Hilde Festerling

Discipline: Storytelling
Homebase: Chilliwack, BC
Regions Available: Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley &, Howe Sound, North
Languages: English

Hilde Festerling is a writer and storyteller who collaborates with children to ignite personal and cultural transformation through the power of stories. Hilde uses music, noisemakers, imagery, and theatre to bring her stories to life. She then invites children to connect to their own storytelling voice. Hilde: “When we tell a story, we connect the resonance of our voices and the ears of our listeners to the imaginal realm. We have the potential to be transformed by this connection. Stories teach us how to live, and how to survive. I love to share my stories with children, but more important is inviting them into the storytelling space. ” Humour is a crucial aspect of Hilde’s work; through laughter, she connects her audience to deeper emotions, to struggle and resilience. Her stories are imaginative, wild, and funny, but they are grounded in the emotional needs of children in this moment. As an older, fat queer woman performing with the entirety of her body, Hilde gives her young audience the message: every body is a good body for performing and creating. Her stories implicitly challenge hierarchical dominator culture and hetero-normativity. Hilde has been writing and performing children’s stories for nearly a decade, but her greatest flex is that she honors the artistic vision of children. She and her niece and daughter are currently developing a narrative podcast called The Goat American Novel, to be released in the fall of 2023. [email protected]

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Performance(s)

The Story Laboratory Presents: A Giant Schnauzer Named Mort is Not In This Story

School Year: 22-23
Discipline: Music, Theatre, Storytelling, Interdisciplinary
Offered Languages: English
Grade Suitability: K - 7
Duration: 45 Minutes + Q&A
Capacity: 600
Tech Requirements: PA system (I bring my own mics and cables). An hour's setup time in the space.
Available Formats: In Person

On a hot summer city morning, a little girl named Olivia is on a mission to prove that a kid on a skateboard can beat a '99 Corvette convertible in open race. Two suburbs and a cornfield to the East, her country cousin Sally is wobbling on a balance beam between a nanny goat and an old mutt, determined to become the greatest animal circus trainer of all time. It will take resilience, team-work, a farm truck mishap, and one-and-a-half very badly behaved Giant Schnauzers to bring these two cousins together and make their dreams come true. A Giant Schnauzer Named Mort is Not In This Story is a one-woman theatrical storytelling performance. This story is a deceptively powerful comedy. Through laughter, the audience connects deeply with the themes of struggle, resilience, and teamwork, and with the physical catharsis of a shared emotional experience. The artist travels with a set piece called the Story Laboratory, a sumptuous smorgasbord of musical instruments and sound effects which bring her story to full auditory life. Notably, the Story Laboratory features a 95-year-old banjolele, a toy keytar from the 1980s, a trumpet, and many home-made sound-makers and toys. Telling the story with a wide range of sound-makers and with the full physical performance of her thick, older body, the artist delivers the implicit message: every noise-maker, and every body, is a good instrument, a good body, for artistic creation and expression.

Workshop(s)

Storytelling With Workshops - Connection Through Stories

School Year: 23-24
Discipline: Theatre, Storytelling, Interdisciplinary
Offered Languages: English
Grade Suitability: K - 5
Duration: 30 minute performance plus 90 minute workshops
Capacity: 100
Tech Requirements: none
Available Formats: In Person

This day-long offering includes one thirty minute storytelling performance plus up to three classroom workshops. Performance: Hilde has a menu of lively and hilarious original stories with deep themes and content of great interest to elementary-aged students. Schools can work with Hilde to choose which of her stories will best connect to their students’ needs. These stories are roughly 30 minutes long, suitable for elementary students, and best performed for an intimate-sized audience ( maximum 100 students). See website for story menu. Workshop Description: In this workshop, students will explore the power of storytelling as a tool for connection to the imaginal realm, connection within community, and connection to one’s own unique storytelling voice. Participants will work within a series of large-group, small-group and individual exercises designed to bring them into connection with their own storytelling voice. Students will have opportunities to perform, and the class will be coached in active listening techniques to enter more deeply into the experience of connection through storytelling. Hilde will use a variety of disciplines, including voice-work, music, noise-making, and visual imagery, to offer students the opportunities to find the storytelling medium where they can create most authentically.

The Story Laboratory Workshop plus Performance: Stories Through Sound

School Year: 22-23
Discipline: Music, Theatre, Storytelling, Interdisciplinary
Offered Languages: English
Grade Suitability: K - 7
Duration: 2 One-hour workshops plus a 45 minute performance
Capacity: 30
Tech Requirements: For Performance: a PA system (I bring my own mics and cables) and an hour's setup time in the space.
Available Formats: In Person

Performance description (up to 600 students): A Giant Schnauzer Named Mort is Not In This Story is a one-woman theatrical storytelling performance. The artist travels with a set piece called the Story Laboratory, a sumptuous smorgasbord of musical instruments and sound effects which bring her story to full auditory life. Notably, the Story Laboratory features a 95-year-old banjolele, a toy keytar from the 1980s, a trumpet, and many home-made sound-makers and toys. Telling the story with a wide range of sound-makers and with the full physical performance of her thick, older body, the artist delivers the implicit message: every noise-maker, and every body, is a good instrument, a good body, for artistic creation and expression. Workshop Description (each workshop up to 30 students): Students will work in small groups to develop stories with sound effects. Hilde will lead the students through a process of creating simple stories which feature a few sources of noise (an animal, a machine, a force of nature, etc) and developing the sound effects to change with the action of the story. Students will make sounds using their voices and bodies, found objects, and pieces from Hilde’s library of sound-makers. Students will experience the way that embodied sound, stories, and the artist/sound-maker are all affected by one another. The performance is suitable for k-7, but the workshop is best for grades 3-7.

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Testimonials & Reviews

When Hilde performs for and makes art with children, it is a transformative experience. She talks very seriously with children about art-making, and imparts to them a sense of the value of their own vision and skills as creators. The mobile sound effects set piece she has developed is in itself a mind-expanding tool of musical and sound education. Jane Bicycle, primary and music teacher

For the last two years of the Subdued Stringband Jamboree 2019 and 2021, Hilde has been the resident storyteller in Kidsville. Her bugle call has the children running to hear her fantastic tales. Hilde clearly loves sharing her art with the children. She is intentional and professional in the way that she interacts with them. I highly recommend Hilde for inventive, unconventional, engaging and memorable entertainment. Maryanne Mills, Director of Kidsville, Subdued Stringband Jamboree

"My Students  were enthralled and begged to have her back as soon as possible!" Hannah Beuhrer, grade 3 teacher

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