part of our classrooms”
student in a teacher education class

“Physically very strong… voice very good… and presence quite wonderful.”
Ottawa writer and director Jan Irwin

Availability
Gail is available weekdays and weekends, daytime and evening for shows and workshops.

Rates
Rates available upon request.

Contact
email: gail.anglin@sympatico.ca, or call 613-745-3689.

For more than 30 years Jennifer has told stories to a diversity of audiences.

Performance Highlights include:
• The Book of Spells: A Love Story; with Jan Andrews: toured in Wales, Southern Ontario and most recently headlined at the Midsumma Festival in Melbourne, Australia
• The Fourth Stage of Canada’s National Arts Centre: Seven years telling at Speaking in, Speaking Out
• Storytelling festivals: Honolulu, Ottawa, Toronto, Eastern Townships, St Marys, Vancouver
• Stories From the Ages: 13 years telling at both the weekly winter series and long summer telling devoted to epic.

Jennifer’s educational work has been widely recognized through inclusion in the following juried rosters:

• Artists in Education, Ontario Arts Council,
• MASC www.masconline.ca
• Prologue to the Performing Arts (www.prologue.org)

Training:
Jennifer has a special interest in voice and movement. She has completed five week intensive at the National voice Intensive and the Roy Hart international Voice Center as well as undertaking workshops with many master storytellers.

Availability:
Jennifer is available on an on-going basis daytime or evening, week days and week-ends. She offers both performances and workshops

Rates:
Rates available on request

Contact:
email: cayleyjennifer@gmail.com; phone: 613.256.0353

Kathie is an animated teller with 28 years of active experience.

Her telling has taken place in libraries, churches, summer camps, private parties, public and high schools in Eastern Ontario as well as at Concordia University and for Girl Guides of Canada. Kathie has taken part in the Ottawa Storytelling festival on numerous occasions and participated in the Toronto Storytellers Festival three times She has told on the 4th Stage of the National Arts Centre Arts Centre and shared the position of artistic director for the Fourth Stage’ 2005-6 season. In 2004 and 2005 she co-chaired the Ottawa Storytelling Festival.

Currently Kathie leads the Introduction to Storytelling workshop for Ottawa Storytellers.

Kathie has participated in Storytelling and drama workshops with Storytelling Toronto, Toronto School of Theology, Ottawa Storytellers, Lorraine Kinsma Theatre for Young People, Ontario Arts Educators Institute, Puppet Mongers Theatre and at Storytellers of Canada Conteurs du Canada conferences.

Kathie's desire is to light a verbal candle, drawing the audience closer. She likes the taste of sharp, keen, vivid words in her mouth. Words that will create a picture in the Listeners mind as the story reveals itself.

Material

Kathie is most comfortable telling to school children age 4 through grade 8. She delights in the mischief of folktales, the power of myths, and the true adventure of historical pieces

When storytelling for youth groups or schools she creates chants and participation stories to enrich the theme of the event and involve the audience.

Over the years Kathie has compiled and presented a number of engaging programs for adults and senior adults. Stories by and about naturalists John Muir and Grey Owl. She relishes telling literary pieces by Thomas Raddall as well as contemporary authors. Kathie has researched and created stories about Canadian historical figures such as Thomas Macintosh, John Rowand and Marguerite du Roberville.

Availability

Available year round days, evenings, weekends

For performances and workshops

Rates

$275 – $375 for a 2 -3 hour presentation of 2 to 4 sets

Other times and prices are negotiable

Contact

email: kompasshouse@bell.net  Phone: 613.228.2195

im has over ten years experience as a storyteller and has performed regularly on the NAC fourth Stage since 2004, as well as at storytelling festivals in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and Saint Mary’s. She is a MASC artist in schools and for seniors and also performs in cafes, pubs, museums, parks, and at story slams. Kim has performed frequently for Ottawa StoryTellers, at Stories & Tea, and she was one of the tellers featured in the OST & 2Women Production's telling of The Iliad in June of 2014.

Material

Kim is known for autobiographical material - humourous, entertaining, and engaging stories about living as a person who is blind, as well as folk tales and some historical material. Kim is comfortable with audiences of all ages. What happens when she and her brother find a device that is supposed to allow us to walk on water? How does a totally blind university student knock a cyclist from his bike? What happens when a blind person drives the family motor boat? What happens when young Kim tries to hatch a dragon from chocolate eggs? Be prepared to be amused, entertained and engaged!

Kim has created a one woman show “Flying in the dark” all about growing up and thriving as a blind adult. It can be performed and adapted for audiences of all ages and sizes and always meets with high praise from audiences.  It is being performed regularly.  Kim is also a paralympian and performs stories about her paralympic experiences.

"Kim's storytelling is nothing short of enchanting.  When telling life stories, she manages to bring us into her world so that we can see, feel and touch everything around her. . . .  Kim tells stories with a light touch, a wonderful sense of humour and many dashes of sheer inspiration."

(Lucie Roy)

"Kim takes her listeners on journeys from which they return with a new understanding and perspective of the places and people they have visited.  Kim's stories are favourites in our family - our children love them as much as the adults do."

(Sherri Yazdani)

Availability

Available daytime, evenings, weekends. Available to tell to small and large groups and to offer workshops, especially on learning to tell autobiographical (family) stories.

Rates

Rates may be negotiable for non-profit organizations but generally start at $200 and up

Contact

email: kimjkilpatrick(at)gmail(dot)com; Phone: 613.567.7137

profile at www.masconline.ca

Hello, my name is Colette Laplante and I am a storyteller.

Stories have been an important part of my life. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed listening to stories.

And I have been telling stories to friends and family for as long as I can remember.

