Storyteller

Telling tales in the dark, with illustrations glowing behind him, Ray Gray entertained about 50 children and their volunteer "buddies" at the Germantown Academy Arts Center Saturday morning. The children were treated to the Germantown Academy football game, a barbecue and other games with their new friends. Future "Saturday Mornings at G.A.," which are open to the public, will feature dance, theater and music.

Conestoga High School in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District recently welcomed storyteller Ed Stivender, who spoke to theater students. Focusing on the Renaissance, he taught the students Morris dancing and storytelling techniques of the period. SUMMER PROGRAM Episcopal Academy has announced a summer program for students in grades six through 12 to be held at the school's Merion campus, 376 N. Latches Lane. Courses planned include reading comprehension, writing, study skills, algebra, pre-calculus, history, physical science and foreign language.

Youngsters can escape the cold weather this weekend and retreat into the warm world of children's theater. On Sunday, the Kaiserman Branch of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia begins its series of Peanut Butter and Jelly Sundays with a performance by storyteller Sandy Lewis. The musician and schoolteacher will tell stories incorporating music from the guitar, tin whistle, jaw harp and other instruments, and with juggling and audience participation. The afternoon also includes a pre-theater lunch of either peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or bagels and cream cheese, plus chips and juice.

During the Kwanzaa season, storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston tells her audiences about the adventures of a little girl named Nia. The story has special significance because Nia is not only a girl's name. It is a Swahili word that means purpose, and it is also the name of the fifth day of Kwanzaa, the non-religious celebration observed by many African Americans annually between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1. Alston will bring the tales of Nia, and other African and African American songs and folktales, to a Kwanzaa celebration on Saturday at the George Washington Carver Community Center in Norristown.

The rustic, cabin-room set on the Steinbright Stage at People's Light and Theatre Company is appropriate to some of the material in On the Way Home, but more indicative of the entertainment at hand is the rack of musical instruments on a side wall. It contains two guitars and six banjos, the tools of Stephen Wade, storyteller and banjo player extraordinaire. Not that many of those who will see this show don't already know what to expect. Last year, Wade played to 11 weeks of largely sold-out houses in the Malvern theater, so it is reasonable to expect that many of those who come this second time around will have seen him on his first visit.

When storyteller Sandy Taylor talks, she has trouble staying in one place. "You want to see what I'm talking about?" she asks as she describes a Native American artwork that hangs in the hall of her Villanova home. She jumps up to turn on a light and points to the painting. "You want to taste some?" she asks as she describes smoked venison jerky. She sits down in disappointment when her offer is declined. "Here, you can read it," she says as she hands over the script of her play, The Magical Deer, which was to be performed twice yesterday at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.

When storyteller Sandy Taylor talks, she has trouble staying in one place. "You want to see what I'm talking about?" she asks as she describes a Native American artwork that hangs in the hall of her Villanova home. She jumps up to turn on a light and points to the painting. "You want to taste some?" she asks as she describes smoked venison jerky. She sits down in disappointment when her offer is declined. "Here, you can read it," she says as she hands over the script of her play, The Magical Deer, which will be performed twice Saturday at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.

Irwin W. Solomon, 80, a former advertising executive, writer and raconteur, died of a heart attack Thursday in his Center City home. "He had a wonderful sense of humor and was a great storyteller," recalled his daughter Nora. "He was extremely funny. " Mr. Solomon wrote columns, theater reviews and fiction and humor articles for local and national publications, including the Saturday Review and Seventeen magazine. Under the pen name S. S. Irving, he reviewed plays for the Jewish Exponent.

Manischewitz had the troubles of a latter-day Job. When his tailor shop burned down, two slightly injured customers got all the insurance money. His son died, and his daughter ran off with a bum. Hardening of the arteries forced his wife into her bed, and Manischewitz himself suffered constant back pain. The audience of about 20 people listened intently as Milt Cohen, 49, perhaps the city's only professional - part time - Jewish storyteller, drew them into the tale of the tailor's troubles.

Folklore of culture, family, religion and myth has historically traveled through stories told by tribal elders to budding warriors, parents to children, grandparents to grandchildren. The Montgomery County/Norristown Public Library has been doing its part with regular storytelling programs led by children's librarian Marian Peck. And for National Children's Book Week this week, another storyteller joined the library. Dressed in earth tones of brick red, turquoise blue, dark brown, midnight black and rich cream, the Pueblo Indian Storyteller doll became part of the library's permanent display collection.

