Rainy weather can't stop a good story

Library's annual Storytellers event soldiers on inside

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It takes more than rain to keep Las Vegans away from family entertainment.

On Oct. 14, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District presented its 16th annual Storytellers event. The event usually is held outdoors at Rainbow Library's amphitheater. Attendees bring blankets and picnic on the grassy slopes.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not cooperate and dumped a considerable amount of rain on the city that morning. The event was moved into the branch's oversized meeting room, which holds 160. The 3 p.m. show had 137 people. Normally, organizers said, the afternoon session would see 250 to 350 attendees.

"So the weather really did a number on us," said Carol Blanton, Rainbow Library's Performing Arts Center coordinator. "This is our 16th year and only one other time, about seven or eight years ago, did we have to move it indoors because of rain."

For the evening session, which began at 7 p.m., only 37 people were in the seats.

One of the attendees was Conrad Steffen, who works for a technical company.

"We're longtime supporters, so we go to the event every year," he said. "We even go to both sessions. It's a little bit easier to be indoors, but it's not the same ambience."

"It's warmer," said his daughter Aurora, 12. She sat on a blanket at the front of the room with her sisters Jewel, 7, and Sorcha, 5. They made an indoor picnic of the event, eating food from McDonald's before the show began.

Anne Jackson, a PBX operator, brought her son, a friend of his and her grandson. Work usually keeps her from attending, but she made a point of going to this year's Storytellers event.

"I've been looking forward to this for six weeks," she said. "I even took a day off work."

She added that it was disappointing to have to be indoors, "but I know we need the rain."

Stephanie Carlson, a college student, attended the event for the first time with her son, Aaron.

"He's only 2, so I don't think it matters to him that it's (not outside)," she said.

Indeed, he found many things to keep him occupied, scampering around despite his mother's cautions to stay close. Mostly, he liked to visit the older children who were sitting on the floor at the front of the room.

The show began with Antonio Rocho, a storyteller who studied mime under Marcel Marceau. Before he began, the 6-foot-3 Brazilian asked the children to move back so he wouldn't inadvertently step on them. He also warned parents of young children to watch so that they didn't rush up to cling to his legs, something he said he encounters a lot.

Rocho began with mime work, including a moon walk that demoted Michael Jackson to the bush leagues. In the middle of his African tale about a boy coming of age, little Aaron Jackson hurried up and, as predicted, clung to the artist's long limbs.

"See, I told you about the leg thing," Rocho said as an apologetic Anne Jackson reclaimed her child.

Later, an another child wandered up unnoticed and tried strumming the guitar sitting on stage.

All the while, a trickle of people kept coming in. More children joined those up front. One brought her own miniature folding chair. Younger children sat on their parents' laps to see better. An hour into the event, the room was full.

The evening continued with the Pete Contino Band keeping the energy level high. Then Ed Stivender took the stage with his banjo and Robin Williams-style of telling folk stories. He involved the audiences with call and response songs.

Charlotte Blake-Alston was next, sharing energetic stories of Africa while playing a 21-string kora, a gourd covered with stretched animal skins.

By the time the event closed at 10 p.m., no one seemed to mind that it was held indoors.