Martha Hamilton
Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss have been telling stories together as 'Beauty & the Beast Storytellers' since 1980. This husband and wife team from Ithaca, New York still leaves it up to audiences to decide who is the Beauty and who the Beast.
Mitch and Martha bring to life traditional folktales from around the world, stories from their own experiences, and tales based on historical people and events. Their specialty is tandem storytelling where they combine their contrasting styles, swapping lines and impersonating characters.
In addition to their performances, Mitch and Martha are renowned for their school residencies during which they teach students to tell stories. As a result of their experiences in the classroom, they have produced several award winning books and recordings. Children Tell Stories: Teaching and Using Storytelling in the Classroom is considered a storytelling classic. Their books with August House include:
How and Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell, which won both a Storytelling World and a Parents' Choice Award. The recording by the same title won a National Parenting Publications Gold Award. It stands out from other recordings because, as the Booklist review noted, " [the stories] are narrated, with appealing verve, by kids. Although the estimable skills of professional storytellers are easily enjoyed, these youthful narrators serve to encourage young listeners to rediscover this oldest form of entertainment: storytelling."
Noodlehead Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell, which won a Parents' Choice Award and was named a "Notable Social Studies Book for Young People" by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council.
Through the Grapevine: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell, which won a Storytelling World Award and was named as one of the "Best Children's Books of 2002" by the Bank St. College of Education.
Among their forthcoming August House books are The Hidden Feast: A Folktale from the American South, which will be available in spring 2006; and Jump Stories: Tales to Cause Goosebumps, Gasps, and Giggles, which will appear just in time for Halloween in 2006.
Hamilton and Weiss have presented workshops and given keynotes at conferences around the world. They have traveled as far as Taiwan and Hong Kong to perform and teach others to tell. All of their books have now been published in Taiwan because it is a priority to learn English on the island, and teachers of English have found that storytelling is one of the best ways to get students excited about a new language.
"Beauty and the Beast" have also completed numerous tours of European International Schools. Among the places where they have presented are Prague, Vienna, Munich, Florence, Milan, Genoa, Madrid, Moscow, London, and Budapest.
In 2006, Mitch and Martha will present at the International Reading Association Conference in Chicago; the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee; the Reading Recovery Conference in Portland, Oregon; and the New England Conference on Storytelling for Children in Keene, New Hampshire, to name a few.
Martha, formerly a reference librarian at Cornell University, began telling stories as a hobby after she mistakenly walked into a storytelling workshop while attending a library conference. She was eventually introduced to Mitch by a friend who told her, "Mitch may not know it, but he's a storyteller."
Mitch had majored in government as a student at Cornell, a field which some have jokingly commented seems "perfect for a storyteller." At the time he was one of the owners/workers at the cooperatively run Moosewood Restaurant, an Ithaca landmark because of its best-selling vegetarian cookbooks.
See all titles by Martha Hamilton.
Awards
