Fran Stallings

Infobox Person
name = Fran Stallings
birth_place = Far Rockaway, New York
occupation = Storyteller

Fran Stallings is an American storyteller for people of all ages. She has performed at numerous national and international storytelling festivals, in schools and libraries, and on the radio. She performs primarily folktales from around the world. She has authored several audio recordings and books of stories and songs.

Stallings's storytelling style is noted for its ability to entrance listeners, a phenomenon she wrote about for "The National Storytelling Journal" in 1988. [Stallings, F. "The Web of Silence: Storytelling's Power to Hypnotize." "National Storytelling Journal", Spring/Summer 1988. http://www.healingstory.org/articles/web_of_silence/fran_stallings.html] She teaches teachers to use stories in the classroom to hold students' attention while conveying lessons.

Biography

Fran grew up in New York City and Lancaster, Ohio and began storytelling while caring for her four younger siblings. She attended Wellesley College and earned a Ph.D. in botany at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Bartlesville, Oklahoma with her husband. She became interested in folktales while in school and began storytelling in the classroom in 1978, while her two children were in elementary school. Her biology background resurfaced as a thread in her storytelling: as "EarthTeller" she teaches science through stories. [http://www.franstallings.com/Fran/Bio]

In 1993 she visited Japan with her family and met Hiroko Fujita, a Japanese storyteller, and the two began a professional partnership, touring both countries repeatedly. Their partnership was awarded the International Storybridge Award in 2003. [http://www.storynet.org/Programs/Awards/storybridge.html]

Notable performance venues [http://www.franstallings.com/Bio/Resume]

* Vancouver Storytelling Circle
* Charlotte Folk Festival (North Carolina)
* WinterTales (Oklahoma City)
* Tulsey Town Festival (Tulsa)
* Texas Storytelling Festival
* OKon and RocKon Science Fiction Conventions
* SunFest Storytelling Festival (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)
* Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering (Newport, Pennsylvania)
* Ozark Folk Center (Arkansas)
* Texas Conference on Storytelling

Publications

* "Folktales from the Japanese Countryside," a collection of 46 of Hiroko Fujita's traditional stories edited by Fran Stallings.
* "Look At That Mouse! Diversions and Stories with a Mouse Puppet" by Fran Stallings with Ken Oguss. Prairie-Fire Productions, 2002.
* "Stories to Play With: Kids' Tales Told with Puppets, Paper, Toys, and Imagination" by Hiroko Fujita, adapted & edited by Fran Stallings. Little Rock AR: August House, 1999. ISBN 0-87483-553-4.
* "Hiroko Fujita's FAVORITE STORIES Volume 1" by Hiroko Fujita, adapted & edited by Fran Stallings. (with English translation)
* "Hiroko Fujita's FAVORITE STORIES Volume 2" by Hiroko Fujita, adapted & edited by Fran Stallings. (with English translation)
* "Stories for Beginners #1 & 2." Tokyo: Isseisha Press, 1999. ISBN 4-87077-154-3 and 4-87077-157-8.
* "World Tales." Tokyo: Isseisha Press, 2001. ISBN 4-87077-166-7.

Recordings

* "Cat o' Nine Tales: Stories and Songs about Cats." with Gail Huggett and Moby Anderson
* "TRAVELING TALES Volume 1:" and "TRAVELING TALES Volume 2:"
* "Interaction: Storytelling with Music" featuring the story "Shingebiss and the North Wind"
* "Crane's Gratitude" and other tales of animal wit and wisdom"

External links

* [http://www.franstallings.com/ Fran Stallings's website]
* [http://www.storynet.org/ The National Storytelling Network, a non-profit membership organization]
* [http://www.territorytellers.org/ Territory Tellers, a non-profit regional (Oklahoma) membership organization]
* [http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/2007/10/19/fran-stallings-environmental-storytelling/ Fran Stallings talking about environmental storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Children (One hour of Audio) ]
* [http://www.healingstory.org/treasure/shingebiss/shingebiss_and_the_north_wind.html "Shingebiss and the North Wind,"] as told by Fran Stallings, including sheet music and audio

Notes