Bob Martin is a former Inquirer writer and editor Did you know Ralph Vigoda? Probably so, if you read this newspaper and followed the major events of the 1990s and early 2000s. Such as the collision of a plane and a helicopter over Merion Elementary School 22 years ago that killed seven people, including U.S. Sen. John Heinz. Or the arrest and murder conviction of John duPont in the 1990s. Or the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Each of those stories was deftly reported by Ralph, an Inquirer staff writer who died 10 years ago today at 53. To say that he was a superb journalist would be accurate but incomplete.

BalletX looked like a new company when its Spring Series opened Thursday night at the Wilma Theater. In many ways it was. Founded in 2005 by Matthew Neenan and Christine Cox, the contemporary ballet company has performed regularly ever since, but not frequently enough to sustain a dedicated roster of dancers. Instead, it relies mostly on freelancers and guest artists, with just a few returning each season. I hadn't seen the troupe recently, so it was a pleasant surprise to find so many dynamic, gutsy, high-energy dancers on stage.

AS THE unofficial family historian, Marian Bradley knew everything about everybody, going back several generations. She knew about the Bradleys in Ireland and her mother's family in Italy. She could tell family stories that kept listeners enthralled - at great length. "She would get you listening after the first two sentences and have you laughing after five," said her brother, Edward J. Bradley, retired president judge of Common Pleas Court. "She would have everybody in stitches.

Indicates wheelchair-accessible. Indicates listening devices. Events are free unless otherwise indicated. Symposiums & seminars Impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling on Pa. agriculture. Discussion featuring farmers, scientists, and other experts. Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th St. & Ben Franklin Pkwy.; 215-299-1108; www.ansp.org/ environmental. 6 p.m. Tue. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern Pa. Learn what it takes to be a big brother or sister.

IF YOU DIDN'T get "Inception," Chris Nolan's latest blockbuster brain teaser, you have a chance to deconstruct it this week on DVD. Leonardo DiCaprio is a corporate spy with the ability to drill into the subconscious, where he plants ideas in a subject's mind. He and his team (including Ellen Page) invade the mind of the heir to a business empire (Cillian Murphy), who has anticipated the move and planted mental defenses. The details, actually, aren't all that important. It's all an excuse to allow Nolan to try something new in movies - he tells a story on six different simultaneous levels, at six different speeds!

Sonia Sanchez is often stopped while walking the streets of Philadelphia, or riding the subway or - her children's least favorite - in the grocery store. "They hate going shopping with me because the supermarket becomes a place where you stop and talk," said Sanchez, who will be the center of attention at the First Person Arts "BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez" tribute Sunday at the Temple Performing Arts Center. "Conversation is a very human thing, and I always mean to have communication about things that are going on in the world.

NEW YORK - Though she is a paragon of downtown Manhattan cool, Laurie Anderson was in a state of desperation when she realized that her long-in-the-making album Homeland might never be finished. Mired in the minutiae of uncharacteristically angry songs from the George W. Bush years, she wondered what was still relevant as she worked alone in the studio, assembling tracks from live concert recordings with sounds that ranged from electro-pop to Mongolian throat singing. "I literally thought I was going to lose my mind," she recalled the other day in her expansive Canal Street apartment, filled with books and dog paraphernalia.

The tall, tanned narrator who inhabits this storytelling bench near Independence Mall most days prefaces his dramatic account by telling the audience that the story he's about to tell is in part his own. But that little nugget seems to fly over the audience's heads as he launches into the saga of Peter Still, a Maryland slave who in 1850 purchased his freedom and made his way to Philadelphia to reunite with his family. Exhausted and frightened, Still wound up at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, where he checked in with the recording secretary, who - glory hallelujah!

The last storyteller shambled off the stage, and Eric Thomas, host for the evening, grabbed the mike. "Such failure in this room! It reeks! I love it!" he yelled. The crowd - packed into a tiny upper room at L'Etage, a crêperie and bar on Sixth and Bainbridge Streets - cheered wildly. Then they bent over their scorecards. It was time to judge. Winning over the audience is key at First Person Arts' StorySlams, twice-monthly themed storytelling competitions at which participants have five minutes to tell a personal story - and, more important, tell it well.

Opalanga Pugh, 57, an internationally known storyteller who drew her inspiration from traditional African storytelling, has died. The Denver native died of bone cancer Saturday at her home, with family and friends at her side. "She had the ability to bring you on a journey through parts of your soul you never wanted to go, and bring you back safe," said her younger brother, Lloyd Pugh. Ms. Pugh discovered the flavor of storytelling while traveling in Nigeria and studied traditional African storytelling in Gambia.