Storyteller Harlynne Geisler
http://storyteller.swiftsite.com
858-569-9399 storybag[a]juno.com

Harlynne Geisler has a pixie-like look as she stands before an audience of adults and children. She seems almost to draw the stories from the air around her as her hands reach and gesture. Her eyes gleam with intrigue and delight at the tales she is spinning before her audience. Without props, she creates an imaginary world, telling the story and becoming the characters. Her eyes and expressive hands move from this imaginary world to the audience, weaving the two together. Small in stature but forceful, Geisler uses whatever dialect is necessary. Her facial expressions and her gestures are finely wrought in excitement, confusion, passion, joy or fright--whatever emotion is called for by the story or the character.
Her audiences have ranged from the Friends of Jung to the residents of retirement homes, and she has entertained children with her stories in libraries and throughout the city school system (she is a consultant to the city schools' Gifted and Talented Education program).
Geisler put together the Southern California Storyswapping Festival in San Clemente, has appeared on cable TV's Disney Channel, and has toured Illinois, Idaho, and Texas. Geisler was responsible for the organization of the Storytellers of San Diego and publishes a monthly newsletter.
"Recently," she adds, "a young man was sitting in the front row at a storytelling session. His face was shining. It was as if that was his story. It was so real to him. I wanted to shake his hand and say, 'Thank you. That is why I tell stories.'"
And she told happily ever after. San Diego Tribune

It's a pleasure to see her in action. Her timing and facial expressions are calculated to please. Her voice is low; it's gruff; it's lilting in song. She pulls imaginary flowers from behind a student's ear. It's hard to know what she'll do next. When the story is finished, the sighs and applause are spontaneous.
With an understanding of growth and development and obvious respect for her audience...Harlynne's stories are not just for children. They're a delight for all ages. San Diego Union

Listening to Harlynne Geisler, you get the impression that she would have loved to be in Alice's shoes when she tumbled into Wonderland. Almost at once, her animated gestures and enticing voice sweep you through the land of make-believe and into a dream world where castles in the air really do exist. Star-News

Harlynne Geisler tells tales for a living. Perched up on a high stool, her genuine enthusiasm for the story bubbles over into animated gestures and facial expressions. Whether she performs in a club, classroom or restaurant, to an audience of nine- or ninety-year olds, Harlynne's magnetism and skill as a storyteller attract all the attention of her listeners. Community Arts News periodical

"Harlynne Geisler is a wonderful storyteller," said D.G. of the Mira Mesa branch library recently. "I tell stories to the children here at the library, myself, but when she relates them, even the adults stop and listen."
Martha Holloway heaps additional praise on the teller of stories. She places Geisler in a class few in the literary field attain.
"Harlynne is a storyteller who respects the story," she said. "No histrionics. Just the telling, skillful and straightforward, that transports her audience into another world." Sentinel newspaper

Harlynne Geisler, storyteller extraordinaire, can be found telling stories wherever there are people--from ministers to Boy Scouts around a campfire.
Entire villages and their surroundings are created with her words and her hand gestures and facial expressions. It seems that there aren't many pictures that are worth a thousand of Geisler's words. Daily Californian

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