Terrance V. Mc Arthur, Storyteller & Storywriter

I write stuff...but I'm pretty slow at it (1). Of course, there are times when I can write swiftly (2). I tried writing my first play while I was in elementary school, but I never finished it (3). My first completed one-act that was produced was an assignment in my junior year of high school. The assignment was to write a parody of a fairy tale. I wrote "Begad Wolf," a Shakespearean version of "The Three Little Pigs"...in blank verse...with the wolf as the tragic hero. The first production was an illustrated reader's theatre (4) at Bakersfield Community College. Later, it was staged for a Bakersfield Community Theatre evening of One-Acts, for the Kern County Parks & Recreation Department's One-Act Play Festival, and for a church group. After I wrote "Begad," but before it was produced, I wrote book and lyrics for a musical-comedy version of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde . I appeared in the Bakersfield Community Theatre Youth Theatre pro...

Folktales fascinate me, I love to tell them, and I love to share them (1).  When I first added stories to my puppet programs for the library Summer Reading shows, I used a story that matched the summer theme. After a few summers, storytelling became the primary focus of the show, and my favorite thing to do was to pull out a world map or  globe and say, "Think of a place in the world, and let's see if I know a story from there." I get a lot of requests from children for stories from "Disneyland," but I tell them I'm not allowed to used trademarked material...although I do have some stories about the Happiest Place on Earth (2). As time has gone by, my repertoire of folktales has expanded to more than 100 stories, ranging from California (3) to Washington, D.C. (4), England (5) to Madagascar (6). My storytelling also includes seasonal/holiday stories, spooky stories (7) personal stories, and faith-based stories. There is another kind of story that has ...

A long time ago in a galaxy fa...…… It was the best of times, it was the w...……… Call me Ishm.……… Hi! I'm Terrance V. (Vaughn) Mc Arthur. I tell stories...and I make them up, too.  (I also make things, and they may show up on this blog, as well.) Storyteller - Part One I was the oldest of five children in a theatrical family, which meant I was often Mr. Bedtime. There were the usual books read over and over ( A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer*was very popular), and there were stories I knew (because I discovered folktales at an early age). There were ones everybody knows like "The Three Little Pigs" and "Little Red Riding Hood," but there were also tales like "The Three Sillies" and Aesop's "The Exploding Frog."**  In the 70's, I earned money by doing puppet shows for birthday parties and other events.*** In the 80's, I moved more into shows for library summer reading programs,**** and I added magic tricks,***** a...