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Tales From the Hill

 

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The Civic Museum logo says everything, "Your stories live here."  No wonder it's  a great partnership, a setting where every artifact is a story.

Some of our past guest tellers and GGS members

June 2023 Tales From the Hill

 

Thank you, Guelph Civic Museum and your staff - You're all wonderful!!

    SCROLL TO SEE THE 2025-26 SEASON    

 

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"Tales From the Hill"  

Tales from the HillWHAT is it? 
 It is a monthly scheduled storytelling event at the Guelph Civic Museum. It includes registered invited guests, an open mic, and Guelph Guild members. It is recognized as the perfect place to discover storytelling. Listen to experienced guest tellers, meet members of GGS, hear novice tellers at the open mic, or more experienced tellers testing new stories, all in a warm, welcoming, and supportive atmosphere. Part of the fun is the casual socializing around hot cider and wee goodies.

WHEN?  Second Thursday each month:  Oct to May

TIME? 6:30 pm EDT Museum doors open to setup and casual socializing. The program starts at 7:00 PM.  In addition to a 13 minute intermission, we're open for casual socialization before and after the storytelling, with hot cider, cheese, and sweets.

MAY I BE PART OF IT?
Yes, indeed!  Do you want to volunteer your teling voice? Link to the Open Mic page and register. Be prepared to vet your story through the friendly, supportive ears of GGS members, in person or on Zoom.  (Your choice.) 
Stories should be no more than ten minutes and may include any type of telling, but NOT reading.
 So if you have a ballad, a poem, a personal story, or a folk/fairytale, come and share it at the Guelph Civic Museum.  You can e-mail here to discuss a telling.
Be a listener! Every storyteller loves a receptive audience.  So come :). Be assured of a warm welcome .  

 
THEMES/ROSTER? Each month may feature a theme. We encourage tellers to reflect on the theme, but we're not rigid about it,

The guest lineup and guild tellers are organized, in addition to tellers registered through the open mic. Here's an invitation to email the Webmaster to tell: guelphstory@gmail.com, and volunteer for an open mic as time allows.

museum logoWHERE? Guelph Civic Museum on Norfolk Street.

 Be assured of a warm welcome and a fun evening with listening friends.

 

 

GGS logo

As always, with all GGS events, it is free. There is the usual hat on display for freewill donations to defray the operating costs of the Guild. 

 

 

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      CLOSING THE 2025-26 SEASON.    

You'll know what I mean when I say,  "There's always a heaviness, a sadness when a season like Tales From the Hill closes for the season."  That was true for our final night on May 14th.  

We all wrote notes of appreciation on a card for the Civic Museum, which each month opens their door on the second Thursday evening, especially for GGS.  We do not take the wonderful partnership we enjoy with the Museum for granted.  

   Final Tales From the Hill:  May 14th    
Norm was his usual charming storyteller, sharing two of his original creations with aplomp.  We welcome Norm as a member and will soon post his photo and bio on our Members page.

In addition, we welcomed Rachel Smith, an accomplished, professional storyteller/artist, who recently returned to Canada from Hong Kong. What a treat!  We hope to welcome Rachel to more GCC events. 

John charmed us with one of his humorous family adventures with one of family dogs. He makes us laugh.  What a gift.

Brian holstein told us of another of our forebears, who had a profound impact on shaping Guelph.  

Sya VanGeest, the organizer and host of Tales From the Hill, asked our forbearance as she broke the "No Reading" rule at a storyteling, by reading Bounce,  a new picture book by Robert Munsch. (Illustred by Michael Martchenko. Scholastic)   

 

7 TO 8:30PM

DOORS OPEN AT 6:30:  CASUAL SOCIALIZING, HOT CIDER AND TREATS

     MAY 14, 2026    

  final nightNorm

 

     APRIL 9, 2026    

We heard two of the Guelph's best:

Brad Woods and Michelle Wan 

Michelle Wan Nove 2025

Guelph Storyteller Brad Woods shares a dramatic personal story. - YouTube

Brad's family stories are always fun and inspiring. His story about the family trip when his children tossed a gift of food to youth riding the rails, was stirring and insightful.  

Michelle's allegory of US's  #47th was brilliant.  Beyond entertaining, it continues to impress and haunt this listener.  

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  March  12, 2026 

Report:  March Tales From the Hill, was a delightful evening!  In addition to our two entertaining out-of-town featured guest tellers, Susan and Barb, we were charmed by "Wizard", a first time teller at Tales From the Hill, but known for his weekly Friday evening CFRU radio show,  Norm Perrin, renowed world travelling storyteller, who surprised us with his visit from Toronto, and our GGS members' Larry Gibbs and Brian Holstein. Brian is on a quest to spotlight people from Guelph's past who have shaped who we are, especially important as we approach Guelph's 2027 bicentenial.   

Celebrated guest tellers:  Susan Ida Boucaud and Barb Vollick 

 
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   REPORT OF EXCITING DECEMBER 11 EVENT!  

Munsch Dec 11 2025

Munsch at Guelph Guild of Storytellers (GGS) event
Tales From the Hill Thursday evening. December 11
 
Robert delighted an avid group of listeners at Tales From the Hill, on December 11 at the Guelph Civic Museum. It was a quieter Robert, with flashes of animated telling of “Bears for Breakfast” and "Stephanie’s Ponytail”, but we adored him nonetheless.  
 
