Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Claire Burnham has a pretty amazing story to tell, one Claire and her family won't soon forget. On this episode of the Supercast, meet the Bingham High School sophomore, who is one of only 10 students in the nation selected to be a national youth storyteller at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. To make her story even more incredible, Claire was the opening act for professional storytellers at the festival, including the King of Storytelling, Master storyteller Donald Davis. Find out how Claire's love of storytelling began and how her talent blossomed thanks to one teacher in elementary school.

We're talking today with Claire Burnham, a sophomore at Bingham High School, and a champion storyteller. Thanks for talking with me today.

Claire Burnham:
Thank you for having me. This is very exciting.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, for me too. So tell me, Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, that's where you most recently performed, is that right?

Claire Burnham:
Yes, it is.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I think a lot of people may not understand that storytelling is actually a competitive event. Is that right?

Claire Burnham:
Very.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a bit about how that works, first of all, and then let's talk about how you got into it.

Claire Burnham:
Well, the competitiveness for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, I don't know the total number of youth in the country who did submit their audition tapes, but only 10 in the country were selected. So it was the best youth story tellers that they could possibly find. Which was very stressful when recording, knowing that this is me going up against some of the best of the best. But while we were there just before the festival and at the festival, there was no competitiveness between the 10 of us because we were just so excited to be there with people sharing similar passions and similar personalities. We had so much fun with each other and we just couldn't believe that we were with so many other talented people.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, tell me about some of those other talented people. There were 10 chosen from across the country. Where were some of them from?

Claire Burnham:
There were three from Texas. There was one from Florida and there was one from Arizona.

Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, interesting. So are there storytelling hotbeds in the country, like where there's a greater emphasis on it and you find more competition, or is it pretty much spread throughout the country?

Claire Burnham:
There is definitely a lot of concentration in the south. There are a lot of deep storytelling roots there. I believe the Appalachian, the Appalachian area. It's definitely where a sort of storytelling renaissance happened.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so I would imagine that hanging out with nine other storytellers, there can be some really good conversations.

Claire Burnham:
Very long, in depth conversations, there were.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. Without interrupting each other, because once you get on a story, you gotta let them get right to the end.

Claire Burnham:
Exactly. One of the starkest contrasts that I saw from before and after the storytelling festival was my convers