“Well, I Didn’t See That Coming”

Midwestern storyteller, Steve Henegar, celebrates the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Whether its happenstance or Chaos Theory or your best efforts going awry, surprises and ambushes crouch just around the corner. That first swimming lesson never goes quite as expected. Who knew you’d find your future wife at the spook house ride? And everyone assured you that the drive-through wild animal park was perfectly safe.

Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic to discover feelings and experiences that connect us all. His performances blend the easy conversation of his family’s storytelling with the focused energy and incisive images drawn from a decade in the theater as an actor, writer and director. Steven has spent twenty-five years as a storyteller and workshop leader, and currently serves on the board of directors of the National Storytelling Network and the Bay Area Storytelling Festival.

Steven Henegar’s casual, friendly performances blend the easy conversation of his Oklahoma family’s storytelling with the focused energy and incisive images drawn from a decade in the theater. Wry observation slides into whimsy and movement, as he mixes personal and family tales with traditional and original stories from the Midwest and South. He brings “fine details to life in his stories and his timing is excellent–especially his comic timing.” (Willis, High Point Theater, NC)

In these solo performances of interlocking stories, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic, deftly joining past and present to discover those feelings and experiences that connect us all. His stories travel from Europe to small town America and on to the suburbs and cities. “He skillfully crafts each story, drawing the listeners into a shared experience. Soon both the listeners and teller are walking a road toward the same destination.” (Owens, Laurens Extra, SC)

Steven has told stories professionally to adults and children over twenty-five years. He spent four years as artist-in-residence at colleges through the prestigious North Carolina Visiting Artist Program. During that time, he founded the Piedmont Storytelling Festival and released his live concert recording Moving Stories. Steven received a North Carolina Emerging Artist Grant to produce a video of his father’s Depression-era Texas story, Bridling Old Red.

He was selected for the North Carolina touring roster, as well as working with the Washington State Cultural Enrichment, the North Carolina Mountain Arts, and the South Carolina Arts in Education programs. He formerly directed the storytelling program for Stagebridge, America’s longest running senior theater company in Oakland, CA.

Steven’s most recent solo performance, Embarrassment and Death, follows a young boy growing up in the 50’s as he navigates the everyday ambushes of his life. These touching and funny original stories suggest that growing up was trickier than Ozzie and Harriet led us to believe. Other concert length pieces include Likely Stories, Moving Stories, and Under The Moon.

Steven performs, lectures and leads workshops in single event and residency formats through theaters, colleges and universities, arts councils, museums, story and folk festivals, and professional organizations, as well as with staff and students through school systems, young writers’ conferences and libraries.

Prior to telling stories, Steven worked in theater in the Northwest for a decade as an actor, director and writer, and had five of his original scripts produced. He received a B.F.A. in acting and directing from the University of Oklahoma, and studied folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.