Robert gracing us was especially poignant following his recent interview with CBC News' chief correspondent, Adrienne Arsenault, which made it seem that his in-person storytelling days were truly over, but they were not for us.   (Click Here for the CBC website interview.)
 
Story about Robert and Guelph Guild of Storytellers (GGS)
Although Robert has not been participating in other public events, he’s continued to attend and tell at GGS events, including this year’s Canada Day, Rotary Trillium RibFest and summer Tea n Tales in the Enabling Garden.
Robert is the Patron of GGS and an active participant since its beginning in 1984.  Indeed Robert was one of the founding members. Back in 1984, a small group of Guelph authors and tellers, including Robert, Jean Little and Ann Estill, planted the seed that is the Guelph Guild of Storytellers today. Now, decades later, it continues to champion the art of storytelling through the spoken word and shares stories to entertain, engage, inspire, challenge, inform, etc.
 
In addition, at December's Tales From the Hill, we were blessed with two other special tellers - Jan Sherman and Sarah Abusarar,each gifting us with wonderful stories which they had crafted and told beautifully!
Both Robert and Jan engaged us with a children’s focus, which inspired Sya VanGeest to tell her story, "The Adventures of Gathering the Reindeer" with its echo storytelling features that directly engaged the audience..
Brian Holstein, with Robert's permission, charmed us by speaking directly to Robert telling him how he had flaws in the characters in his story of The Paper Bag Princess.-  Dragon is really the ‘good guy’ and Elizabeth rather bratty.  
Beve Matson topped it off with an excellent telling of The Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.  There's much love for that book and there was delight hearing Beve bring it to life in an oral telling. 
Susan, thank you for the delicious snacks, an importatn part of our hospitality and social time.   (Larry looked after them in fine style.)  
We did miss you and Rusty, and give you each virtual warm hugs, with best wishes tucked in.  
 
Rusty, your “Merry Christmas” was given to the attendees. 
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THURSDAY EVENING.  NOVEMBER 13

DOORS OPENED AT 6:30:  CASUAL SOCIALIZING, HOT CIDER AND TREATS.   

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Michelle Wan was wonderful!  She charmed us with an adventurous travel story.  Michelle is an award-winning author, but proved to be equally gifted as an oral storyteller.   

We were also excited to introduce storyteller Ryan MacLeod to Tales From the Hill.  
Ryan - also known as MacLeod the Bard - is host of Bedtime Stories on CFRU 93.3FM and aspiring live storyteller. With the right experience, he hopes to become the official Bard of Clan MacLeod and to play harp in Dunvegan castle.

Ryan is heard each Wednesday on CFRU at 11PM. https://lnk.bio/MacLeod.the.bard

NOTE: The audience was invited to suggest a slogan that captures the essesnce of GGS for a future rollup poster. These were recorded on post-it notes.  They will be shared at next month's Tales From the Hill (January 8th),  for further selection.  
 

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Guelph Today  Read, "Veteran Storytellers Heading for Riverside Park this Friday"    

Read the story about Canada Day in Guelph Today, online. 

Some 600+ came to Guelph Riveride Park to celebrate Canada Day. And what a fine event it was!!
Our beloved Robert Munsch, Patron of GGS,  told us three of our all-time favouries. . . . Click here.


Messages from listeners and guest tellers:

  • " Thanks for inviting me to the Storytelling Evening last night! (I feel like I should let you know that I didn’t mean to be uninvolved by staying off-camera last night - I had had a long day in front of zoom and was completely ‘zoomed out’ by the evening. I just needed a break from that camera!)  All of the stories were wonderful, but in particular, the first one about the drop of honey was incredible.
    Wow. I loved the whole evening, and really appreciate you letting me know it was happening. Thanks, Sya!
          ~  CP Feb 3, 2022
  •  I'm so glad I got to hear your story Sya! As always, it was a special tale and you told it so beautifully. Thank you!

               ~ AK June 5, 2021

  • Brian always seems to come up with something new and different that tickles the funny bone, touches the heart, and gives us a glimpse into life in Australia as it used to be.
    ~ AK June 2, 2021
  •  Don's story about the Burghers of Calais picked me, and I’ve now repeated it to my son, an illustrator, who knows more about art than I do, and who will be very interested in the story I’m sure.    I don’t see myself as a storyteller, but I sure like to hear a good story so that was a great pleasure for me, and I am grateful!  🤓
    ~ LK. May 5, 2021
  •   Sya, I just love the way you tell, the honesty in your voice, and your choice of stories- you are awesome! This week I found a link on Facebook to the Guelph Guild of Storytellers and I was able to listen to you on YouTube. I was truly elated.
    ~ CD, Halifax.
  •  "What a treat and a privilege to share the Guelph Story Teller’s stories tonight.  I enjoy myself as a listener each month. But at Christmas, especially this Christmas, we all need to think of these wonderful stories from years past. So thankful."
    ~ NC.  (Dec 23, 2020)
  • "Many thanks for the invite to tell in Guelph. I enjoyed the stories and meeting your group. Susan’s ending was perfect."
    ~ JB (Dec 2, 2020)
  • ". . . Find it interesting and intriguing that there could be such a variety of stories.  Thumbs up! "
    ~ DV (Dec 2, 2020)
  • ". . . Your evenings always have a lovely tone of peace, acceptance, and impressive tales. Thank you."
    ~ AK (Nov 4, 2020)