PORT TOWNSEND — The sounds, sights and spells of autumn will be celebrated at 7 tonight in Spooky Stories for After Dark at First Friday StoryNight.
Four tellers from Quimper Storytelling Guild will open with tales of shivering delight at the Friends Meetinghouse, 1941 Sheridan St.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own tales to awaken the heebie-jeebies; open-mic segment for short storytelling by those who sign up on a first-come basis follows the featured tellers.
The Guild’s four featured tellers are Chas Dowd, Marti Haley, Michele Bruns and master of ceremonies Perry Spring.
Haley is a retired nurse who plays ukulele and enjoys telling stories full of characters, organizers said.
“An overnight visit to a pawn shop during the full moon just may bring shivers and quivers,” is how Haley describes her telling of “The Pawn Broker.”
Dowd’s story will be drawn from a story by M.R. James, some of the scariest writing in the English language.
Known for his salty maritime yarns, Dowd is especially qualified to tell scary stories “because in my youth I acted in neighborhood theaters and there’s no place as full of real haunts as a theater.”
Bruns has been telling stories for more than 25 years, including as a member of the Port Townsend Storytellers back in the early 1990s. Most of her stories are folktales from around the world; she will share an English legend, “The Headley Kew.”
Spring, a fourth-generation Washingtonian, said: “As someone in deep relationship with the creatures of the Pacific Northwest verdant lands and vibrant seas, I find the timeless stories of the region’s native American cultures provocative and dense with portent.”
Spring will share an Inuit story from the frozen north, “Skeleton Women.”
First Friday StoryNight is communal exploration of the art and ritual of oral tradition through old myths, folktales, fairy tales, family, personal and modern stories. The Quimper Storytelling Guild continues the event’s legacy established by Brian Rohr in 2009.
The Guild also holds the Third Sunday Story Swap at the Port Townsend Library Learning Center at 1220 Lawrence St. for aspiring and experienced tellers to hone their craft in a supportive, informal setting.
The 90-minute story swap begins promptly at 2 p.m.; sign up on a first-come basis. Refreshments and Guild steering committee meeting follows.
For information, call 360-316-9600, email QuimperStoryGuild@gmail.com or go to www.facebook.com/Quimper StoryGuild.
