Storytelling legends

Published 11:44 pm Wednesday, January 9, 2008

By Staff
The 2008 Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival has been designated as one of the Alabama Tourism Department's Top 10 events for January.
The festival will feature nationally acclaimed storytellers, Donald Davis, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Sheila Kay Adams and Andy Offutt Irwin.
The Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival will open on Jan. 25 at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge and continue on Jan. 26 at the Trojan Center Theater at Troy University in Troy.
The opening night concert is sold out, but tickets are available for the three Saturday, Jan. 26, concerts at the Trojan Center Theater.
Saturday's storytelling concerts will be at 9:30 a.m. and 2 and 6:30 p.m.
Tickets for the morning and afternoon performances are $10 and $15 for the evening performance.
Preshow music will begin 30 minutes prior to the Saturday storytelling concerts and feature The Lighthouse String Ensemble (9 a.m.), The Rivertown Girls (1:30 p.m.) and the WPA ScratchBand (6 p.m.).
Tickets are available at Rue's Antique Mall in Brundidge and may also be purchased by calling 334-735-3125 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Sheila Kay Adams is a master storyteller and a seventh generation ballad singer from the mountains of western North Carolina. She is an Appalachian humorist and an award-winning banjo player and author. She has performed nationally and internationally and is a four-time performer at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge.
Donald Davis and Andy Irwin will return to the 2008 Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival by popular demand.
Donald Davis is one of the finest storytellers practicing his craft today.
He is also a master teacher of other storytellers and a prolific author. He is a featured teller at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Storytelling Festival and other festivals throughout the United States and around the world.
Andy Offutt Irwin has achieved national prominence and was a new voice at Jonesborough in 2005 and was a featured teller for 2007 at the National Storytelling Festival. He has recently completed storytelling tours in California and Utah.
Kathryn Tucker Windham is Alabama's own storyteller and a regular at Jonesborough. She is one of the most sought-after storytellers in the country and has received many awards and recognitions as a storyteller and as an author. Windham is a legendary storyteller, and the Brundidge Historical Society is honored to bring her to the stage of the We Piddle Around Theater.
The Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival is sponsored by the Brundidge Historical Society with support from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, a partner of the National Endowment of the Arts, the Troy Arts Council and Troy University.