‘Wonderland’ of a program coming up at Wilson Library

CHAPEL HILL -- This year, we’re going to meet a Papa Bear and a Baby Bear … snow men and snow ladies … oh, and a rabbit.

Those will be among many characters portrayed Dec. 11 in "Winter Stories," a program of stories, music and poetry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library. "Winter Wonderland" will be the theme of the 11^th annual event, free and open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Apple juice, cookies and candy will be served beginning at 5 p.m.

Poet and UNC biology library assistant Jeffrey Beam, lead organizer and participant in the program, said this will be its fourth year featuring storyteller Terry Rollins and third with musicians Kate Barnhart and Jill Shires playing guitar, dulcimer and flute.

"When we brought Jill and Kate in, it finally clicked the way I’d always wanted it to," Beam said. Besides the program’s stories, poems and songs, "there are some sing-alongs, and I always write a new lullaby."

Sponsored by Friends of the Library, "Winter Stories" features a cozy sort of stage in Wilson’s center entrance rotunda, with fabric and curtains draped about the base of the marble stairs leading up to the Rare Book Collection. "We want it to feel like the kind of thing you could do in your living room," Beam said. "Some of it is memorized and some is improvisational. It’s right in the moment."

Chairs for the audience are between the stage area and the front door and down the hallways on either side. Attendance averages 150, with about twice as many adults as children, Beam said. "We have lots of regulars. (Retired) Chancellor Ferebee Taylor has come with his granddaughters."

Because the four actors are so close to part of the audience, the program potentially could frighten very young children, Beam said. Hence, he recommends the program for ages 4 and above. "The top age, we say, is about 115."

There are no religious themes or songs, he said, but lots of material about winter, snow and the natural world. "The famous chef, Julia Child is coming, and she’s going to be teaching everyone to make snowflake soufflé," Beam said. One of the actors, that is, as Child.

Costumes aren’t used, but props abound. Look for cricket antennae and tall, red-and-white striped cat-in-the-hat hats. Rollins, fluffily accessorized, will tell an Appalachian tale about how the rabbit got its short tail. And each year, characters are created with masks made by UNC zoology librarian David Romito.

Beam collects stories, songs and poems for the program throughout the year. He has written 12 poetry books including "An Elizabethan Bestiary: Retold." His spoken word compact disc, "What We Have Lost: New and Selected poems 1977-2001," won a 2003 Five Finalists Award from the Audio Publishers Association. He is poetry editor of Oyster Boy Review, an online and print literary publication, and is writing an opera about the myth of Demeter and Persephone.

Rollins, of Durham, is a professional storyteller and former UNC library assistant. He has shared traditional folklore, ghost stories, Native American legends and original stories with audiences from the Southeast to Canada. He is a founding member and former president of the N.C. Storytelling Guild.

Barnhart, of the library development staff, performs in local folk groups and gives lessons. Shires, a music catalog librarian, played flute on the Tam's hit "What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am?" She holds degrees in flute performance from the University of Illinois and Yale University.

Friends of the Library promotes awareness of and interest in UNC libraries and encourages donations to the libraries. University librarian Louis Round Wilson started the group in 1932 to promote growth of library collections. For more information, contact Liza Terll at (919) 962-1301 or lterll@email.unc.edu.

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Contacts: Liza Terll, (919) 962-1301; Jeffrey Beam, (919) 962-3783

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589