Activated Stories

Common Sense is a story from Jamaica with roots in Africa that involves the legendary trickster man-spider, Anansi. Many tales are told about Anansi not only in Africa, but in America and nearby islands. He seems to have come to the New World along with the slaves, which is hardly surprising. This particular story is rather similar to Anansi and the Story Box, a tale from Ghana that we have performed on stage.

We come to you from Jonesboro, Arkansas, where we are in the middle of our summer season, which we kicked off with 17 performances at libraries in Los Angeles County. In the midst of it all, we've managed to find time to take a float down the Buffalo River, as we try to do almost every year. And we're constantly on the lookout for bits of that common sense.

Happy listening,
Dennis (Narrator, Old Man 1, Old Man 3) and Kimberly (Anansi, Old Man 2, Owl, Little Girl)

Kaguya Hime is a Japanese tale in the tradition of the stories about a childless couple who find a child of supernatural origin, and adopt her/ him as their own. (See, for example, The Snow Maiden from Russia.) It doubles as a nature myth, as some versions of it are intended to explain a full moon, and some versions explain the smoke arising from Mount Fuji (Fujiyama). This story was requested by podcast listeners in Tokyo, Japan, Sakura and George.

We come to you from Reno, NV, which is our base of operations every May as we frantically put a new show together. We're getting ready to head to Los Angeles to open up a busy stand of 17 performances May 24th-31st for the Los Angeles County Library system.

We're very happy to have with us a special guest, an old friend from -- would you believe -- Japan! Yukari is visiting us at Kimberly's parents in Reno this month, and she insisted on helping us work on the props and costumes for our new production. If you've been listening to our podcasts from the beginning, you may remember that we visited Yukari and her family in Japan in 2006.

Now if you'll excuse us, we'll get back to rehearsing while you listen to the podcast. Happy listening!

Act!vatedly Yours,
Dennis (Bamboo Cutter, Suitor 2, Suitor 3), Kimberly (Narrator, Wife, Kaguya Hime, Suitor 1, Soldier 1) and Yukari (Soldier 2)

The Fly is a trickster tale about a boy who is wise beyond his years and gets the better of his elders. He is part of a long tradition of clever "fools" who are really not so foolish, but save the day in the end. We previously performed, for example, The Boy Who Listened to Birds from Russia.

We come to you from Dublin, the shamrock city in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are wrapping up our Northern California tour and finishing our run of our production Hammer, Nail, Tell a Tale. And we are getting ready to buckle down to readying our new production, Tuneful Tales.

Meanwhile, we took the time to celebrate Earth Day in Yosemite by making a brutal hike up a mountain to get a good view of a magnificent waterfall.

Happy Listening,
Dennis (Banker, Father, Judge) and Kimberly (Narrator, Boy, Mother) 

The White Snake is one of the lesser known folktales collected by the Brothers Grim; it's one of those stories in which the hero is able to talk to animals, a story motif that was around long before Dr. Dolittle. It may seem strange to name a story after a reptile that makes only the briefest appearance in it, but the snake is still the one driving the action -- working undercover, as it were.

We come to you from Turlock, California, where we're beginning a series of performances for the Stanislaus County Library system, as well as several school and library performances in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We've finished our journey from sea to shining sea, and recent stops along the way include Quartzsite, AZ, where we saw the monument to Hi Jolly, a Middle Eastern immigrant who was hired by the U.S. Army to drive camels across the desert in the 1850s; Robolights, a fascinating collection of sculpture made from recycled objects in Palm Springs, CA; the BAPS Mandir, a magnificent Hindu temple in Chino Hills, CA; Hsi Lai, a magnificent Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, CA; and the "fork in the road" in Pasadena.

Hoping you have a great spring, and if you see a magical white snake, let us know.

Happy Listening,
Dennis (Jack, King) and Kimberly (Narrator, Fish, Ant, Bird, Princess)

Hop in My Sack is an Italian story collected by the Italian writer Italo Calvino. The version he published was considerably longer, featuring a few more (mis)adventures for the young hero; we streamlined it for our podcast, which was already running long enough.

Because we have come all the way from Alabama to California in the last month, and although we didn't bring a banjo on our knee, we did do a lot of other fun things.

There was Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham (a gigantic abandoned steel mill that you can tour); the birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo, MS; Beale Street and the pyramid in Memphis; Pioneer Village in Searcy, AR; the National Weather Center in Norman, OK; the Land Run Monument in Oklahoma City; the Slug Bug Ranch near Amarillo (it's a Volkswagen version of the Cadillac Ranch); Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque; the Petrified Forest in Arizona; and Goldfield in Arizona (a restored mining ghost town).

