A night of storytelling integrated with accordion music is coming to Northeast Tennessee. Two acclaimed storytellers, one whose perspective includes physical disabilities and the other who plays the accordion, will perform as a team at this year's National Storytelling Festival here Oct. 4-6.
Both are actors and performers in general. The duo last performed at the festival in 2016. And on Friday night, Oct.
4, and Saturday night, Oct. 5, they will perform in the newly renovated Jackson Theatre, a downtown project nine years in the making that is to hold a formal grand opening in November. Kevin Kling and Simone Perrin, who have performed together since 2006, will perform at “After Hours,” sold as a separate ticket from general admission to the storytelling event.
Tickets for the two performances, which will be the same Friday and Saturday, are available in advance or up until 30 minutes of a performance unless or until it sells out. For festival ticket and history information, go online to https://store.storytellingcenter.
net/ . The festival in a recent news release invited attendees to "put the Festival day to bed with this blend of story and song that’s sure to amuse and delight," promoting the duo's performance. "Festival fan favorite Kevin Kling will partner with 'accordionista" Simone Perrin for a one-of-a-kind performance of heartfelt stories and songs.
The duo have toured since 2006, including extended engagements at Seattle Repertory Theater, Guthrie Theater and the Cincinnati Playhouse," the release said. "Storyteller, playwright and author are three very different jobs," Kling said recently of what he does in an email interview. "When you are a storyteller you are the writer, director, actor and audience all at the same time.
Yes audience, because you can’t pretend you don’t hear yourself. It’s an immediate form in that you are beholding to the moment, what is the right story at this time for this audience? "It’s treated as much like a conversation because the audience is constantly giving clues and part of the art form requires you to act on that information. "It shares humor with stand up comedy, but stand up closes a door with a joke and storytelling opens a door with a joke, humor brings an open heart and a storyteller can use that to find a deeper moment.
"There are more . . .
it’s really a fun job," Kling said. Kling is from Minneapolis, Minnesota where he said he lives on purpose because “when you freeze paradise it lasts a little longer.” He has performed his stories in libraries, school gymnasiums, The Kennedy Center, Off-Broadway, regional theaters and storytelling festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival, around the United States.
Described on his website as a "playwright, actor, author, storyteller and cultural advocate, Kling was named Minneapolis Story Laureate in 2014 His life challenges include a congenital birth disorder and partial paralysis from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, The Bush Foundation, and The Jerome Foundation. He is a McDowell Fellow and has received the Whiting Award, the A.
P. Anderson Award, the VSA Jeahny, and the Eric Peterson Award. Abroad, he has toured Australia, Europe and most recently Thailand.
He has been a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and was the subject of the Emmy-winning PBS documentary “Kevin Kling: Lost & Found.” Kevin works often with Interact Theater, a company of performers with and without disabilities, exploring how, through their stories, people are connected. Perrin grew up on the banks of the upper Mississippi in Winona, Minnesota.
After studying at Oberlin College and Conservatory, working in New York City and then Minneapolis, where she met and started working with Kevin Kling, Simone moved to rural Wisconsin, where she lives today with her family. She has appeared on The Prairie Home Companion and performed in many regional theaters including The Guthrie, Theater Latte Da, Open Eye Figure Theatre, The Cincinnati Playhouse and The Seattle Repertory Theater, where she and Kling developed two original plays. Simone’s album “Hummingbird” is available on most streaming platforms.
"The last time Simone Perrin joined me on stage at the National (Storytelling) Festival was 2016," Kling said in a recent email interview. "It was a beautiful night, a full tent, and I had the best seat in the house to witness her magic," Kling said. "I’m sure there will be a number of folks out there this year that were there that night wondering if that really happened.
"Buckle up, yeah it did." For more information on these two performers, go online to Kling's website at kevinkling.com and Perrin's Instagram account at instagram.
com/monieperrin/ or her Facebook account at facebook.com/monieperrin/ ..
