KENNESAW, Ga. | Jul 31, 2025

The Kennesaw State University Tellers presented a show-stopping repertoire at the National Storytelling Conference, which made its 2025 base at the KSU campus.

“There are performers. And then there is the Seal Team 6 of Storytelling. That’s who you’re looking at today,” said Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies Dr. Charles Parrott as he introduced a team of four current and former KSU Tellers to the National Storytelling Conference this summer.  
 
The National Storytelling Conference is the annual professional gathering and showcase for the National Storytelling Network (NSN), an international community of storytellers, based in the United States. NSN supports individuals, organizations and communities that foster the growth of storytelling in education, arts performance, organizational communications and healing arts. As they planned for their 2025 summer conference in the southeast, the renown for the value of performing arts and the facilities at Kennesaw State University (KSU) made it the perfect home for the diverse showcasing of stories that make up the popular event.

 
Headlining part of the conference, KSU’s own Tellers took to the stage in what could only be described as a mic-drop performance, had the mics not been securely attached to their heads. From pregnant pause before Amari Lewis, rising junior at KSU, set the scene with “The year was 1975” and went on to tell the story of her grandparents meeting in a dark, smokey lounge, to Lillian Hovey, rising junior at KSU, taking the audience into her own journey of living with Alopecia, the Tellers told it like it is. The team, also comprised of Maisy Winn ’25 and James Doster, rising senior, connected an international audience of story-minded individuals from all walks of life, to a campus pulsing with the creative exploration of story as it weaves its way through degree and career paths.  
 
“Performance Studies is not something a lot of people understand or come to college to get a degree in,” explained Theater and Performance Studies Department Chair Chuck Meacham. “It’s really actually unique that this is happening here at KSU, and that it is happening as part of the Geer College of the Arts.” 
 
He went on to describe the journey of discovery many students make as they essentially stumble upon a pathway. “We see this revelation happen as students see or hear or something piques their interest and they take a Performance Studies class without even knowing they had the talent for it. They didn’t come here for it, but they discover it here and then they understand the possibility of the duality of holding two things together.” 
 
The Tellers are a co-curricular undergraduate storytelling troupe sponsored by the Department of Theatre & Performance Studies. They develop personal narratives and perform literature, devised theatre, traditional folktales, and classic fairytales. Their performance work often results in paid public events that raise funds for the troupe’s projects and members also often engage in professional development opportunities and network with established artists and scholars. The KSU Tellers act as ambassadors for the Theatre and Performance Studies Department, Robert S. Geer Family College of the Arts and KSU as a whole.  
 
Dr. Parrott has led the KSU Tellers in performances at local high schools, the Atlanta Fringe Festival, the Southern States Communication Association Conference, KSU’s 24th Annual Conference on Literature for Children and Young Adults, the International Council of Fine Arts Deans Annual Conference, International Association for Research in Service Learning and Community Engagement International Conference, Serenbe Theater, Push Push Theater, the Do Tell Festival Storytelling Festival, KSU’s All Boards Day, and DragonCon – among numerous other events.  
 
The university’s partnership with the National Storytelling Network to host this year’s conference is one of many ways Kennesaw is establishing its place as a hub for the arts in the southeastern United States.  

--Alanna Foxwell