I PEOPLE

Storyteller Corinne Stavish
has brought a warmth
to many during her
short time in Detroit

SPEAKER OF CHELM

Technology. Stavish is well-read,
studies the Talmud and explains that
Jewish storytelling helps her to trace
her religious heritage.
Literature is her first love, so
telling stories was a natural path to
follow from a teaching career. In
Chicago, she taught communication
skills to behaviorally disturbed
children, English and drama to high
school students, and speech to college
students. She also found time to serve
as the Midwest executive director of
the Federation of Reconstructionist
Congregations and Chavurot.
"Being a Jewish storyteller
brings my spiritual self and my pas-
sion for literature together," she ex-
plained. "Understanding Jewish
stories is understanding Jewish
history and culture?'
Some members of a Jewish and
non-Jewish audience became teary-
eyed at the Jewish Community
Center last year when Stavish told a
compelling tale about a concentration
camp survivor of the Holocaust.
A mother of a young child said she
wanted to curl up into her mother's
arms after listening to Stavish enter-
tain children one afternoon.
A mixed group of young and old
women was fascinated when she told
a mixture of Yiddish literature and
Chasidic stories at a sisterhood in-
stallation luncheon at Adat Shalom
Synagogue.

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

Which is more important —
the sun or the moon? The
moon because it comes out
when it is dark. When the sun
comes out, it already is light
enough.

I

he question comes from
Chelm, a mythical Jewish
town of fools. And Corinne
Stavish asks it with a seri-
ous tone. She loves the silly
Chelm tales. No age group is out
of bounds for Stavish, a professional
storyteller who has warmed the
hearts of young and old audiences
with Jewish and classic folk tales.
She brought passion to a group of
seniors at Borman Hall by sharing a
tale about a young Jewish girl's
dilemma over the Christmas season.
But before the tale, she gave the
group a quick history lesson on
Chelm and shared several related
one-line quips.
Chelm came into being when God
looked down from the heavens and
saw a lot of fools. God then sent an
angel to the town to bring the fools up
to the heavens. On the way to heaven,
the sack of fools gets caught in a storm.
Stavish paused briefly, looked
around the room and continued. The
seniors were smiling at the woman
who quickly is gaining acclaim
within the community as a charming
and professional entertainer.
The sack of fools then gets stuck on
the edge of a mountain. It rips open
and all the little fools descend to a
place called Chelm.
Stavish, a petite woman dressed
in a black vest and matching bow tie,
got up from her stool and bowed to the
audience.- Since her arrival in
Detroit in May 1986, Stavish, 42, has
been busy performing at libraries,
Jewish day schools, senior citizen
homes, community centers, sisterhood
groups and synagogues.

"She describes things vividly,"
said Irwin Shaw, executive vice presi-
dent emeritus of the Jewish Com-
munity Center."When she tells a
story, she talks to you — like she is
having a private conversation,
"She is outstanding, one of the
best storytellers I've ever heard?'
Shaw added.
Relatively new to the profession,
Stavish launched her storytelling
career five years ago in Chicago,

where she also taught speech, drama
and worked within the Jewish com-
munal field.
Since then, she has shared more
than 65 tales with a myriad of au-
diences. But she doesn't stop at the
end of a story. She also teaches the
same courses that led her to make a
career of storytelling.
Stavish teaches speech and per-
forming arts at Wayne State Univer-
sity and Lawrence Institute of

"We have a mixed group and it is
hard to please everyone," said Judy
Leder, sisterhood vice president. "But
she was teriffic. She had the knack to
talk to everybody?'
"She was refreshing and nice to
work with?' Leder said, adding the
group has invited her for a second
appearance.
Stavish often begins her perfor-
mances with a soothing word or two
from chidren's author Shel
Silverstein.
"If you are a dreamer, come with
me," she says while motioning the

