Carol Birch - In 1998 Carol Birch received the National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence Award given to storytellers recognized as master tellers by their peers who set the standard for excellence and demonstrate a commitment and dedication to the art over a significant period. Southern CT State University presented her with the Millennium Award for distinguished teaching and service in The Storytelling Institute in 2000, and the Outstanding Educator Award, in recognition of her as Master Teacher and Master Storyteller in 1994. As storyteller, recording artist, distinguished teacher and director of recordings, she delights audiences by restoring vitality to language with a repertoire of stories that echo the heart's concerns -- from shy hope and tenderness to humor and good sense. Although she has told stories in Singapore, Australia, and Europe, Carol's primary venues are concerts at schools, libraries, colleges, theaters, storytelling festivals, museums, theme parks, and corporate fetes throughout the United States. She lectures extensively at conferences, teaches at Southern Connecticut State University, and regularly appears at festivals including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Bill Harley- Entertainment Weekly labeled Harley, a two-time Grammy Award winner and multiple Grammy nominee, “the Mark Twain of contemporary children’s music.”  Adults absorb a Harley performance through a double filter of past and present. Children respond from the immediacy of their own lives, as with rubber-faced abandon he examines human foibles, flaws and embarrassments, common fears and simple pleasures.  The lowest-denominator world that is too often reflected by the media persuades us to devalue ourselves and weakens our sense of community. Through his work, Bill Harley appeals to our better angels, reminding us that we’re human, making us laugh, sometimes making us cry. “As a rule, I have a hard time figuring out where I fit,” he says of his multi-faceted career, “but I got into this because I’m trying to make the world a better place.”

 Charlotte Blake Alston- Charlotte Blake Alston is a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator and singer whose interest in literature, the oral tradition and the arts began in childhood when her father read to her the work of writers and poets and encouraged her to learn and recite the dialect poems of African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After 21 years of teaching from the preschool through graduate levels, Charlotte chose to devote more time to touring and performing. Charlotte has received numerous honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship In The Arts in 1994. She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine's "Best Of Philly"® 1995. She is the recipient of the 1997 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania Artist Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award). The award recognizes individual artists "for...excellence in the Commonwealth." She holds two honorary PhD's from Seton Hill and LaRoche colleges respectively and was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana in August of 1999. She was the Director of "In the Tradition…" 14th National Festival Of Black Storytelling in 1996

Willy Claflin - Willy grew up on Lake Winnipesauke in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. An introverted boy, he spent his days dreaming and wandering through the woods. At bed time, his father told him stories, and each night Willy worried about the wolf under his bed. By high school, he had extroverted himself into a rock and roll singer, fast on a guitar and given to high jinks. He also learned hundreds of folk songs.At Harvard University (1961-66), he studied American and French Literature, but made time for performing music and comedy in the Boston-Cambridge folk music scene. After a year reading French classics in Paris, he studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he collected a cappella ballads. By the late 60s, he was a teacher, known for his creative curriculum. The puppets had invaded his class room persona, and they made great teaching assistants. Maynard Moose, Boring Beaver, Socklops, Dr. Al, and Gorf came alive.