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We bring the arts to you!
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We believe in a balanced curriculum and the power of the arts to make the educational process more relevant and exciting. In these times of standards and testing, the arts can play a vital role in helping to enrich the curriculum. We hope your school can take advantage of these extraordinary artists and assemblies for the coming year. Each of the programs in this booklet comes with a special guide designed to help you prepare your students for what they will see as well as providing follow-up activities. Performances To Grow On looks forward to being part of your Arts-in-education program.
To schedule an assembly at your school e-mail info@ojaistoryfest.org or call 805.272.0072
Our touring performers are award-winning artists that perform all over the United States. The cost includes their travel and hotel accommodations. These artists are block booked throughout Ventura County making these shows quite affordable compared to a single booking.
Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, Tall Tales, Oh My!
Get ready for an incredile lineup of stories from around the world! From historic folklore to hilarious tall tales, this year's festival brings together an incredible range of storytellers. Whether it's a masterful musician or a skilled storyteller with a penchant for tall tales, there's something for everyone.
Regi Carpenter​
Paul Strickland​
Jasmin Cardenas​
Josh Goforth​
Sheila Arnold​
Minton Sparks​
Ojai Storytelling Festival at Ojai Art Center
October 24, 2025
K-3: 9-10am
4th-6th: 10:30-11:30am
6th & Up: 12-1:15pm
$10 per ticket
Teachers Free +
1 Free chaperone
per 15 students
For Reservations click the reservation button below or email info@ojaistoryfest.org
or call (805)272-0072
Take the Ojai Storytelling Festival to your School!
Prices & Dates Vary
Grades TK-12
One Assembly $900
Two Assemblies $1500
Ojai Storytelling Festival Student Shows!
October 24th, 2025
Assemblies at your School
October 21-29, 2025
Leland Faulkner
January 26-30
Assemblies & Workshops
Prices range from $900 to $1500
World of Wonder is a program designed for the whole family. Beginning with the amazing and lost art of shadowgraphs or hand shadows, Leland conjures up an amazing menagerie of silhouettes using only his hands. He is recognized in conjuring circles as an expert on the history of this antique art. Imagine discovering twenty four comic characters from around the world in a matter of minutes. Discover classical magic from the Far East as a Japanese magician lets folded paper butterflies fill the air with color in a beautiful homage to Old Japan. Film and workshop series also available.
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Norman Foote:
March 2-13, 2025
Assemblies and Songwriting Workshops
Songwriting Workshops
Half Day workshop series $900, Full Day $1500
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Join Multi-award Winner, Norman Foote’s popular songwriting workshop! Kids experience a captivating and highly engaging songwriter’s workshop, explore lyrical content, melody and song genre. Norman encourages kids to believe in their own ideas. Together (with Norman’s improv skills) they will create a finished song, which will be featured at your school or theater.
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Assemblies: 1 assembly $900; 2 assemblies $1500
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Norman Foote is an award winning entertainer from Vancouver, Canada who has received international acclaim for his song writing, creative props and offbeat sense of humor. His stage show is uniquely Norman and is innovative both musically and visually. When Norman comes to a school, he brings with him the joy of music and performance. The song list comes from his most recent albums Love My New Shirt, Always Be Yourself, along with some older Foote classics. What makes Norman so great is his ability to find subject matter that challenges and engages students of all ages. He puts his theatrical and comedic talents to use as he weaves stories and paints musical imagery that audiences respond to immediately.
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For reservations call or email (805)272-0072 or info@ptgo.org​
Hobey Ford:
April 20-24 2025
Assemblies and Puppet Workshops
Puppet Workshops
Half Day workshop series $900, Full Day $1500​
Combining storytelling with shadow puppetry brings a variety of cultures to life in the classroom through folktales. During this workshop, students learn shadow puppetry performance techniques and how to construct their own shadow puppets.. Hobey Ford discusses the construction of a shadow puppet theater and how to later implement the technique for performing shadow plays.
