| |
A ghost in Ray Bradbury’s “On the Orient, North” laments the disbelievers. Like his specter friends, he takes off to find someplace “where men are properly frightened by soots and smokes of wandering souls.” One such place is the age-old Genesee Theatre, where renown storytellers will soon conjure some of the ghastliest ghosts of the greatest works in literature. The Waukegan Public Library is honored to present the Fourth Annual Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival: Literary Ghosts, on Friday, October 30, at 7:30 pm, at the Genesee Theatre in downtown Waukegan.
Every year the festival spotlights a tale by Bradbury, who began censuring the disbelievers long before he published “On the Orient, North.” In Fahrenheit 451, he forewarned about society’s dwindling capacity to make-believe—prophesying that TV would snuff out our imaginations. A self-declared “lover of libraries,” Bradbury crusades for old-fashioned pleasures, for books with real spines and tales spun out not on screen, but in our heads. “Stuff your eyes with wonder,” he urges. And for Bradbury, whose favorite holiday is Halloween, the stuff of wonder is the strange, the eerie, and at times, the sinister.
Few storytellers invoke the sinister quite so skillfully as Megan Wells, whose past personae have included Dracula and Bradbury’s own Mr. Dark. Wells holds the prestigious Joseph Jefferson Award for directing, and has spent the past 15 years touring on the storytelling circuit, performing at theaters, festivals, libraries, schools and museums statewide. In 2007 she was honored as a Featured New Voice by the National Storytelling Festival. Now she serves as Board President of the Illinois Storytelling Festival, and Artistic Director of the annual Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival.
A veteran Shakespeare actor, John Forsythe will “Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,” when he performs a piece from one of the oldest and most well-known ghost stories: Hamlet. Forsythe has worked as both actor and director with the Chicago Shakespeare Company, City Lit, numerous school tours, and as Artist in Residence at the Skokie Library. He now directs plays and teaches drama and math at York High School in Elmhust.
Carol Birch counterpoints an otherwise fearsome lineup with “Exchange,” Bradbury’s wistful tale about a homecoming soldier. Subtle and thought-provoking, this spirit story takes place—appropriately—in the old Carnegie Library in Waukegan. Birch began as a platform storyteller 30 years ago and now performs worldwide, earning the coveted Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Network in 1998. She answers to other titles, as well: teacher, award-winning author and essayist, recording artist and director.
The Genesee Theatre (geneseetheatre.com), built in 1927, harbors its own, little-known creepy tales. Chicago Emmy Award-winning Jim May will unveil the ghosts still skulking in the shadows of this Waukegan landmark—one of Bradbury’s favorite boyhood haunts. May will also reveal the horror behind “The Boarded Window,” Ambrose Bierce’s plot-twisting thriller. A native of rural McHenry County, May tells his stories with plainspoken style and folksy, down-home humor. He co-founded the Illinois Storytelling Festival and, like Birch, holds the Circle of Excellence Award for storytelling. May’s publishing credits include a collection of original stories named “Best Book” by the Public Library Association, and a popular children’s ghost story.
Without the oral tradition of storytelling, we may never have heard of Ray Bradbury. His fame spread through old-time radio programs like Dimension X, which began airing his stories back in the fifties. Over the years Bradbury earned the title of Master Storyteller for creating scenes and characters so vivid they require no screen to envision. In 2006, the Waukegan Public Library (waukeganpl.org) conceived its annual Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival as the most fitting way to honor the author’s genius. With themes like “Literary Ghosts” and “Literary Villains,” the festival injects new vigor into classic tales of terror, giving even hardcore disbelievers reason to pause.
Tickets: $17. On sale at the Genesee Theatre Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets or (800) 745-3000. Group rates available by calling Rena Morrow, Special Events Manager, at (847) 406-3152.
|
elizabethstearns[.]waukeganpl.info 
