 |
Sandy SchumanStories & Music |
 |
| There is always another side to the story. | ||
| Home | About | Programs | Schedule | Blog | Purchase | Contact | Links |
|
Sandy SchumanStories & Music |
|
| There is always another side to the story. | ||
| Home | About | Programs | Schedule | Blog | Purchase | Contact | Links |
Sandy Schuman is fascinated by familiar things and their unfamiliar stories. He brings folk tales and historical sagas to life (“some of our folklore is truly unbelievable, some of our history is even more so”) and reveals the little-known stories behind some of our best-known songs. When you hear him play the guitar and sing, you’ll know why he calls himself a storyteller.
Sandy Schuman tells stories about songs and songwriters, personal adventures, historical sagas, folk tales, and stories in the Jewish storytelling tradition. He plays his theme song on a Jew’s harp. When you hear him play the guitar, you’ll know why he calls himself a storyteller.
He is a winner of the Susquehanna Folk Festival Liars Contest and the St. Louis Jewish Storytelling Contest and has been featured at The Northeast Storytelling Conference, Riverway Storytelling Festival, Caffè Lena, Proctors, Tellabration, and Limmud Boston.
His stories and related articles have been published in 100 Lives, Distressing Damsels, Facilitating with Stories, Family: Poetry about Family from Poets Around the World, Memoir Magazine, New Mitzvah Stories, Peri Etz Yitzhak (Fruit of the Tree of Yitzhak), Stone Canoe, Stonecrop Review, Stories We Tell, Story Club Magazine, Storytelling Magazine, Tablet, The Ethicist, The Story Cookbook, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, in his book, Welcome to Chelm’s Pond, and on his blog, Another Side to the Story.
Sandy is a member of the Story Circle of the Capital District, Northeast Storytelling, National Storytelling Network, Jewish Storytelling Coalition, and Lifetime Arts Creative Aging Roster.
(Right click on an image and select "View Image" to see full size.)
These are customizable flyers for many of my programs. You can download and customize these flyers for your use or, if you prefer, I will customize them for you.
My Father was a storyteller. It was his everyday way of communicating important values and ideas. One of his favorite sayings was, “There is always another side to the story.” I followed his example, but didn’t realize it until several years ago.
After leading a three-day training program on group facilitation at the Pentagon, I read the attendee’s evaluation forms. In response to the question, “What did you like best about the program?” several people responded, “Sandy’s stories.” I didn’t understand what they were talking about so I asked my co-trainer.
He looked at me, puzzled, and said, “Don’t you remember? You told that story about the Adirondack conference where they insisted they couldn’t agree on anything, and the one about the board meeting where one of the directors came in late wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and a hangover, and the time the chairman threw you out of the meeting …” Indeed, I had told many stories. They just came naturally.
Since then I’ve told stories more intentionally and formally, and in front of audiences large and small — personal adventures, historical sagas, folk tales, tall tales, stories in the Jewish storytelling tradition, and stories about songs (with some singing and musical accompaniment, of course). For more information, please visit www.tothestory.com.
Sandy Schuman is a storyteller, performing live. He tells personal adventures, historical sagas, folk tales, tall tales, and stories in the Jewish storytelling tradition. His current project, “Song of the Century,” is a collection of stories about the best-known songs written by the least-known songwriters. Written versions of his stories appear in his book, “Welcome to Chelm’s Pond,” in anthologies such as New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family, and Stories We Tell: Tales from the Story Circle of the Capital District, and Distressing Damsels, and magazines, such as Story Club. Sandy is a retired organizational consultant who used storytelling in his work but was not aware of it. After a three-day workshop at the Pentagon he read the evaluations, which complemented his storytelling. “That’s how I found out I was a storyteller!”
Sandy Schuman tells personal adventures, historical sagas, and tall tales in the Jewish storytelling tradition. “A new piece of Jewish folklore, a sheer delight” is how Rabbi Goldie Milgram described his book, Adirondack Mendel’s Aufruf. It’s where the ridiculous stories of Chelm meet the preposterous tall tales of the Adirondacks, a fusion of Adirondack and Ashkenazick cuisine, and a wonder about the nature of God and meaning of prayer. In My Father was a Storyteller, Sandy weaves in Jewish-themed songs written by his father, Samuel Schuman z”l. Sandy plays his theme song on a Jew’s harp.
Sandy has performed at Sharing the Fire—The Northeast Storytelling Conference, Limmud Boston, Caffè Lena, Tellabration, Word Plays at Proctor's Theatre, Story Sundays at Glen Sanders Mansion, and many storytelling festivals, professional conferences, interfaith events, churches, synagogues, radio, and television programs. He is a winner of the Susquehanna Folk Festival Liars Contest and the St. Louis Jewish Storytelling Contest. He is a member of the Story Circle of the Capital District, Northeast Storytelling, National Storytelling Network, Jewish Storytelling Coalition, International Jew's Harp Society, and Lifetime Arts Creative Aging Roster.
For insights into Sandy’s approach to storytelling, read Sandy’s Seven Sagacious Storytelling Sayings.
Watch Sandy tell how he found out he was a storyteller:
