ALLENDALE -- Every family has a colorful, amusing or amazing story that's been passed down over the years, sometimes for generations -- a favorite tale relatives like to revive at family reunions or other gatherings.

It's those very stories that "Salkehatchie Stew," a storytelling organization that covers the five-county region of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton and Hampton counties, is currently soliciting.

Frances Chavous, Salkehatchie Stew project director, says her organization, funded with a USDA grant, is recording stories from people representing all walks of life. The purpose is to use these stories as the basis for future storytelling and community performances.

"What we're trying to do is make the arts an economic engine for the region and attract tourists with quality performances," said Chavous, who has 20 years' experience directing plays in such venues as children's theater workshop. "It will help us transform our region into a tourist destination, giving both visitors and local citizens something interesting to do and see."

Chavous said part of this involves teaching people "how to create stories by taking a look at their own lives and history. The result is that some will become polished storytellers and some will become the actors who will participate in the community performances we are planning to create in each county."

The county groups have each been educated in creating and gathering stories and using digital recording devices to capture individual stories in the original voice of the storyteller. The stories are then transcribed and edited where necessary. Both the transcripts and the original audio recordings will be provided to the libraries in each county for posterity.

"Getting each individual story recorded in the actual voice of each storyteller is very important to the production of the community performance," Chavous said "That's because the actors need to hear the proper inflection of voice and emphasis in every part of the story in order to faithfully recreate it with the full flavor and impact intact."

Chavous is already initiating contractual talks with an unidentified production company which will be responsible for creating and staging community performance plays based on the stories.

"The production company will show us how to do a theatrical set and help us get the community involved in the plays," she said. "We provide the actors and the venues; they produce the plays. The money raised by each performance will go toward producing the next play."

Chavous said she wants to get the information to the production company this month so it can begin writing a main plot and subplot for each play and several vignettes based on each of the five counties.

"The plot and the subplot of each play will remain the same throughout the region, but the vignettes will change based on the unique settings of each county in order to localize the play."

Anne Rice, Salkehatchie Leadership Institute executive director, says the concept for the Salkehatchie Stew region is based on other organizations in the South that have experienced both critical and economic success with community performances and local storytelling.

"We worked with the people at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesboro (Tenn.), which sponsors the annual National Storytelling Festival," she said. "That event promotes the power of storytelling and its power to make positive changes. We also collaborated with the Swamp Gravy group that has put on yearly community performance plays in Colquitt, Ga. over the last 18 years."

"We are also currently looking at the possibility of creating a storytelling festival for Bamberg and Colleton counties, either as a standalone event or in conjunction with something else," Rice said.

Donald Davis, a master storyteller from South Carolina who serves as a consultant to Salkehatchie Stew, recently conducted a workshop at the Clemson University Edisto Research & Education Center in Blackville designed to teach people how to create stories from their own experiences.

"We also want to get the younger generation involved," Chavous said. "They are much wiser than adults will admit. Kids have stories of their own to tell that need to be recorded in an atmosphere in which they're comfortable. I would love to have the schools in our region invite our storytellers to perform for the students this year."

Storytelling and community performances "build bridges between people in the community itself," Chavous said. "Beyond economics, it's all about getting people to communicate and connect with one another."

Anyone interested in passing along their story can contact Chavous at fchavous@gwm.sc.edu or at 803-584-3446, ext. 242.

T&D Correspondent Phil Sarata can be reached by e-mail at pmhsarata@aol.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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