Now, as a professional storyteller, I tell them to people of all ages and in all kind of venues. I have entertained at community centres, coffee houses, the Bytown Museum, the Children’s Storytelling Festival and the Unitarian Seniors Centre. I’ve told campfire stories to children at the Billings Estate and the Tucker House Renewal Centre. I am told my storytelling is very compelling, and there is a nothing more satisfying to me than the feeling that people are immersed in my performance.

Material

My repertoire includes traditional tales from Northern Europe, Japan, China, Germany and New France and true historical stories.

Most of my historical stories are about this city. As a tourist guide, I love telling tales about the colourful people who made Ottawa what it is today. But I also like telling stories about people who have followed their dreams and done extraordinary things.

If you are looking to hire a storyteller, let me know what your needs are so we can work together to create the best program for you and your audience.

Availability

I am available throughout the week, during the daytime and early evening.

Rates

Rates available upon request.

Contact

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at cjlaplante54@gmail.com or at 613-834-1869.

Years of experience on board Canadian Coast Guard vessels and the maritime environment have fuelled the fertile imagination of Nicole Fournier, aka Capitaine Bonnefemme. Stemming from her past as an educator specializing in young deaf people, her gestures and movements most certainly complement her animated mimics and expressions.

Her journey took her from Laval to Sydney, Nova Scotia and from Québec City to Ottawa, via the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Now retired near Gatineau, she writes her own stories and tells them in schools, libraries and themed events.

Her adventures, intimately linked through her characters and her more than colored bloodline, take place mainly on board her ship, the "Porte-bonheur" (Lucky Charm). They draw you in and leave you with a delightful sense of wonder... What if it all truly happened?

Material

My stories are adaptable to all group of ages from 5 to 105 and last about 15-20 minutes and 25-30 minutes accordingly with the group of ages and allocated time.  Subjects include: adventures, challenges, Christmas stories, teamwork, the environment, intimidation, senior’s wellbeing, inheritance, Canada’s 150th, ghosts, and pirates…some of which are based on real facts.

“Amusant et intéressant.  Souvent surpris par la tournure inattendue de la fin du conte. Certains de contes sont franchement émouvants, peu importe l’âge des auditeurs.”

“Il est surprenant de voir combien certains faits réels de certains contes sont si intimement liés avec la fiction qu’on ne peut plus distinguer le vrai du faux, c’est incroyable!”

Availability

Capitaine Bonnefemme is availabile to tell at shows, events and festivals.

Rates

Rates available upon request.

Contact

captain.bonnefemme@gmail.com
cell 613-296-9860
web:  capitainebonnefemme.ca

Katherine has been telling stories formally for the past forty 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 has told frequently to young people in the schools through MASC and the Ontario Arts Council/Artists in Education Program and to senior citizens through the MASC Seniors’ Program.

As co-founder and original co-director of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program (a prevention and enrichment program 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.

She and actor/director Eleanor Crowder developed the Family Album Project, through which they worked with adult immigrants, using personal storytelling to help dissolve barriers to integration and belonging. She has also led workshops for Bereaved Families of Ontario/Ottawa, helping those who are further along in coming to terms with their loss tell their stories to support people who are newly bereaved. She is currently on the artist roster of Radical Connections, an innovative project run through the Bruyère Centre which is making the arts widely accessible in healthcare through ‘Healing Interactive Performances.’

Material

Katherine’s repertoire is made up of traditional stories 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

grier.katherine@gmail.com

Janet LeRoy beams when children join her in song, rhyme, and finger play during Story Time at the Wakefield Library. Stories about turtles, bears, dogs, frogs, cats, and chickens bring smiles, wonder, and adventure. Listeners of all ages recognize themselves in her child stories. Janet was the featured storyteller in the Wakefield Writers Festival in 2014 and 2015. This is her third performance at The Ottawa Children’s Storytelling Festival. Janet teaches storytelling to both children and adults. She is a member of Ottawa Storytellers and Storytellers of Canada.

Availability

coming soon

Rates

coming soon

Contact

coming soon

For over 15 years, Mary Wiggin has delighted audiences with her storytelling. Renowned for her exquisite sense of language, Mary is a subtle master of the literary tale. She favours folktales and fairy tales with strong heroines and sound plots, but listeners should be ready for some surprises. Her no-nonsense style is the perfect set-up for the uncanny and the fantastic. 

Mary has been a frequent featured teller at the Ottawa StoryTellers’ (OST) series at the National Arts Centre and Arts Court and at the Children’s Storytelling Festival. She also tells at a variety of community settings such as seniors’ programs, museums, house concerts and fundraising events. In 2016, Mary and Kathie Kompass toured British Columbia with The Game’s Afoot: Stories from Sherlock Holmes; returned to Vancouver Island in 2018 with Oatcakes and Heartaches: Scottish Tales Carried Over the Ocean; and again in 2019 with Winter Tales to Warm the Heart.

Mary has co-coordinated two Ottawa StoryTellers' series, Stories & Tea at The Tea Party, and Tellers at the Well at the West End Well, and has been one of the facilitators of the Introductory Storytelling Workshop for OST.

Material

Mary specializes in telling stories for adults but she has lots of experience telling to younger audiences in schools and libraries and at the Children’s Storytelling Festival. Her repertoire includes literary, historic, folk and fairy tales and she is especially fond of humorous stories. It’s always good to share a laugh with the audience.

Availability

Mary is available during the day, evenings and weekends.

Rates

Available upon request

Contact

Email: mwiggin634(at)gmail.com

Phone: 613-668-0119

“Mary’s wit flashes with quicksilver humour; her insight unveils hidden truths in poetic turns of phrase.”

“She told the story so well I was smiling from start to finish!”