And at the same time we managed to brave some incredibly chilly weather almost everywhere; buy a new RV, move into it and sell the old one; and continue our daily dance steps in our Dance Across the Nation. Meanwhile, we also met up with Kimberly's two sisters and brother and an aunt and some nieces and nephews that we met previously; and she met another brother for the first time.

Enjoy the podcast while we catch our breath.

Happy Listening,
Dennis (Narrator, Father, Lorenzo) and Kimberly (First Son, Second Son, Fairy, Boy, Doctor, Robber, Death, Townspeople)

Li Chi and the Serpent is, like the better known Mu Lan, an old story of girl power from China. In this case, the hero(ine) is not battling an army, but a person-eating creature. But as in the story of Mu Lan, (spoiler alert) she succeeds where the men folk fail. We present this story especially for Chinese New Year, which comes up on February 16 to start the Year Of The Dog.

We come to you from Prattville, Alabama, a suburb of Montgomery, as we dodge the cold as much as possible while making our way west. We've just come from Myrtle Beach, which was unusually chilly, and stopped in Atlanta, where we visited the birth place of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. just in time for his birthday. And along the way, we tested our wits at a couple of escape rooms.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Dennis (First Traveler, Second Traveler, Mayor, Dad, Villager) and Kimberly (Narrator, Villager, Serpent, Mayor's Assistant, Li Chi, Mom)

The Man Who Had No Story is one of those stories about stories. Many times, they depict not only the origin of a particular story, but of all stories everywhere. (As it happens, we're currently performing one of these, Anansi and the Story Box, live on stage.) Others, like this one, show how you find amazing stories in places where you might least expect them.

And this being Christmas time, it's altogether appropriate that this story features elves. And hey, do you notice certainly similarities to a well-known children's story that was made into a Hollywood musical starring Judy Garland in 1939?

We're currently in Simpsonville, a suburb of Greenville, SC. Next stop Myrtle Beach. May you days be merry and bright for this holiday season, the year to come, and on and on.

Happy Listening,
Dennis (Jamie, elves, Thingamabob) and Kimberly (Narrator, Old Man, Old Woman, elves)

Lazy Hans and Gretchen, from Germany, is about two very lazy people, and of course it's a moralistic tale about how being lazy leads to ruin. But it's also one of the "don't count your chickens before they hatch" stories that go all the way back to ancient times -- the story about the milkmaid spilling her pail of milk while daydreaming about the money she's going to make from it supposedly dates back to Aesop. Other popular variations include The Brahman Who Built Air Castles from India, and The Barber's Fifth Tale from 1001 Nights.

We come to you from Pasadena, MD., as we make our annual trek southward in time to avoid the chill of New England, where we have been for the past couple of months. We discuss our visit to 5 Wits near Philadelphia, a company for which our son Zephyr works, and which provides some fantastic puzzle-solving indoor adventures in several locations.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Listening,
Dennis (Narrator, Hans, Bystander) and Kimberly (Narrator, Gretchen)

The Goblin's Bridge is one of those stories about someone making a bad deal with a supernatural being. They (the stories, not necessarily the beings) are especially common in Germany and Scandinavia and sometimes involve a person making a deal for his soul with the devil. (The type has come to America in the form of The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet and The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving. ) Sometimes, as in the present tale, the deal is broken by resorting to trickery. We presented another variation of this motif last year in our production of Racing the Troll.

We come to you from Foxboro (also spelled Foxborough), Massachusetts (also spelled in many other ways, but not correctly) where we are in the middle of haunting season. And as usual this time of year, we are working as actors at a "haunted" attraction when we can fit it into our schedule.

Kimberly just returned from a little trip to California, where she celebrated a very big birthday by spending it with both of her moms -- her adopted mom and her recently discovered birth mom, with whom she was spending a birthday for the first time.

Also especially for her birthday, she participated in a Color Run in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A color run means running through the streets and having people throw colored corn starch all over you. Hey, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

Happy Listening,

Dennis (Narrator, Hans) and Kimberly (Goblin, Griselda)

The Three Advices is a story of the prescient type; quite often, in such stories the main character has a number of odd items which happen to be exactly what he or she needs to solve problems that come up. In this case, the items are not physical objects, but pieces of advice that help the hero avoid danger for himself and others. And in the process he learns that patience and humility pay off in the end.

We come to you from Attleboro, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston -- which has a very large population of descendants from Irish immigrants. We recently went into Boston to attend and participate in the Boston Dance Mile, a day of dance and fitness related activities culminating in a dance parade through the streets of the city. And we went whale watching off the coast of Plymouth with Captain John's Boats. We saw about a dozen whales, along with some other large fish and even a couple of huge leatherback turtles. That's something we don't spot every day out the window of our RV!

Happy Listening,
Dennis (Owen, Old Man, Servant, Sheriff) and Kimberly (Narrator, Kate, Finn, Tom, and Young Wife)