Fifth Annual
Cincinnati Storytelling Festival
November 13-15, 2025
Know Theatre of Cincinnati
1120 Jackson St 45202
Special Thanks to our Presenting Sponsors
Know Theatre of Cincinnati and Josh Wallace
NATIONAL TELLERS
Charlotte Blake Alston
For over 30 years, Charlotte Blake Alston has graced stages in venues throughout North America and abroad. Venues are wide and include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Symphony Orchestra Narrations and at regional, national and international Storytelling Festivals. She is a frequent guest artist in universities, grade schools, museums and cultural arts institutions around the country but this former elementary school teacher also presents in Day Care Centers, for Special Needs populations as well as prisons and youth detention centers.
Charlotte breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions. charlotteblakealston.com
Bil Lepp
Bil Lepp is an award-winning storyteller, author, and recording artist.
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He’s the host of the History Channel’s Man Vs History series, the occasional host of NPR’s internationally syndicated Mountain Stage, and a contributing columnist to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail.
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Bil’s humorous, family friendly tall-tales and stories have earned the appreciation of listeners of all ages and from all walks of life. Though a five time champion of the WV Liars’s Contest, Lepp’s stories often contain morsels of truth which present universal themes in clever and witty ways. Audiences all across the country, from grade schools to corporate execs to the Comedy Central’s Hudson stage, have been delighted by Bil’s hilarious tales and delightful insights into everyday life. leppstorytelling.com
FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Paul Strickland
Paul Strickland is a professional storyteller and theatre artist who lives in Kentucky. He has well over 7 hours of unique family friendly stories in his repertoire, including reupholstered folk tales, fairytales for adults and future adults, tall-tales and even historical stories that just happened to have never happened.
Paul was a Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in 2024.
He was a FEATURED TELLER: NEW VOICE at the National Storytelling Festival in 2023. He was also a Featured Teller at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in September of 2023, and has been a featured teller at several major storytelling festivals, including the Cave Run Storytelling Festival, in 2022.
In November of 2018 he made his NYC stage debut Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse with his shadow and flashlight ghost story play "13 Dead Dreams of "Eugene."
Always adapting to whatever audience is in front of him, Paul LOVES telling stories in every imaginable environment, from comedy clubs to elementary and middle schools, corporate events and even two prisons - where he was NOT an inmate at the time. AintTrue.com
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SPECIAL GUESTS
TRUE THEATRE
True Theatre is Cincinnati’s longest-running storytelling event, having just started its 15th season of building community through the sharing of true, personal stories. Each evening that they produce has a theme around which the stories focus. For example, themes from their last season included the neighborhoods of Cincinnati, money, hands, and scams. This year, as part of their annual contribution to the Cincinnati Storytelling Festival, they’ve asked one storyteller from each of these shows to reprise their story for you. We know you’ll love them (the stories and the tellers)!
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True Theatre is always looking for more storytellers and, of course, more audience members, so if you’d like to learn more about them and how you can be involved, visit their website at truetheatre.org .
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Storytellers: Mary Reid, Scott Hanbury, Zach Moning, Ruby Downie
ASL interpreter: Dawn Caudill
Host: David Levy