Assemblies: 1 assembly $900; 2 assemblies $1500
Award winning puppeteer Hobey Ford spins a web of tales with three classic bug stories from around the world. Hobey brings the Caldecott award winning art of Gail Haley to life with a two dimensional rod puppet rendition of Gail’s West African Anansi tale “A Story, A Story”. Follow the trickster Anansi the Spider Man as he wins “the golden box of stories”, the source of all storytelling. Next, travel to ancient Greece for a hilarious up-to-date retelling of Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper”, told through colorful three dimensional rod puppets. Closer to home, enter the Cherokee world of folklore with a thoughtful, yet humorous cautionary tale of fire called “Little Grandmother Spiderwoman”, told with adapted Japanese Bunraku puppetry, where Hobey works in full view of the audience. Hobey Ford combines fine storytelling with his masterfully crafted puppets. During the show he takes time to explore and explain his unique process of puppet craftsmanship through the hilarious antics of “Chester the Dog”. The show comes to a finale with Hobey’s famous carved foam creatures, “The Foamies”.
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For reservations call or email (805)272-0072 or info@ptgo.org​
Boxtales Theatre Company
Available year round by reservation
2 assemblies: $1500
1 assembly: $950
Magical Tales of Latin America (Bilingual)
This bilingual production explores the rich Hispanic folklore and mythology of Latin America.
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Life Lessons from Around the World
This show features myths, folktales, and music from different cultures that were chosen with Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mind. The stories offer examples of the 5 SEL competencies of: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills.
Stand-Up Stories – Multicultural Tales to Live By
This show features a collection of multicultural folktales and myths which provide the listener with valuable messages and cultural wisdom they can use to live by.
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This show features a collection of multicultural folktales and myths which provide the listener with valuable messages and cultural wisdom they can use to live by.
Spring and Fall 2024
Madrigali A Capella Singers
Living in the Renaissance
2 shows: $1500
1 show: $900
Have you ever wondered how they lived in the Renaissance? What did they eat? How did they bathe? Did they have playstations...? Well, with this program, you'll learn all of that and more plus hear some beautiful a capella singing.
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For Reservations email info@ojaistoryfest.org or call (805)272-0072
Scheduled Year round
Antonio Sacre
Assemblies & Workshops
Prices start at $1500
Antonio Sacre is a bilingual Cuban and Irish-American writer living in Los Angeles. He works primarily in television, where his writing focuses on multicultural family dynamics. Antonio tells universal stories with a fresh, authentic voice and culturally-specific details. Antonio also offers programming for teachers and districts nationwide through live-streams, recorded courses, and in-person Professional Developments.
Antonio has created ten full-length solo shows and performed around the world, but mostly in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, to critical and popular acclaim. The Village Voice calls him “Remarkable… a serious artist.”
His show The Next Best Thing was chosen as one of LA Weekly’s Top 10 LA Theater Experiences. He twice won Best Storyteller at United Solo Theatre Festival Off-Broadway.
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For Reservations email info@ojaistoryfest.org or call (805)272-0072
Scheduled Year round
Esteban Ramirez
Assemblies, Concerts & Workshops
Prices range from $1500 to $6500
Esteban Ramirez is a neoclassical instrumental pianist/composer and free-verse poet whose vision is to provide people with a unique lens to experience life’s different facets by interweaving his neoclassical compositions with immersive poetic storytelling.
The youngest of nine children from Mexican immigrant parents, Esteban began piano lessons at the age of 10, soon thereafter evolving into a composer in his own right, and eventually releasing three albums of original music: Serenade to the Moon, Welcome Home, and Fly with Me.
For Reservations email info@ojaistoryfest.org or call (805)272-0072
Unlocking Creativity Through Music, Poetry, and Art
Welcome to a journey of creativity and inspiration where music, poetry, and art converge to form a beautiful tapestry of self-expression.
In this 60-minute workshop – designed for children from fourth to sixth grade and young-at-heart adults – participants explore the enchanting world of Esteban Ramirez' neoclassical solo piano music through poetry and art.
In this carefully crafted workshop, participants nurture their creativity, enhance their appreciation of music, poetry, and art, and encourage their self-expression.
Scheduled Year round
Michael D. McCarty
Assemblies & Workshops
Prices range from $800 to $1500
Michael is a multicultural storyteller of African, African-American and International Folk tales, Historical tales, Stories of Science, Spiritual stories as well as stories of the brilliant and "absolutely stupid things he has done in his life."
His stories inform, educate, inspire and amuse. His storytelling style is energetic and enthusiastic.
Michael specializes in stories of African and Afro-American history, multi cultural stories and personal stories. Since 2014, he’s been working in California prisons as part of the Arts In Corrections project. He gives a variety of workshops open utilizing the art of storytelling.