Meet the storyteller behind Shakespeare's Fairytales. #storytelling

Opening at Leaside Manor in St. John's on Thursday, April 28th, Shakespeare's Fairytales marks the launch of a new style of performance in Newfoundland that marries traditional storytelling with classical theatre.  The project is the brainchild of local director Danielle Irvine and storyteller Dale Jarvis.

Jarvis is a storyteller, author, and folklorist, living and working between St. John's and Clarke's Beach. By night, Dale is the proprietor of the St. John’s Haunted Hike ghost tour and raconteur of local tales. As a storyteller, he performs ghost stories, stories of the fairies and little people, tales of phantom ships and superstitions, and legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland and Labrador, and beyond. His repertoire includes long-form folk and fairy tales from the island, and he has a wide-ranging knowledge of local legends, tall tales and myths.

Jarvis regularly teaches workshops for beginning storytellers, and has taught workshops across Canada and the United States on storytelling for historic site, museum and park interpreters. In the past, his clients have included Parks Canada, the Alberta League Encouraging Storytelling, and the Association of Nova Scotian Museums. Working on Shakespeare's Fairytales, however, has allowed him to turn his experience teaching storytelling skills to a much more local audience.

"This is the first time in a long while that I have had the opportunity to teach storytelling techniques to adults here in St. Johns," says Jarvis. "It has been a great thrill for me as a mentor to work with skilled actors, and introduce them to a world of performance they haven't before experienced."

Jarvis has been working with the actors in the show, introducing them to some of Shakespeare's source material, and coaching them in storytelling arts, before the actors worked with director Danielle Irvine.

"I'm exceptionally proud of the work the actors have done with their tales," says Jarvis, "and I hope that from now on they consider themselves storytellers as well."

Shakespeare's Fairytales: Owl Was a Baker's Daughter

Thursday, 28th April 2016 - SOLD OUT
Friday, 29th April 2016 - SOLD OUT

 EXTRA NIGHT ADDED Saturday, 30th April 2016 - TICKETS AVAILABLE

Leaside Manor

39 Topsail Rd, St. John's, NL 

Cash Bar opens at 6:30pm; Show starts promptly at 7pm.

It’s a show you will love, more than fresh meat loves salt.

Limited run, limited seating! Get your tickets now through Eventbrite.

Photo by Chris Hibbs.

Away: An Afternoon with the Faerie Folk at The Rooms, March 17th

In Newfoundland, the fairies are still here, and everyone from Adam and Eve to Aunt Sadie Currie has a tale to tell... Join storyteller Dale Jarvis for a special St. Patrick's Day exploration of the magical and at times eerie realms of the Good People, with stories of the fairy folk from Newfoundland, Ireland, Scotland and beyond.

The tradition of fairy stories in Newfoundland is most likely as old as European settlement on the island. The hidden people of Norway and Iceland, the gentry of Ireland, the little fellows of West Country England, the lutin of Normandy, and the bogles of Scotland all came together in Newfoundland to create a new fairy race, similar to their European ancestors, but very much their own people, with their own stories and their own way of interacting with us larger, clumsier folk.

Many of the older generation of Newfoundlanders, whose faith in the fairy folk was strong, were (and are) reluctant to talk about them, or even name them directly. This gave rise to a host of local names: the little people, the good people, the little fellers. But the choice to not speak, either out of respect or fear, has always been tempered by a love for stories of the fairy folk and the strength of Newfoundland’s oral tradition.

Put some bread in your pockets (just to be safe) and come join us!

St. Patrick's Day

Thursday, March 17th, 2016
The Rooms, St. John's
2:30pm
Event included with price of admission to The Rooms.

• Facebook event listing

*image credit: Morgan MacDonald

Sea Monsters! - Dale Jarvis in the parlour of Cape Spear Lighthouse

Sea Monsters!

From the creator of the award-winning St. John's Haunted Hike, storyteller and folklorist Dale Jarvis, comes an evening of stories of sea monsters and ghost ships, told within the (relative) safety of the lighthouse parlour at Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site. 

Date: July 31 and August 28, 7:00pm
Cost: $15 ($10 for kids 12 and under) – cash sale only

Note: Seating is limited! Tickets available at the lighthouse door. Not responsible for kraken attack.

The first 2012 Storytelling Circle, and tales of rats, rats, everywhere...

Last night was the first night of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle for 2012. It was a great night, hosted by musician Delf Hohmann. Delf and I performed a few pieces from our new show about the Brothers Grimm, there were recitations from Storytelling Circle favourites Dave Paddon, Chris Brookes, and Hubert Furey (including a few recitations that were new to me) and a story about the Chinese New Year, from the lovely Zoe Wu.

There were a lot of new faces at the Crow’s Nest, which is always great to see. I love the mix of people who come to the monthly event. Last night there was everyone from high school kids, to university students to seniors. It is the type of varied audience that I love about storytelling events in St. John’s, something which I haven’t seen at a lot of storytelling events in other places.

I first met Delf Hohmann through Memorial University’s Department of Folklore, back in 1994. Ten years ago, we started collaborating on Brothers Grimm material, with a show called “Under the Juniper Tree: The Stories and Songs of the Brothers Grimm.” This year, 2012, marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Grimm’s first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen – the famous collection of tales that would be the most translated book ever produced in the German language.

To celebrate that anniversary, Delf and I have been working on a new show, and we tested out of one of our new pieces on the audience last night. The piece weaves together two stories taken from another work by the brothers, Deutsche Sagen, German Legends, which was published in two volumes in 1816 and 1818. The two stories are united by the theme of retribution, and by a cast of thousands... of rats.

One of the pieces, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is well known to North American audiences, while the other, The Mouse Tower on the Rhine, is perhaps less familiar. In it, the evil Bishop Hatto burns a group of hungry peasants alive, mocking them as rats that only consume food meant for their betters. The Bishop meets a rather grisly end at the teeth of rats sent as a form of divine punishment.  You can read a 1910 English version of the tale here.

Delf and I are off to perform our new show in February in Peterborough and Perth in Ontario, and in Wakefield, Quebec. Check out the 2wp website for details.

Newfoundland audiences will get a chance to hear the show later this spring. Stay tuned!

Haunted Victoria Street

Toronto Festival of Storytelling Podcast

Rachel James of radio station CIUT interviews three storytellers as part of the Toronto Festival of Storytelling, 2009: Howard Kaplan, Dale Jarvis, and Kathy Jessup. Howard Kaplan is a storyteller, musician and webmaster for 1001 Friday Nights of Storytelling in Toronto. Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a storyteller, author and folklorist living and working in St. John's, Newfoundland. Kathy Jessup of Edmonton spent ten years as a broadcast journalist with CBC radio, before deciding to explore her "closet passion": writing and telling children's stories.

CIUT 89.5 FM is Toronto's preeminent, listener-supported presenter of leading-edge music and spoken-word programming since 1966. Firmly rooted in the University of Toronto community, CIUT's programming reaches and represents the community at large and encompasses a wide panorama of styles and expressions.

Download the podcast here.