Students Bring Stories To Life In Inaugural LoreFest In Downtown Bryan
Downtown Bryan was filled with students in Performance Studies courses who presented folklore tales during the inaugural LoreFest on Oct. 26-28.
Over the course of three nights, about 200 students in classes taught by Dr. Matthew Campbell, assistant program director, and Dr. Will Connor, lecturer, shared their creative works through storytelling in venues throughout the downtown area.
“LoreFest 2023 was an overwhelming success,” Connor said. “There was a massive turnout for the events, beyond the required attendance from students participating. There was also an incredible display of creativity and ability by the students who generated the material for the various presentations.”
Students in Performance in World Cultures classes were given a list of folklore tales to choose from, and then were tasked with finding a way to represent that story in some form at the festival.
Connor said students successfully engaged with the community by making “astoundingly impressive” films, puppets and presentations.
“As a lecturer, that’s golden — completing an assignment with zealous enthusiasm, furthering the lore that was the initial target of research and inspiration,” he said. “The students were simply amazing.”
The first night of LoreFest featured a “Campfire Story Session,” in which students shared folklore stories at The Frame Gallery. Night Two featured a film festival at the Queen Theatre, where students presented silent, black-and-white short films, with live soundtracks produced by students in Connor’s Electronic Composition classes.
During the final night on Oct. 28, students utilized several creative outlets to showcase their chosen stories at The Village Cafe, Vino Boheme and along the streets of Downtown Bryan.
Tanya Trujillo, a computer engineering student in Campbell’s class, chose the folklore tale “El Chupacabras.”
“The legend originated in Puerto Rico in the late 1990s,” she said Saturday night at The Village Cafe. “It is fairly common, and it spread across a lot of Latin American countries, and the southern U.S. in Texas. The story is of this creature that tends to attack livestock, in particular goats or sheep, and it gets its name from sucking the blood out of sheep. The name translates to ‘sheep-sucker’ or ‘goat-sucker.’”
Several students baked pastries that represented their folklore tale. To represent “El Chupacabras,” Trujillo and her group made a dessert of pretzels covered in red-colored chocolate to represent blood, and cupcakes to resemble goats that had been attacked.
Through this project and throughout LoreFest, Trujillo said she appreciated learning about folklore and other cultures.
“I think storytelling is very important because it brings people together,” she said. “It is a very encompassing form of art, and it definitely connects people.”
Student groups also crafted puppets to tell their folklore stories, with guidance from Victoria Snaith, founder and creative director of Dread Falls Theatre, based in the United Kingdom. Snaith, who presented her “Patient 4620” horror theatre experience in early October, hosted a “Ghost Walk,” where students narrated their stories in a spooky setting, including on the street and near the train tracks.
Ethan Campbell, an environmental design major, and his group chose the folklore tale “La Lechuza.” The story is about an evil “Owl-Lady” who takes vengeance on a town, he said. Campbell’s group crafted a puppet to look like a woman with an owl face with hair made of feathers. He wore the puppet and paraded around The Village Café and Vino Boheme alongside other students with their puppets.
Students also shared their stories by acting out a play or making storyboards. A storyboard showcasing the history and ghost stories connected to the LaSalle Hotel was created by Xochitl Morales, a psychology major; Noah Haseloff, a forensic science major; Mark Gonzalez, a computer science major; and John Wenske, a political science major.
Morales said during their research they found that the nearly century-old hotel lends itself to some eerie elements.
“Some of the workers say they hear people stepping that aren’t there, and hear voices and see lights flicker,” she said.
Haseloff and Gonzalez said they enjoyed doing the research and were excited to share the lore with residents.
“Putting these kinds of stories out there is good for other people to do their research and branch out on their own experiences,” Haseloff said. “It was really fun getting to dive into these ghost stories and piece them together.”
Dr. Matthew Campbell called Lorefest a “smashing success.”
“When your biggest logical issue is over-attendance, you know you’re on the right track,” he said. “I was incredibly impressed and moved by the students’ performances, which were as emotionally engaging and culturally sensitive as they were entertaining. They’ve added a new, indelible chapter to local lore, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Top photo: Ethan Campbell, left, holds the “Owl-Lady” puppet he created with his team members. Photo by Rachel Hitt/Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications.
