Storytelling Comes to Snohomish

Snohomish County Tribune
March 17, 2004
By Jessica Sparks

The perfect combination of sipping tea while listening to a storyteller came together with a chance encounter at a tea shop in Snohomish.

Mary Dessein has been performing for more than 10 years around the county and in Seattle. She fell in love with the power of storytelling when she went to a storytelling conference in Vancouver, B.C.

"I realized this was missing from my life," Dessein said.

For the past five years, Dessein and two other hosts have put on a local radio program on Sunday telling stories and playing music from around the world. She was looking for something more intimate when she strolled into Everything Tea on Snohomish's First Street.

Chris James and Tricia Jay-James, the owners of Everything Tea, were also thinking about putting together a storytelling performance, but their shop was too small for such an event. When Dessein came in, Jay-James got on the phone to her friend Tina Orloff, owner of the more spacious Victorian Manor

Since December, the three women have put on Stories and Tea once a month on Wednesday nights. For $8, people are treated to Jay-James' tea and such desserts as cream puffs and coffee cake, all while listening to Dessein tell folk tales from around the world. Each month is a different theme. The next show is March 24, and Dessein will be telling Irish/Gaelic stories.

"It's a different kind of initimacy than the radio," Dessein said. "On the radio you can't see who you're talking to, but you know someone is listening and it's like I'm just talking to them. Here I get to make eye contact, so it's a whole different initmacy, because everyone has a connection with me."

Her performances have been attracting about 20 people, with room for 30-35. For the first show, Jay-James was so busy organizing the tea and desserts that she couldn't stop to enjoy the show. Now that she's more organized, she said she really enjoys listening to what she calls the "lost art of storytelling."

"I think it's fun, different," Jay-James said. "I get to hear stories I've never heard of."

Orluff said the combination of tea and stories complements the house well.

"I've always enjoyed being read to," Orluff said. "I'm very impressed by Mary; she has all the stories memorized."

Dessein said all it takes is practice and a lot of planning.

"I can't be worrying about what comes next in the story. The story has to be inside of me," she said.

Stories can entertain, shock, teach, open a doorway to healing and bring people together through common experiences shared in stories, Dessein said.

Dessein not only uses storytelling for entertainment, but also in her work. Dessein works as a therapist at the Everett courthouse working with people convicted of drug-related felonies. She uses storytelling to help her patients take that first step in overcoming their problems.

"The story is a container for different stuff...the loss of a loved one, the pain, the addiction," she said. "It contains what the person is looking at changing."

"Everything that's been said or done, every lesson is in story," Dessein said. For performance information or to RSVP, call 360-568-2267 or everythingtea@prodigy.net

Mary Dessein
marystories@hotmail.com
2610 Wetmore Ave.
Everett, Washington 98201
425-879-4650