Storytelling wasn’t her first job. Barbara originally set out to be a nurse, "one of the two ‘acceptable’ careers for young Greek-American women." Finding the effort to steel herself against the realities of constantly dealing with pain too difficult she became a secretary, the other acceptable career, and for years was the executive secretary to the Chairman of the Board of a major corporation.

Her real start in storytelling came when she was already the mother of two little boys. In May 1980 without knowing sign language she was hired as a library assistant at the St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf in the Bronx because of her experience as a PTA member and Brownie leader and her ability to paint, draw and tell stories. She also brought to the job a lifelong love for puppetry and recounts how she once had to adapt The Wizard of Oz--and invent a new puppet--to eliminate The Wicked Witch of the West because her boss, an ex nun, disliked witches.

During her fifth year at St. Joseph’s, she took a week-long workshop at The Omega Institute led by America’s foremost deaf actor Bernard Bragg, who co-founded the National Theatre for the Deaf, and John Basinger. This workshop opened her to the possibilities of what she calls the visual vernacular, a theatrical approach to sign language. In this technique, gestures that can convey complex--and often emotionally loaded--images replace signs for neutral individual words. Now when she "signed" stories she did so with a sense of drama that made her young audiences gasp. Without knowing it, she’d acquired a technique that many storytellers use to learn new and complex stories--stay with the image, not the word.

In all, Barbara spent ten years with at St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf, and three additional years as a tutor in the High School Learning Center at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, working with older children. During this time she started getting bookings as a storyteller. Eventually, the pull she’d always felt toward the theatre resurfaced and with her husband’s blessings--"You’ve always wanted to be an actress, so do it."-- Barbara enrolled in acting courses at Queensborough Community College taught by Professor Bob Simons. Offered a role in "A My Name is Alice," a musical. she took voice lessons for the part. Soon thereafter, she enrolled in Empire State College where she was awarded 89 life experience credits, designed her own "Total Communication and Performance" degree program and earned a B.A. in Performing Arts without missing a beat in her home or professional life. In 1993, when her son Antonios got a full scholarship to medical school, Barbara became a full time storyteller. Since then she has devoted her energy to creating staff development workshops, residencies and storytelling concerts for family and adult audiences.

Veteran Tellabration Producer, wearing her father’s hat, strikes a pose with the Storytellers.

Barbara set the stage of her 1994 award-winning QPTV mini-series with family photographs, her painting of a Greek Yiayia and authentic props.  She shared family stories, folktales and some of her favorite children’s stories, adapted for telling center stage in voice and sign language.

Barbara subscribes to the credo articulated by Dr. David Goodman, in his book Living from Within (Hallmark Editions 1968):

"The first duty of an individual is to add to the amount of love in the world. The place to begin is in his own family. From there, it will ripple out to the world." As one way of living this credo, she became a spokesperson for Tom Dooley Heritage, Inc., between 1971 and 1988, raising money for the organization named after the American physician Thomas A. Dooley, who labored unselfishly and tirelessly to provide humanitarian aid to worn-torn Vietnam, and throughout southeast Asia, until his premature death in 1961. Barbara confides that she finds herself praying to the spirit of Dr. Tom Dooley when she longs for certain things she’s sure are unselfish.

Barbara on storytelling:

--The good thing about storytelling is that you can do it forever.

--Storytelling cannot be taught, only learned. What’s important is exposing the heart to different kinds of storytelling. Positive feedback may be the only comments needed to move us along on our story telling, listening, coaching, writing journeys. Receiving negative criticism is embarrassing, hurtful and can shut down the ability to process information and prevent one from being successful.

--It’s important to recognize and honor individual listening and telling styles. I wholeheartedly subscribe to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory. Gardner holds that, instead of one form of intelligence that cuts across all human thinking, there are at least seven forms of intelligence [linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal]. Every human being possesses all forms in varying degrees, all intertwined and blended. It’s the intertwining and blending that create the style.

--It’s more important than ever since 9/11 for children to hear stories and to see successful people who have survived personal tragedies.

--In today’s high tech, cyberspace world people are starving for the kind of interaction that transpires between a storyteller and her/his audience. A growing number of parents, educators, corporate executives and people in the helping professions are discovering the oral traditional and appreciating the value and impact of a simple, well-told traditional folktale/fable.

--The temptation is great, especially for parents and teachers, to pose some of the following questions after telling a story that falls into the category of Teaching Tale:
"So what do you think this story is about? What does it mean? What’s the moral?" I don’t recommend this. It diminishes the power of the story! Like the new time-release medications available at your local pharmacy, trust the message in the story to do the most good as it works its magic in the mind’s eye of the listener--over time.

A decade (almost) of dedication.

Among Barbara’s many accomplishments since "turning pro":

She co-founded the American Center for Theatre and Storytelling (ACTS) with her former professor Bob Simons.

She joined the Flushing Jewish Community Council Multicultural Committee – her storytelling workshops for adults allow people to "share the immigrant experience through the power of story."

She produced her own QPTV award-winning miniseries, "Storytelling with Barbara, Continuing a Family Tradition in Voice and Sign Language," which yielded at least one unanticipated reward: Barbara says she could always draw and paint but her painting came into its own only when she painted a portrait of the Greek grandmother that adorned the set of her TV production. She painted the Grandmother, she says, to watch over her as she raised her two sons, Peter and Antonios.

In 1995 she served as the Artistic Director of an Immigration Storytelling Series sponsored by the Greek American Labor Council.

In March 2000, she was honored at New York’s City Hall for "her distinguished body of work in the ancient art of storytelling and as a teaching artist; for her commitment to sharing multicultural folklore and immigrants’ experiences with both hearing and non-haring audiences around the country; and for her dedication to encouraging children and adults to celebrate diversity."

In July 2001, she received the National Storytelling Association’s Oracle Service Award for "Exemplary service and significant contributions to her community through storytelling."’

For five weeks during April and May 2002, she organized the intergenerational workshop series and showcase, "Building Community Through Story Sharing" co-sponsored by the Queens Borough Public Library and the Flushing Jewish Community Council, culminating in a two-hour public performance on Sunday May 19^th.

The Jewel in the Crown.

One bitter cold January evening in 1997 Barbara was invited by Judith Kallas, wife of Greek-American writer/storyteller Dr. John Kallas and co-owner of The Cornelia Street Café, at 29 Cornelia Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, to start a monthly storytelling event. Held on the second Tuesday of every month between 6 and 8 p.m., downstairs at the Café, it began as a program with two featured tellers, each telling about 35 minutes followed by a general discussion. The first program featured Jim Hawkins and Elizabeth Rowe. In time, the general discussion was replaced by a "swap," in which tellers stepped up to the "open mike" and tell one another favorite stories. In January 1999, Barbara enlisted Dr. Joyce C. Duncan and the African Folk Heritage Circle to bring in tellers. Feature time was reduced to 20 minutes per teller to increase the amount of time for swapping, and this format continues today. Storyteller Mike Seliger calls the Cornelia Café series "a model for the kind of community based place we need and deserve."

Aesop, a Phrygian slave who lived during the 6^th century won his freedom because of the great stories he told. Today, those same tales resound in the lives of millions of individuals in many languages. What a lovely prospect for everyone who’d like to feel that his or her life and stories might make a difference. And, as Barbara says, you can do it forever.

For readers who’d like to learn more about Barbara or storytelling, some places to start are: www.barbaraaliprantis.com, www.storynet.org, www.storyteller.net and www.corneliastreetcafe.com. "Folktales From My Greek Island Home" is available at blackbookplus.com